Since America has had a health secretary who believes in conspiracy theories, rejects science, and opposes vaccinations (and who is not a doctor), and since the health administration has been reshaped accordingly, such extreme statements have been made to justify new measures that they unsettle not only patients but physicians as well.
This is particularly dangerous in the United States, where there are many immigrants and where diseases and infections spreading from different parts of the world can be contracted, and vaccination standards vary. It is an issue that also seriously affects the Hungarian communities in America, since the vaccination rules commonly applied in Hungary are themselves under attack.
Hungarian mothers living in America are deeply worried about whether their children, born and raised here, will receive the appropriate vaccines that prevent adult diseases and deaths. There is growing concern about the MMR — measles, mumps, rubella — and Hepatitis B vaccinations.
The ACIP (Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) voted this September on new recommendations that the combined MMRV vaccine should not be recommended for children under the age of four. Instead, they suggest that children receive the MMR and chickenpox (varicella) vaccines separately. Decisions on other vaccinations were postponed.
In this confusion, the American Community Media press briefing helped to provide some guidance. Participants included Dr. Maurizio Bonacini, clinical associate professor at the University of California and CEO of Mission Gastroenterology and Hepatology; Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, infectious disease specialist and professor of medicine at the University of California; Dr. Yvonne “Bonnie” Maldonado, pediatrician and professor at Stanford University; and Dr. Benjamin Neuman, professor of biology at Texas A&M University.
The reasoning behind this change is that the combined MMRV vaccine may pose a higher risk of febrile seizures in 12- to 15-month-old infants than if they received the MMR and varicella vaccines separately. The new guideline therefore recommends that children under four years of age receive the MMR and varicella vaccines as separate injections rather than as a combined shot.
According to experts, this change essentially uses a small, known risk to disrupt the entire vaccination schedule. A well-understood and managed risk is being used to undermine confidence in vaccines and in the whole system. ACIP’s decision raises concerns about public trust in public health, particularly since confidence has already weakened in some places due to declining vaccination rates.
Behind these measures lies an increasing distrust of vaccines within the health administration, which seems determined to dismantle the entire system. Charlatan conspiracy theories and unscientific obsessions are at play in the background. Dr. Maldonado was the one who called attention to the danger of this trend.
The Stanford professor explained that while every individual measure must be closely monitored, the most troubling development is that vaccines as a whole are being questioned — their usefulness doubted — even though humanity owes its longer life expectancy and the disappearance of certain diseases to them.
Dr. Maldonado cited the example that most people today no longer even know what polio is, as if the disease had never existed, even though its disappearance is solely due to vaccination. Without vaccines, diseases that are now unknown could return and cause mass deaths.
At its recent meetings, ACIP also refined its recommendations for COVID-19 vaccinations but did not vote to require a doctor’s prescription for administration. Among the new recommendations is that COVID-19 vaccination be considered more a matter of “individual decision-making,” meaning that local physicians and patients decide together rather than being bound by a universal mandate. This, too, fuels distrust.
Experts argue that because the new health administration has appointed new members to ACIP, its decisions are becoming increasingly ideological rather than based purely on scientific evidence. Recommending “individual choice” on vaccinations sets a dangerous precedent, allowing conspiracy believers to reject even childhood immunizations.
A separate chapter of the recent debates concerns the confusing theories surrounding the Hepatitis B virus. It is reasonable that ACIP recommended all pregnant women be screened for Hepatitis B to prevent mother-to-child transmission, as has always been the case. But now this measure is being used to justify vaccine refusal.
At the ACIP meeting, the committee postponed a new proposal to delay the birth-dose Hepatitis B vaccination to a later time — for example, one month of age — for newborns whose mothers tested negative for the virus during pregnancy. The current guideline still states that every stable newborn should receive the Hepatitis B vaccine within the first 24 hours of life. That remains the CDC’s recommendation. But it is now under attack.
What makes the situation truly dangerous is that Trump himself spoke out on this professional issue and, with his characteristic lack of expertise, declared: “Hepatitis B is sexually transmitted. There’s no reason to give a baby that’s almost just born hepatitis B.” He suggested waiting until the child is twelve years old to give the shot, claiming that children are more developed then.
Experts firmly refuted Trump’s statement: Hepatitis B is not only sexually transmitted — mother-to-child (perinatal) transmission and exposure to infected blood are also major routes. Fact-checkers have emphasized that when infants and newborns are infected, 90 percent of cases become chronic Hepatitis B, and many later die of hepatocellular carcinoma — liver cancer.
“Donald Trump is wrong when he calls Hepatitis B a sexually transmitted disease, and he is also wrong in saying that the Hepatitis B vaccine should be given during adolescence rather than at birth,” said Dr. Maurizio Bonacini, hepatologist. “Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver and causes cancer or cirrhosis, and its most common route of transmission is from mother to child,” Bonacini said.
Hepatitis B is often called the “silent killer” because those infected do not know it until they suffer from liver disease. The virus is especially common in South and East Asian communities. However, since the introduction of vaccines, infection rates have declined. The disease has no cure, but if detected early, daily medication can keep the virus under control and reduce the risk of liver damage.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and other professional pediatric organizations maintain that the vaccine is safe, effective, and necessary from the newborn stage. The official vaccine advisory panel (ACIP) has not changed its guidelines for newborn vaccination because of Trump’s comments, and the birth-dose vaccine remains recommended.
However, critics fear that Trump’s words carry more weight than medical expertise and scientific fact. Such statements could further erode public confidence in vaccines, encourage anti-vaccine attitudes, and increase the incidence of preventable diseases.
