Last winter, when my mother caught the flu, it quickly spread throughout our house. Because of the medications that she takes for her autoimmune disorder, she has a severely weakened immune system.
I’ve seen what this means when Covid or the flu occurs: Watching your sick family member lie in bed, sleep, or wait for a lingering cough to go away can cause high levels of anxiety. Because my mother had received her flu shot, she was able to recover quickly. Without it, I can’t even picture her sitting in the emergency room, waiting to receive treatment. The first time that she had Covid, she likely would’ve been on a ventilator in a hospital bed if she hadn’t had three shots put into her body beforehand. For families like mine, vaccines have an important role in preventing life-threatening conditions.
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This is why I am deeply concerned by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recent statements regarding vaccine recommendations. We can discuss policies, but we cannot push facts aside. There is no proven connection between vaccines and autism, according to multiple extensive investigations conducted all over the world. For example, Denmark did a study in 2019 on 657,461 children and found no evidence of an increased rate of autism following an MMR vaccination. This is a solid scientific consensus that is supported by numerous independent studies and confirmed by public health organizations worldwide; it is not a hunch.
People have the right to choose not to take vaccinations. But with freedom comes responsibility. You do not have the right to get other people sick, especially seniors, newborn babies, and those with compromised immune systems whose bodies cannot fight germs off as easily as yours can. Public health needs to be supported by everyone. Whether it’s touching the surface of a shopping cart at the grocery store, or sneezing at the doctor’s office, your decision could determine whether or not my mother stays healthy.
You are not being forced to get a vaccine. However, not providing vaccines to people who need them by allowing insurance companies to refuse to cover the shot is both wrong and dangerous. Eliminating this coverage will cause families to have to make the decision between paying for milk, their rent, or a shot. States including Connecticut have taken the necessary steps by making sure that insurance companies continue to be responsible for keeping life saving vaccinations available to the public.
Connecticut’s Gov. Ned Lamont needs to keep this fight going. Vaccines need to be on the shelf and in the schedule at clinics, pharmacies, and doctor’s offices. Give top priority to those like my mother, who could become bedridden off of one bad exposure, and make sure that their access to life-saving vaccinations is not blocked by factors like expenses, clinic hours, or baseless recommendations from the federal government.
Furthermore, the United States Senate, including Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, Democrats of Connecticut, should demand that President Donald Trump and Secretary Kennedy be open about their findings. If they have discovered reliable evidence that contradicts the research done on possible connections between vaccines and autism, they need to release their methods, data, and peer reviews because this is how scientific studies are done. Putting a statement out there without any facts behind it does not make it true. If they have new information, they should share it with the country that they are supposed to be serving.
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I am not writing as a partisan, but as someone who has seen a loved one get knocked out by a common virus. I have also seen a shot make a serious illness manageable. Nothing in medicine is perfect, which includes vaccines. But when it comes to keeping people safe, they are one of the most effective tools that we have.
So let’s stand for transparency and choice. Ensure vaccination coverage. Keep access for everyone. Be truthful about any research performed. And let’s make sure that my mother and everyone else who is at a serious risk of severe illness has access to the tools that will keep them alive every day because our leaders acted on facts.
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Liam McCusker is a freshman at Central Connecticut State University majoring in broadcast sequence journalism.