Louisiana’s Department of Health (LDH) “will no longer promote mass vaccination” according to a memo sent out by the state’s top health official on Thursday shortly after vaccine sceptic Robert F Kennedy Jr was confirmed by the Senate as Donald Trump’s new Health and Human Services Secretary.
Like Herricks, she said she anticipates vaccination rates for preventable diseases to drop as a consequence of Abraham’s new policy, warned of the likely spread of misinformation and pointed out that vaccines are most effective when their use is widespread.
“We are very concerned for people in Louisiana who have historically depended on vaccination drives to get easily accessible vaccines that are no longer going to be available,” Herricks said.
“Government should admit the limitations of its role in people’s lives and pull back its tentacles from the practice of medicine,” Abraham wrote, adding that his department will nevertheless continue to stock vaccines and make them available to the public upon request.
“Public health is really united on this issue: For more than a century, vaccines of all kinds have been a cornerstone of improving public health in America,” Avegno told the council.
