“Physicians had every motive to skew narratives against their Black subjects not because they were especially racist or unfair (although many were) but because the culture of American medicine has mirrored the larger culture that encompassed enslavement, segregation and less dramatic form of racial inequality.” – Harriet Washington

In 2018 the former president of the APHA (The American Public Health Association) Dr. Camara Jones introduced a campaign that declared racism a public health crisis. The declarations were implemented in over 260 cities after the murder of George Floyd. Activists mobilizing to address racism in the public health system is a centuries-old practice and Black Lives Matter was no different. At the height of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, people were masked up to stop the spread of the virus and preventable deaths from state violence. The previous presidential administration and current one prioritized suffering over healing promising the republic that things to go back to normal. A promise the APHA knew the federal government would never be able to uphold without “dismantling the systems that have reinforced health inequity, replacing them with more equitable policies, practices, and allocation of resources.” The COVID-19 pandemic was deemed a crisis until legislators once again put economic interests over the well-being of their constituents.

In 2021 Courtney explored the implications of medical racism in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional survey was administered nationally from June-July 2021, gauging perception/participation in clinical trials, trust, as well as advantages and disadvantages of participating in clinical trials. Her findings highlighted the different drivers of trust across racial-ethnic groups and may shed light on population groups that are less likely to receive the COVID-19 vaccines. White respondents were overrepresented (58%), while 29% of respondents were African American. There was a reverse trend with the African American community revealing the poor perception in older age groups, which reveals how this community may not actively experience the previously stated advancements and have lived with negative trial experiences. While younger African Americans had more positive participation, a lot of the older generations in the Black community lived through/grew up hearing about harmful events such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. Medical distrust goes beyond clinical trial participation but also affects Black mortality during childbirth, care of patients with HIV, cancer, and substance use disorder, and under-treatment for pain. Even more so, it’s not just direct mistreatment of Black people in healthcare but inequity as a whole. Lack of access to health insurance, quality healthcare facilities, and overall difficulty for Black people to receive care.

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On February 13th, Robert F. Kennedy Jr (RFK) was confirmed as the Human Services Secretary. Over the course of 2025, Courtney and I watched the slow decline of our public health system commence under the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” plan. His main responsibility is to ensure the American republic is prepared to assist states during a public health crisis. To start this conversation we’d like to say we have zero confidence in RFK to “Make America Healthy Again” since he was nominated to hold the highest position in the health department without any medical experience.

At his Senate hearing on the 2026 health budget, he earnestly told the committee he was not someone to take “medical advice” from. Kennedy’s statement is correct we shouldn’t look to him for advice our attention should be on the scientists and researchers he has ousted from their jobs. Kennedy and Trump made it clear that public health officials are expendable if they do not agree with the fiscal budget or changes in CDC authority. RFK immediately began to create a hostile work environment for top CDC officials through his lack of communication and abrupt firings. In August the Director of the CDC, DR. Demetre Daskalakis, MD, MPH, posted his resignation letter on Instagram due to the fact that his new boss, “should not be considered a source of accurate information.” The former director described how we are on a dangerous path paved by eugenics and anti-science ideology. Dr. Daskalakis says that he tried to consult with Kennedy about issues like measles only for it to fall on deaf ears similar to what West Texas Officials dealt with in the same month. RFK’s blatant disregard for the gold standard exemplifies how “their desire to please a political base will result in the death of vulnerable children and adults.” As more officials resigned Kennedy took it upon himself to root out dissent by firing CDC Director Susan Monarez after only a month on the job. Monarez shared similar concerns with Dr. Daskalakis when she voiced her concerns in September about the quality of RFK’s leadership. Kennedy’s dismissal of and changes to vaccination schedules are rooted in personal bias; Monarez says she’s confident that “preventable diseases will return.” Under his tenure we’ve seen a measles outbreaks sore however she theorizes that, “deadly diseases like polio and whooping cough, long contained, are poised to make a comeback in the U.S.

What is the Anti-Vax Movement?

A large portion of RFK’s professional career is dedicated to preventing chronic health diseases in children specifically combating the epidemic of autism. In a direct quote from HHS.gov, he claims that, “Autism is preventable and it is unforgivable that we have not yet identified the underlying causes.” which is blatantly untrue and scientifically unproven. The claim that vaccines increase the risks of autism in children is a misinformation tactic meant to increase vaccine hesitancy. Anti-vaxxers spread misinformation through three separate arguments according to Matthew Herper of Stat News.

