Former Kansas Trump adviser says stop RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine crusade | Opinion

Kansas was once home to the first town in the entire country to be fully vaccinated against polio.

In 1957, the folks in the aptly named town of Protection — population roughly 500 — lined up in droves, hoping to shield themselves and their families from a terrible disease that had killed and paralyzed generations of children.

Thanks to that community’s universal embrace of the polio vaccine — and the rest of the country mostly following suit — the disease is now a distant memory. But today, folks here in Kansas and across the country feel far more skepticism toward vaccines — and not just the COVID-19 shots, but even the routine childhood vaccinations against diseases such as polio. That hesitation is certainly understandable, particularly in the wake of the Biden administration’s outrageous government overreach during the pandemic. Biden made multiple false claims overstating the vaccines’ effectiveness, attempted to mandate them for both public and private sector employees, and required toddlers in Head Start programs to wear masks, against advice from the World Health Organization.

The administration refused to hear out Americans who had reasonable questions and instead demonized them if they resisted sweeping mandates. But it’d be a mistake for Kansans to let our justified anger at the last administration alter our views of childhood vaccinations, which have a long track record of keeping kids safe. Just before scientists created the polio vaccine, the disease was paralyzing an average of 16,000 Americans and killing almost 1,900 per year. Now, that number is zero.

Prior to the creation of the measles vaccine, there were over 500,000 annual measles cases and 430 deaths, on average. In 2022, there were only 121 cases and zero deaths nationwide, thanks to the vaccine. Among children born between 1994 and 2023, childhood vaccinations for diseases such as polio and measles — along with diphtheria, hepatitis B, mumps and rotavirus — are on pace to save well over 1 million lives, prevent over 500 million cases of illness and prevent 32 million hospitalizations. And the science is only improving. Scientists have recently developed a vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus or RSV, which is a leading cause of infant mortality. Since that vaccine became available, RSV hospitalizations for newborns have dropped by as much as 70%. Some of the cutting-edge vaccine research is happening right in our backyard.

At the University of Kansas, researchers are working to develop a vaccine for Lyme disease.

The University of Kansas Medical Center is also testing a vaccine that could prevent colon cancer among high-risk populations, and a vaccine to slow or prevent Alzheimer’s in people with Down syndrome. But if we’re not careful, all these gains could be lost.

Measles cases in Kansas

Across the United States, childhood vaccination rates are declining.

In Kansas, the share of kids who’ve gotten all their childhood immunizations has fallen by about 4 percentage points since 2019.

The measles immunization rate, for example, fell from about 95% in 2019 to 90% in 2023. That might not sound like a big drop — but it’s dangerous. Because measles is so infectious, outbreaks are possible when vaccination rates dip below a certain threshold. We’re seeing the effects in real time. Measles is on the rise in the United States, with over 2,200 cases in 2025. Ninety-one of those cases were in Kansas, the sixth-highest case count in the nation. And unfortunately, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is undermining efforts to boost vaccination rates and keep kids healthy — a stance that puts him at odds not just with the overwhelming majority of Kansas parents, but also pits him against his boss. President Donald Trump has repeatedly encouraged parents to ensure their kids receive routine childhood shots.

The president recently noted that childhood vaccines “just pure and simple work” and worried that if vaccination rates continue to slide, “some people are going to catch (preventable diseases), and they endanger other people.” Despite Trump’s support for childhood vaccinations, Kennedy recently made sweeping changes to a vaccine advisory panel.

And as many Republicans feared, he’s trimmed down the recommended childhood vaccination schedule. This move could ultimately affect insurance coverage for certain shots, making it more difficult for families to get their children vaccinated and requiring them to pay out of pocket.

Luckily, at least for now, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment will stick to the previous, science-backed schedule. It’s up to Kansas’ conservative leaders, especially ones like Sen. Roger Marshall — who is on the committee that oversees RFK Jr.’s activities — to ensure the HHS secretary doesn’t undermine President Trump’s agenda and endanger kids.

Kansas previously led the nation in eradicating preventable childhood diseases, and with the right leadership and right policies, we can do so again.

—Alan Cobb, a native Kansan, was the president and CEO of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce from 2017 to 2025. He also served as senior adviser and national director of coalitions for the 2016 Trump for President campaign and on the Trump presidential transition team.

This story was originally published March 13, 2026 at 4:56 AM.