We thank Gov. Hobbs for signing an executive order that bypasses Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s dangerous restrictions on COVID-19 vaccines, and allows all Arizonans easier access to them. This was a bold move, and is much appreciated, but more can be done to protect the health of Arizonans. We suggest that the initiatives outlined in the executive order be expanded to take control of the regulation and administration of all vaccines in Arizona.

Using misinformation and lies, Kennedy is presently on a relentless drive to stifle or eliminate all vaccine use in the United States. As a result of this campaign, vaccine hesitancy in the United States is rising, with Arizona among the five states with the highest rates of exemptions from vaccines required for school entry. This means that fewer children are being vaccinated. In Arizona, kindergarten vaccination coverage for Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) has dropped to 88.6%, well below the threshold for herd immunity. With the continued decline in vaccinations in the United States, encouraged by Kennedy, we are likely to see years of widespread increases in vaccine-preventable diseases — a potential disaster in which many children, and adults, may be permanently disabled or killed. 

States have significant public health powers, and control of access to all vaccines will assure that they are available to everyone who wants and needs them. Such an initiative is needed to ensure that vaccine schedules and recommendations are not those of Kennedy, but of professional organizations like the American Association for Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the American Public Health Association. Several nearby states, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii and California, have formed the West Coast Health Alliance to coordinate vaccine recommendations. Such an alliance provides added strength to combat Kennedy’s dangerous vaccine recommendations; we suggest that Arizona join it. 

Some Arizonans will look at such a move with suspicion and doubt due to the overwhelming amount of misinformation about vaccines that has been propagated on social media and in the press by Kennedy and his anti-vaccine followers. We must remember that he is not a doctor, nor does he have any scientific training. He is an avowed anti-vaccine advocate with the goal of suppressing or stopping vaccine use in the United States. His misinformation, especially about vaccines causing autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is designed to cause fear and doubt about vaccines. In this short commentary we cannot refute all of this misinformation about vaccines; however, several studies have already done so. In addition, the organization Defend Public Health has provided a science-based document that explains the factors that may contribute to ASD, from genetics to environmental factors, and why we know that vaccines are not one of them. Vaccines are safe and effective.

Some Arizonans may believe that vaccines are unnecessary if they are healthy and have a healthy immune system. This is another fallacy propagated by Kennedy. For example, at a Senate hearing he said of the COVID vaccine “It’s not recommended for healthy people.” The immune system is not an omnipotent protective shield. If you have never before been infected by a specific germ (bacteria or virus), your immune system can’t protect you when you do get infected, no matter how healthy you are. During infection, the immune system sets about “learning” about the germ so that it can begin to fight it off. This takes time, and during the “learning” period the ongoing infection can make you extremely sick, cause all sorts of lasting damage, and may kill you before the immune system catches up. Here is where vaccines are so important: they “teach” your immune system to protect you from the germ without you getting infected, very sick, damaged or killed.

For the health of all Arizonans, young and old, it is essential to reject the misinformation and lies of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which are based on pseudoscience and conspiracy theories. Vaccines are necessary to preserve the health, lives and wellbeing of Arizonans. Therefore, Arizona must proactively take control of all vaccines so that every Arizonan maintains the right, the opportunity and the freedom to get any vaccination. 

James Alwine is a virologist, professor emeritus of Cancer Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, a visiting professor at the University of Arizona and a fellow of the American Academy for Microbiology and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a member of the coordinating committee for advocacy group Defend Public Health.

Elizabeth Jacobs is an epidemiologist and professor emerita at the University of Arizona and a founding member of the advocacy group Defend Public Health.