by Justin Gill: DNP, APRN, RN is a registered nurse and president of the Washington State Nurses 

and Core member of NFA

Association.For 23 years in a row, nurses have consistently ranked as the most trusted professionals, according to Gallup polling. We are on the front lines of health care delivery and experience the direct consequences of policies shaped by leaders who fail to understand the importance of evidence-based medicine.

Nurses are the ones who boldly combated COVID-19 and now see the rising cases of pertussis and measles, compounded by an emerging threat from H5N1 influenza, aka bird flu. Nurses are the ones holding the hands of grieving families after the preventable deaths of loved ones, whether from vaccine-preventable conditions, health decisions driven by false information or systemic failures in our health care system.

As an urgent care nurse practitioner who focuses on providing care based on the best available science and evidence to guide decision-making to all — regardless of political affiliation, religious beliefs, immigration status or income level — I am gravely concerned about the prospect of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation as the secretary of Health and Human Services. (The Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday.)

I recall seeing countless patients during the COVID-19 pandemic who, like many others, declined to get vaccinated. They relied on taking hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin prescribed by telemedicine services even though there was no validated research as to their safety or effectiveness. Many individuals delayed seeking care because of their belief that these therapies would work, but as time passed, their symptoms worsened to the point that I had trouble keeping their oxygen at a stable level before transferring them to the emergency department. It was not uncommon to see these patients die one to three days after their transfer to the hospital. I will never forget the fear and concern that patients and families had during these moments.

During a time when nurses, physicians and health professionals needed support from the public with vaccination, I saw firsthand how misinformation led to death and trauma. I was appalled and insulted to learn that RFK Jr. petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to revoke authorization for all COVID-19 vaccines six months after they were initially distributed.

In 2019, RFK Jr. testified in Olympia, opposing House Bill 1638, which narrowed the exemption criteria for the vaccine that prevents measles, mumps and rubella. In his testimony, Kennedy raised false and misleading connections between the MMR vaccine and diseases affecting brain development and autoimmune diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis. He repeatedly questioned the safety of vaccines, suggesting baseless links between vaccines and autism despite the overwhelming number of scientific studies debunking such claims.

The HHS secretary’s role is not just ceremonial — it involves leading a federal agency that shapes public health policy, manages pandemics and ensures that the nation’s health care systems are accessible and effective. The head of HHS needs to understand the importance of evidence-based medicine, inspire trust in the health care system and oppose the forces that threaten the public’s health. Kennedy’s history of promoting dangerous health myths, vaccine misinformation and rejection of public health expertise is a clear disqualification for the highest health policy cabinet position in the country.

For those who deliver health care, his history of promoting vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories is not just upsetting — it has potentially deadly consequences. Based on his track record, his confirmation would undermine public health and betray hardworking health care professionals and researchers who work relentlessly to keep our patients safe and healthy.

We cannot afford to put someone in charge of our nation’s health who consistently chooses rhetoric over reality, fear over facts and division over public service. For the sake of our nation’s health and the millions of Americans who rely on a functioning, evidence-based health care system, the Senate must not confirm RFK Jr.’s nomination. Otherwise, we all may become victims of an untrained, unqualified science skeptic.

by Donna Gaffney, RN and Teri Mills, RN Emeritus,  Leaders in NFA, Newsweek, January 8, 2025

"Some of the kids never stopped crying, not from pain, but from fear and loneliness." These haunting words from Peg Kehret's award winning book Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio remind us of a time when the fight against the disease was far from over. It is a fight we cannot afford to relive.

More than 35 children's books recount the polio epidemics of the mid-20th century, ranging from fiction to biographies of Dr. Jonas Salk (the discoverer of the polio vaccine) to nonfiction exploring the science and historical impact of the disease. While today's children may not face the same threat of polio, their voices are noticeably absent amid the growing questions and fears sparked by the culture wars. Several weeks ago, one of our young granddaughters asked why polio is on the news all the time.

"Is it like the flu? How do kids get better? Why can't some walk? Can I get it?" After a brief explanation about polio vaccines and the ongoing debate around their necessity, she paused and asked, "What happens if we can't get the vaccine? Will kids get sick again?"

In the 1950s parents were desperate for a cure—or at least a way to prevent polio. Children endured immense physical pain from heat packs and the stretching exercises of Kenny treatments, emotional pain from isolation from their family and friends, and social pain when removed from school. In her novel, Chasing Orion, Kathryn Lasky describes the horror of an 11 year-old-child living in an iron lung, "I have 87 cubic centimeters of air, but you have the world."

