Kids are heading back to school this fall as the country experiences some of the lowest childhood vaccine rates and highest levels of public health uncertainty in known memory.
Amid the swirling currents: the defunding of vaccine research and competing messaging around COVID shots for children; a rare federal attempt to influence a West Virginia legal battle over childhood vaccine exemptions; and a dramatic leadership struggle within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that could solidify more power in the hands of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy is seen by many as the destabilizing figure at the center of the chaos, and 2025-26 will be the first full school year that the longtime vaccine skeptic is in charge of childhood public health. The controversial secretary, who earned a public rebuke this week from every one of his predecessors going back to the Carter administration, is scheduled to testify before the Senate Finance Committee later today.