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In the early 1800s, some people rejected the smallpox vaccine because they didn’t trust the doctors and scientists promoting them, or because they saw vaccines as an affront to God’s will, or because they worried about dangers they’d heard or witnessed. That the early version of the vaccine occasionally spread infection only heightened those fears. (Elena Conis, 3/13)

When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed as America’s secretary of health and human services, neutral observers might have asked themselves: Would it be possible for a lawyer who had questioned the safety of childhood vaccinations for two decades to look at the available data and reconsider his views? Kennedy’s recent interviews with Fox News, along with an op-ed he published on that outlet’s website, have been enough to make many experts conclude the answer is “no.” (Matthew Herper, 3/14)

When the first Covid-19 vaccines were developed, I felt cautiously optimistic. As a sociologist focused on public health, I believed these scientific breakthroughs would mark the beginning of the end of the pandemic. Yet vaccine hesitancy presented an ongoing obstacle to public health efforts.  Public discussion names misinformation and political polarization as the primary culprits. Media outlets amplified this narrative, framing vaccine hesitancy as a product of gullibility or partisan identity. But vaccine hesitancy is a complex phenomenon. (Huseyin Zeyd Koytak, 3/14)

During my time at the Food and Drug Administration, I was the senior official in charge of advisory committees. I recollect a meeting with officials from Health Canada — the FDA’s equivalent in Ottawa — who were aghast that our advisory committee meetings were regularly attended by members of the media, financial analysts, patient groups, and politicians — and that the meetings were recorded for public consumption. (Peter J. Pitts, 3/14)

Before medical contrarianism became intrinsic to his identity, Dr. Mehmet Oz appeared motivated by curiosity rather than opportunism. Arriving at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in 1986 to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Oz became well respected in the field. But much to the chagrin of administrators and peers, he also showed a penchant for questionable medicine. (Eoin Higgins, 3/14)

Congratulations! Good luck! See you in six weeks…Sound familiar? Anyone who has had a baby has heard those words. Toward the end of pregnancy, parents are seen in the office weekly and once the baby is out, the support ends for multiple weeks. It is at that moment that these parents need the support more than anything. (Michelle Herens, 3/14)

Ms. M spent every day in a home where she could not breathe. Day in and day out, black mold inched around the corner of her apartment, slithering into the hungry faces of roaches infesting its walls. As a woman who suffered from asthma and lived with a young child, these conditions were, quite simply, deadly. (Laboni Hoque, MD, Miranda Savioli, MD, and Jenna Gage, MD, 3/14)

Medicaid and CHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, are a backbone of American health care, covering more than 79 million people across race, income and geography. That includes more than 1.2 million Missourians, and 411,000-plus residents of Kansas, where lawmakers continue to refuse to expand the program. (Brandon G. Wilson, 3/14)