Parents suffered too. Families were often split apart: one parent stayed home with the healthy siblings, while the other remained at the hospital with their sick child.

Scientists worked frantically to find a vaccine for polio. In 1947, Salk led a team of researchers at the University of Pittsburgh in studying the disease. By 1952, Salk's groundbreaking research paved the way for vaccine trials on humans, starting with hospitalized children in Pennsylvania and eventually involving 1.6 million children in Canada, Finland and the United States. The results proved to be nothing short of miraculous. The vaccine proved to be effective and safe in protecting children from permanent paralysis, disability, and death.  There was a collective sigh of relief.

But here we are today, talking about polio and other vaccines, the past seemingly erased. Prominent people who remember the time before these miracle vaccines are sharing their stories—not only Kehret but Mia Farrow, Francis Ford Coppola, Joni Mitchell, and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), along with countless others. They are sharing their stories in hopes that today's parents and officials will listen.

At the same time that proponents of vaccines are speaking out, a leading voice pushing anti-vaccine conspiracies, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, has been nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to be the next Health and Human Services Secretary.

It is a scenario reminiscent of an episode of the Twilight Zone.  "Picture this: the year is now 2030, a world not of progress, but a haunting reflection of a past long thought left behind."

RFK Jr. will likely use his bully pulpit as HHS Secretary to sow doubt about vaccine safety and efficacy. This is the worst fear of physicians and nurses who are fighting valiantly to oppose his nomination. His "questions" go against all evidence. In fact, vaccines have prevented an estimated 154 million deaths since 1974, according to a May 2024 study in The Lancet. This includes 146 million deaths averted among children under the age of 5.

RFK Jr. has also promised to appoint vaccine skeptics to a committee that provides vaccination guidelines to the nation. Currently, these recommendations are determined by an impartial membership of scientists and medical experts and are based on proven, peer-reviewed research. If current vaccination schedules are not adhered to, especially in children, a resurgence in all communicable diseases is likely. That list includes polio. The mere thought of seeing thousands of children paralyzed or unable to breathe on their own underscores the devastating consequences of undermining science and public health.

Nurses and physicians have always been dedicated to ensuring the care and protection of our most vulnerable population, children. To safeguard our kids, we need an HHS secretary who trusts science and champions the safety and benefits of vaccines. That leader is not Kennedy.

To all members of the U.S. Senate: take heed of Winston Churchill's timeless warning: "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

With Kennedy in charge, that may literally become the case.

Donna A. Gaffney and Teri Mills are both are leaders in Nurses for America

• by Eileen Kilbane Gordon R.N. and Arthur Lavin  M.D.Cleveland Plain Dealer - Jan 8, 2025

SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Suppose Robert F Kennedy Jr. is confirmed as the next U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. In that case, we stand at the brink of polio, measles, and other deadly diseases breaking out in America.

It will take four Republican senators and all the Democratic senators to stop RFK Jr. from toppling our long-effective public health and science victory over forgotten childhood illnesses.

The polio story teaches the success of public health and vaccines. Many Americans today were not around in the 1950s and ‘60s when polio ravaged and killed our children, with over 3,000 Americans dying in 1952 alone. As a registered nurse and a physician, we remember. We know about the “iron lung,” a machine that helped children who were unable to breathe because their lungs were infected by the virus. Hospital wards were packed with polio-stricken kids in iron lungs, some living the rest of their lives within it.

Prior to the vaccine, according to the World Health Organization, polio killed or paralyzed more than half a million people a year. When the polio vaccine on a sugar cube was developed by Dr. Albert Sabin and distributed to the people of Cincinnati, people lined up at schools and elsewhere for “Sabin Sunday.” The trend continued nationwide until polio was virtually wiped out. A remarkable science-led victory.

We cannot give RFK Jr. the power to impose his unfounded views that the polio vaccine is dangerous. Ask any family in Afghanistan, Pakistan or the Gaza Strip if polio can return. War has resulted in a drop in polio vaccination in these places and unvaccinated children are dying or becoming paralyzed. If polio vaccination drops in the United States, we will see the same alarming return of polio here. Already, it’s been detected in New York City. It would just take Kennedy sowing the seeds of distrust of vaccines to cause hesitant parents to follow his lead and drop the herd immunity a few percentage points, allowing the virus to surge.

