More than two years after the end of the public health emergency declared in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, roughly 300 people a week still die from the disease in the United States.

Another 27,000 people tested positive for the virus in the most recent week of data available — though that number hit 168,000 during the first week of June.

Yet, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s newly installed — and largely unqualified — panel of vaccine advisers abandoned the universal recommendation for annual COVID vaccine shots for anyone 6 months and older.

Instead, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel voted last week to let Americans decide on their own whether to get the shot.

In other words, the CDC has scrapped its mission of protecting the lives of all Americans, and instead will let everyone wing it.

Are we really going to go back to the dark days of the pandemic when President Donald Trump promoted junk science and harebrained ideas like injecting bleach to combat the virus?

Trump’s mismanagement of the pandemic during his first term bordered on criminal and led to hundreds of thousands of needless deaths.

Recall the deathbed regrets of those who failed to get vaccinated because they trusted Trump or “did their own research.”

The conservative media ecosystem and the internet helped spread misinformation about vaccines, turning basic public health into divisive politics.

Now here we go again. Only this time, Trump has installed RFK Jr. to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — a role he is ill-equipped and unsuited for.

Kennedy has no training in medicine or health and has profited from peddling junk science and conspiracy theories. The result is a rapid dismantling of America’s vaunted public health system.

RFK Jr. and other conspiracy theorists have claimed vaccines cause autism — despite no proven link between the two. On Monday, Trump warned pregnant women against taking Tylenol, claiming it can increase the risk of autism. But researchers are skeptical, with no clear evidence to support the alert.

Most experts believe the rise in the diagnoses of autism is due to increased awareness, a broadening of the definition, and improved screening.

Kennedy’s advisory panel stirred further confusion around vaccines last week when it voted against vaccinating children under age 4 with a combination shot that protects against measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox. But the panel also voted to have the Vaccines for Children program continue to cover the measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella vaccine for children under 4.

The panel backed off an expected vote to restrict the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns. Experts have long urged that babies get the hepatitis B vaccine.

Panel chair Martin Kulldorff made clear the group doesn’t know what it is doing when he opened the second day of meetings by admitting, “We are rookies.”

Efforts to politicize, misinform, and scare people about the benefits and efficacy of vaccines have led to a decrease in the number of children getting shots that are proven to protect them from deadly diseases.

The number of measles cases nationwide surged to a record high this year. There is renewed fear that polio, which was largely eradicated, could make a comeback because of lagging vaccinations.

There is no stopping Kennedy and Trump from spreading misinformation. But the science does not support their claims.

That is why many professional medical societies, pharmacists, state health officials, and vaccine manufacturers are working to preserve access to vaccines.

Four Western states — California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington — issued their own recommendation regarding COVID, flu, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines. The guidance follows recommendations by leading medical organizations. Pennsylvania has joined New York, New Jersey, and four other states in the Northeast Public Health Collaborative to protect public health.

Adults should follow the science, consult their doctor, and get the appropriate shots for themselves and their loved ones.

The health and wellness of our entire nation depends on it.

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