As winter looms, state and local medical professionals, concerned about public health emergencies amid a mistrust of vaccines sown by federal officials, are advising the public to trust science and protect themselves against viruses such as influenza and Covid-19.
In his brief tenure as secretary of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a decades-long vaccine skeptic, has overturned a long-accepted understanding of their safety and efficacy. In May, he wrote on the social media platform X that the Food and Drug Administration “is finally breaking away from the one-size-fits-all vaccine policy that authorized Covid shots for every American over 6 months old.”
In June, he fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which is responsible for recommendations on vaccine use, and days later named eight new members to the panel, vaccine skeptics among them. The fired panel members wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine that Mr. Kennedy and the new panel had abandoned rigorous scientific review and open deliberation, noting that at the new panel’s first meeting an anti-vaccine advocate warned of a dangerous preservative in some flu vaccines, a claim debunked by federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staffers.
In August, Mr. Kennedy announced that his department’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority was terminating $500 million in funding for development of mRNA vaccines “because the data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like Covid and flu.” Later in August, he fired the C.D.C. director after less than one month on the job, and several leaders of the agency resigned. The fired director later told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions that Mr. Kennedy had insisted that she commit to approve every recommendation made by the new Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices panel and fire career officials who develop vaccine policy.
Most recently, Mr. Kennedy claimed both that vaccines and taking Tylenol during pregnancy are linked to autism. Experts say that both claims are false and based on debunked research.
“With science and health care under attack by the federal government,” began a Sept. 18 statement from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office, the governor announced the state’s 2025-26 Covid-19 vaccine guidance, which recommends vaccination for children 6 months to 18 years old, all adults, and higher-risk individuals including those who are pregnant, lactating, or immunocompromised.
Earlier last month, the governor declared a disaster in the state “due to federal actions related to vaccine access” and signed an executive order allowing pharmacists to administer Covid vaccines. The order was to remain in place for at least 30 days while a long-term solution is developed to address access to all vaccines “in order to combat the Trump Administration’s misguided attack on immunization and healthcare,” according to the announcement.
Mr. Kennedy’s investigation of the causes of autism “from the global, 20,000-foot, big picture is important to us as scientists,” said Sharon Nachman, the pediatric infectious disease division chief at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, “because I do think that autism research would be great to be well funded from a scientific endeavor.” However, she said, “it’s really important for our families to have the best science and the best scientists asking the right questions in a nonconfrontational manner. When we get into confrontational science, that’s when we have a problem.”
“Years ago, we blamed mothers for their children’s autism, and that didn’t solve any problems at all,” Dr. Nachman said. “It did result in more people feeling guilty that their kid was autistic and it was their fault. And with the recent blame being placed on Tylenol . . . we have gone back in time 20 years and we are blaming a parent again.”
It is prudent to get vaccines for Covid19 and influenza as well as measles, mumps, and rubella, Dr. Nachman said, while misinformation about vaccine safety and efficacy presents the potential for public health emergencies such as the Covid-19 pandemic. “There’s excellent data — and it all gets back to data — that if you hit below a certain level of a vaccine in a population, the diseases come back. Yes, we’re certainly in danger, and I believe measles will swing back again. . . . There are still many pockets of under-vaccinated, unvaccinated populations. And measles virus never goes away. The viruses don’t care where the borders are in the country or the state. . . . And having those unvaccinated pools allows it to hop right on up.” For every case of measles, she said, “you can infect up to 20 other individuals.” According to the C.D.C., 2025 is the worst year for measles cases in more than 30 years.
It is important to understand, Dr. Nachman said, that “there’s a difference between opinion and science. You can have strong opinions, but if they are not science-based, no matter how loud you shout them out, they are still opinions.”
Dr. George Dempsey of East Hampton Family Medicine seconded that frustration. “I think the problem is everyone getting access to information by algorithms, and that’s regardless of what you’re doing. I think that’s eroding our own confidence in what we even think we know.”
The use of vaccines dates to the late 18th century. They “have been around for years, we know the safety profiles,” Dr. Dempsey said. “You can raise a concern, but then research it before making statements. That’s how things used to work.”
It is odd, he said, that “what’s not being talked about is the effects of Covid long-term. There’s plenty of literature we’re reading about that: Even mild symptoms can have long-term effects we’re still trying to learn about. It’s inflammatory, it affects blood vessels. There’s a lot of subtle blood vessel disease that you don’t find out for years.” One effect of Covid-19 infection, for example, is the loss of sense of smell. “It can take months, years for that to improve,” he said. “Why is that? We have to understand that. One reason is it affects the brain.”
“We’re worried about vaccines when we don’t even understand what the disease does,” he said. “The vaccine simply takes a protein that the virus has, the spike protein, to develop immunity to the virus. It’s not introducing anything new to the body,” but rather, “it’s helping the immune system produce that antibody.”
The CVS pharmacy chain offers appointments for a long list of vaccinations, from influenza, Covid-19, and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, to “travel vaccines” such as typhoid, cholera, and chikungunya. Flu, Covid, pneumonia, shingles, and RSV vaccines will be administered by CVS personnel at the Amagansett Library on Friday, Oct. 10, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Vaccines, Dr. Nachman emphasized, are safe. “We’ve given millions and millions and millions of doses around the world,” she said. “That we actually do follow science — and it’s called science because we’ve proven it, as opposed to opinionated it — is important.”
“It’s just discouraging,” Dr. Dempsey said of vaccine skepticism and misinformation. “I’m kind of resigned to what’s going on. It feels like people are going to learn by finding out.”