Kennedy dresses up his pseudoscience by asking questions of parents like, “Why are our kids so sick.” Without showing studies to prove it, RFK Jr. links an increase in chronic health conditions to the rise in the number of childhood vaccines.

Now RFK Jr. is meeting with U.S. senators before his confirmation hearings. He wants Americans to believe he poses no threat to continued vaccination, presumably because he sees how unpopular his stance has become. Yet, when it comes to vaccinations, he has a track record of consistently decreasing coverage rates. An example is the measles epidemic in Samoa in 2019, in the middle of which RFK Jr. sent a letter to the prime minister of Samoa, questioning the use of the measles vaccine. Some health care professionals believe his letter was responsible for the measles epidemic worsening.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is unfit to lead the Department of Health and Human Services and its 13 divisions. As Protect Our Care and Nurses for America say, RFK Jr. will push radical policies that put millions at risk. He has said that no vaccine is safe or effective. He has pledged to shift funding away from research for treatments and cures to deadly diseases to focus on chronic diseases like obesity. He doesn’t follow science or trust experts. Worse, he promotes fringe ideas and conspiracies. He is unsafe to oversee America’s health care.

Rise with us and say “no” to the nomination of RFK Jr. Let’s never have to tell our children why their sibling or friend died of a preventable disease. Join America’s doctors, nurses, and health care professionals who say “no.” Contact your senators and let them know you are watching their vote. Tell them the lives of our children depend on them.

Pediatric registered nurse Eileen Kilbane Gordon is a core leader of Nurses for America. Dr. Arthur Lavin is a pediatrician and chair of the Doctors Organized for Health Care Solutions of Cleveland.

• by Donna Gaffney and Teri Mills. Lake Oswego Review - Jan 6, 2025

Hearings for President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees are imminent. Members of the U.S. Senate will decide if candidates are qualified, including whether they have the character to serve.

As nurses, we are particularly alarmed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s (RFK) past, given that the Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary will oversee the health of the entire nation.

Kennedy readily admitted to using heroin while studying during his collegiate years at Harvard University. Massachusetts law explicitly states that it is illegal to be present in a location where heroin is stored or to associate with someone who possesses heroin. 

USA Today reported that Kennedy didn’t deny an assault allegation with his family’s 23-year-old nanny. The Associated Press verified Kennedy left a dead bear in Central Park as a prank. Kennedy now claims “he won’t take away anyone’s vaccines.” This is disingenuous because RFK has a long record of promoting anti-vaccine viewpoints through his own organization, the Children’s Health Defense.

Clearly, Mr. Kennedy does not meet the rigorous standards to lead HHS, a position that demands accountability, evidence-based knowledge and a commitment to public health and safety. Yet senators are being asked to consider his nomination. This is not only illogical; it’s dangerous. The individual responsible for protecting the lives of millions must embody the highest standards of integrity and honesty. Anything less puts our health at serious risk.

Donna Gaffney, Pacific Palisades, California, and Teri Mills, Tualatin. Mills is a former president of the National Nursing Network Organization. Both are leaders in Nurses for America.

Polio Victims in the Family

•  by Patricia  A. Ford-Roegner  core member of Nurses for America. 

Published:  Dallas Morning News  Jan 5, 2024   

Polio victims in the family 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Donald Trump's nominee for U.S. secretary of Health and Human Ser-vices, is a dangerous man. His quest to revoke the availability of the lifesaving polio vaccine demonstrates his bizarre thinking. As a nurse advocate, I cannot — and will not — accept his leadership. My father-in-law was a victim of polios devastation, spending part of his youth in an iron lung, struggling to breathe. When World War II came, he joined the U.S. Army. He served his country in Germany, never letting his disabilities stop him.

In the 1950s, there was a resurgence of polio.

Luckily; by then the polio vaccine was becoming available, but the virus inflicted its damage before community immunity set in. (Kennedy doesn't get this concept at all.) Not many years ago, my sister-in-law, now in her late 70s, was finally diagnosed as a post-polio victim. Living in San Marcos, she has become a fighter for the forgotten while struggling with her own issues and using a wheelchair.

Please tell me Robert Kennedy Jr. will not be our leader on health issues.

Patricia A. Ford Roegner, Glen Mills,