This is a publication by our members, for our members and we want to hear from you. We are always welcoming new writers for all sections of the magazine. Please reach out to Kathryn Vance at kathryn. vance @ glms. org if you’ d like to share your thoughts in an upcoming issue.
OPINION
Kentucky Medicaid and Medicare are still required to cover the cost of recommended childhood vaccines, at no cost to the patient, even if the patient has not met a deductible, so long as the patient is seeing an in-network clinician covered by the Affordable Care Act. Kentucky is still covering the cost, for those who are uninsured, via the federal Vaccines for Children program.
The newly-populated Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices( all RFK Jr.’ s hand-picked appointees) should meet in September to consider recommendations for all sorts of vaccines. These vaccine-skeptical followers of RFK Jr. could blow big holes in the national payment schedules by removing governmental mandates and advice. A combination vaccine for mumps, rubella and chickenpox is on the agenda, and Covid, Hep B and RSV vaccines reportedly will be discussed as well.
The World Health Organization estimated that over half a million children in Africa die annually from vaccine preventable diseases, which is nearly two thirds of such global deaths. President Trump by his January executive order began to dismantle USAID( the United States Agency for International Development), and as of July 1 has killed it off by absorbing it into the State Department. USAID formerly provided vaccines and vaccine administration to poorer countries around the world. More children are likely to die. The State Department is now in charge of any programming and must scramble on many fronts to reinvent and reassign policies and personnel. An internal USAID memo predicted that the removal of previous programs would cut services for nearly 17 million pregnant women each year, eliminate postnatal care for over 11 million newborns, and prevent nearly 15 million children from getting treatment for pneumonia and diarrhea. In 2023, a woman in sub-Saharan Africa died roughly every two minutes from complications of pregnancy and childbirth. All these numbers are now very likely to worsen.
Already as of Sept. 8th, the CDC( or what’ s left of it, we who are about to lose you all salute you) has reported close to 1,500 cases of confirmed measles in the U. S. Of these, 86 % are part of local outbreaks; already there have been 35 separate ones. The CDC expects the true case count to be considerably higher, as not all jurisdictions reliably report in. What is known is this: 98 % of reported cases are in unvaccinated youth under the age of 20.
Mass vaccination and prevention of childhood death and disability has been a crowning achievement in developed countries. I am unsure if and when this country might lose its designation as“ developed,” but with Mr. Kennedy in charge, we are headed in that direction. He has applied a lot of thought and energy for many years to debunk the effectiveness and safety of vaccination. He won’ t hurt us accidentally: it will be with malice aforethought.
Dr. Barry is an internist and Associate Professor of Medicine( Gratis Faculty) at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, currently retired and mulling her next moves.
Write for Louisville Medicine!
This is a publication by our members, for our members and we want to hear from you. We are always welcoming new writers for all sections of the magazine. Please reach out to Kathryn Vance at kathryn. vance @ glms. org if you’ d like to share your thoughts in an upcoming issue.
OPINION October 2025 37