Vaccine misinformation targets the trust of public health professionals by asserting that the government is working against the average American using vaccinations as a cover to infect us with diseases. Empirical data is purposefully misconstrued or completely fabricated to link vaccinations with the cause of autism. RFK’s stance on critical public health resources has been challenged by both Democrats and Republicans who disagree with his ineffective communication methods. Public health misinformation is heightened in digital spaces and Kennedy’s choice to use social media as a primary communication channel demonstrates how he is trying to delegitimize the role of experts. Anti-intellectualism’s role in public health is to foster suspicion towards experts by exploiting the complexity of scientific research. We see how anti-vax ideology contends with the fundamental principles of science and the way we prevent diseases.

The same month RFK was confirmed Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) released a press statement announcing his support of RFK. Cassidy spent 30 years in the medical field unlike his peer. In Cassidy’s expert opinion, he believes “Vaccines save lives. They are safe. They do not cause autism. There are multiple studies that show this. They are a crucial part of our nation’s public health response.” He is willing to work with RFK but not at the expense of minimizing the impact of diseases, as he’s “ seen patients die from vaccine-preventable diseases.” Cassidy vowed to challenge any actions of the secretary that rely on fear-mongering against vaccinations.

Towards the end of his confirmation, he attempted to quote a study by the renowned Mayo Clinic Vaccine Research Group, led by Dr. Gregory Poland, titled “Associations between race, sex, and immune response variations to rubella vaccination in two independent cohorts.” RFK claimed that African Americans should receive different vaccines since African Americans are more likely to have adverse reactions. Maryland Senator Angela Alsobrooks described his remarks as dangerous and potentially harmful to people’s lives. This study looked at factors such as race, ethnicity, and sex that contribute to immune responses/antibody levels in reference to the rubella vaccine. For context, the rubella vaccine was created to combat German measles. The rubella vaccine is a common vaccine given to children from ages 12-15 months and 4-6 years old. The study looked at 1,100 healthy children and young adults in Rochester, as well as over 1,000 participants from the U.S. Naval Health Research Center in San Diego as the control group. It was found that immune response can vary, however, it was not suggested nor recommended that African Americans should be on a different vaccine schedule.

Public Health Misinformation in Digital Spaces

In 2023 journalist Geoff Bennett and Dr. Paul Offit critiqued Kennedy’s vaccine stance as he encouraged bad faith engagement with public health measures. The internet has always been a double-edged sword since mass media is a state tool based on algorithms that influence our opinions. On a national scale, we witnessed these anti-vax attitudes manifest during post-lockdown when many refused to wear their masks in order to uphold the status quo. Masks were trivialized, disability advocates were ostracized and the anti-vax movement grew stronger.

It is important to be able to identify how anti-vaxxers use misinformation and disinformation as a tool in digital spaces. Anti-vaxxers form a community through online forums across social media circulating content that has been altered to draw members in. The movement produces reactionary behaviors and attitudes that characterize vaccinated individuals as ignorant. The less money you have the more likely you are to hesitate getting the vaccination whereas when you earn more money you have access to vaccinations and alternative remedies. Anti-intellectualism allows new anti-vax theories to be produced and reproduced through digital media. RFK’s confirmation increased visibility for anti-vax activists who use apps like Twitter (X?) as a public bulletin board.

Disregard of public health warnings is how we arrived at the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy. We put comfort over wellness telling ourselves we just have to make it through the year with no injuries. Data from the NIH researches how health decisions are shaped by “perceived high amounts of health misinformation,” which contributes to anti-intellectual attitudes on issues like vaccines. Social media aestheticizes falsehoods to retain users on the app even if it means pushing content that is unvetted. Media literacy is about being able to determine the accuracy or credibility of a source which is hard to do with health topics since the average person struggles to comprehend health information. Individual actors tend to care about what’s shareable rather than accurate a common trend seen among young people. Younger people on the internet are exposed to misinformation and without proper discernment they are likely to feel assured that they cannot be tricked by misinformation. Digital literacy for all ages is important and critical in Black communities since we “use social media at higher rates than white individuals.”

We will save ourselves

The APHA issued a formal statement demanding that Robert Kennedy be removed as Secretary. An institution that is already underfunded is now faced with “reckless mismanagement.” The APHA and many other sensible citizens are demanding Trump “appoint a true public health leader—someone committed to science, integrity and the well-being of our nation. RFK is a constant reminder that the ‘larger culture’ of anti-Blackness in America did not start when he was appointed. I argue that RFK’s aversion to vaccinations is one of the many ways this administration attempts to suppress the Black radical tradition.The radical tradition teaches us how to turn practice into theory which is how many communities succeeded despite medical apartheid, enslavement and other actions that impact our quality of life. In the moment we’re experiencing we should adopt and transform critical health programs to challenge “racially exclusionist policies.” In response to the government’s inaction community health leaders hosted free clinics to alleviate the burden of preventable diseases and improve material conditions. I suggest reading the article “There wasn’t a lot of comfort in those days,” to understand our future rather than our elders past. The Trump administration wants us to feel helpless and hopeless however history shows us that there is a future where we heal.