Douglas Rooks has been a Maine editor, columnist and reporter for 40 years. The author of four books, his new study of the Ken Curtis administration is due next year. He welcomes comment at [email protected].

During the 2019 legislative session, Maine lawmakers enacted a bill to eliminate certain exemptions from requirements that all children attending accredited schools in Maine, public and private, be vaccinated against preventable childhood illnesses. Gov. Janet Mills signed LD 798 into law in May.

The law eliminated religious, philosophical or personal objections by parents to vaccines, and narrowed exemptions to medical reasons only. Almost immediately, opponents began a “people’s veto” campaign to block the law from taking effect and got the measure on the ballot.

In a March 3, 2020 special election, Mainers voted overwhelmingly against repealing the law, 281,750 to 105,214, an almost 3-1 margin. The date soon became even more significant. Ten days later, the entire state and nation began shutting down as COVID-19 swept the world.

We must remember why the vaccination law was passed. Maine, with model public health campaigns, once had among the highest child immunization rates. But compliance was dropping and there were enough unvaccinated children to bring back seemingly eradicated illnesses such as measles, mumps and whooping cough. A measles epidemic originating in Texas has so far killed three people this year.

The Maine law worked; immunization rates are nearing 99%. That’s not true in much of the rest of the nation. What’s been termed “vaccine hesitancy,” “skepticism” or outright denial is rising, the product of vaccine wars raging since the pandemic.

Any restrictions somehow violate “personal liberty.” Mask-wearing or vaccination mandates are unacceptable. This position, except in rare cases, defies science, logic and human experience. It’s simple: for small risks involved in vaccination, there are huge overall benefits. For some, appeals to the common good are no longer enough.

Since smallpox epidemics were controlled in the early 19th century by vaccination, humans have understood the utility and power of widespread use. Up to that point, epidemics had raged unchecked. Bubonic plague killed one-third of the population before survivors finally developed “natural immunity.”

In 2020, President Donald Trump launched Operation Warp Speed, a crash campaign to develop and distribute a COVID vaccine. Unfortunately for Trump’s reelection chances, the vaccine, produced in record time, wasn’t available until early 2021. But the death toll began dropping immediately, and today COVID fatalities are on a par with influenza. 

Operation Warp Speed was a signal achievement, showing how scientific expertise, product development and vigorous public health efforts can work wonders. How is it possible then that Trump nominated and insisted on confirming Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who’d repeatedly attacked COVID vaccines as suspect and unsafe, as secretary of health and human services.

In doing so, Trump betrayed his own legacy. When vaccine shots came out, Trump publicly got one and talked up its benefits. But when fervent supporters began booing, he dropped the subject.

In embracing Kennedy, Trump made a political calculation. Having a member of a legendary Democratic family on his team, even one with views denounced by the rest of the family, was too good to pass up. The HHS nomination was the price for Kennedy folding his presidential campaign and endorsing Trump.

The Senate confirmed Kennedy in February on a party-line vote, 52-48. Kennedy soon began undermining vaccine protocols, dismissing the entire 17-member advisory board that makes recommendations about new vaccines.

Last week, Kennedy attempted to discharge Susan Monarez as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after she resisted him on vaccines, then refused to resign. Trump fired Monarez, who he nominated and the Senate confirmed less than a month earlier. So far, the Trump-Kennedy alliance is holding, even though four other high-ranking CDC officials resigned in protest.

Maine’s Sen. Susan Collins, who voted to confirm Kennedy after unspecified assurances, said she was “alarmed” by the firing while Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana posted that “These high-profile departures will require oversight.” He also said Kennedy should postpone a Sept. 18 meeting of the advisory committee because its new “membership, and lack of scientific process being followed.”

Cassidy is the key figure. A physician, he too expressed serious reservations about Kennedy, but voted to confirm. If he hadn’t, the nomination couldn’t have cleared the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee he chairs.

What must happen now is for Cassidy to convene a hearing and call Secretary Kennedy to testify. The nation needs assurances that public health is protected, and there are numerous signs that’s not Kennedy’s priority. His curtailment of rDNA research that could help prevent another pandemic is one more alarm bell.

If necessary, Congress must persuade the president that it is not in the nation’s interest, or his own, that Kennedy continue in his position. Much of what Trump does seems calculated to produce outrage and confusion. But the case of RFK Jr. is deadly serious.