The American Academy of Pediatrics is at war with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over COVID-19 shots for infants, and as usual, the media is willfully missing the real story. The CDC under Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has backed off its old one-size-fits-all approach and now recommends that families and doctors make individualized decisions about vaccinating babies. The AAP, meanwhile, has dug in and insists that every child, starting at six months, should roll up their sleeves.
Reporters portray this as responsible doctors versus a “conspiratorial” Kennedy. But that framing is lazy. The truth is more uncomfortable: The AAP is undermining public trust in medicine far more than Kennedy ever could.
Look at the facts. In most advanced nations, pediatric authorities are not recommending COVID-19 shots for infants. The risk calculus just isn’t there, and vaccine uptake for this age group has been minimal worldwide. Yet the AAP has taken the most aggressive position on the planet. Shouldn’t journalists point that out? Shouldn’t they ask why? Instead, the coverage huffs about Kennedy’s “dangerous rhetoric” while ignoring that the AAP is an international outlier.
And why has the AAP become such an outlier? It’s not because of science. The organization has allowed politics to determine its guidance for years. Remember the school closure debate? The AAP originally urged reopening schools because the harm of keeping children home was so obvious. Then, President Donald Trump called for reopening, and like clockwork, the AAP reversed itself. Its need to oppose Trump outweighed its own stated concern for children. That kind of naked partisanship, disguised as “expert consensus,” is why parents no longer trust institutions like the AAP.
So when Kennedy points a finger and suggests the AAP’s motives are corrupt, he’s not right about the money, but he’s not wrong about the corruption. The AAP does, in fact, receive funding from pharmaceutical companies. That’s a real conflict of interest, and it should end. But the deeper rot isn’t financial — it’s political. The AAP has made itself predictable: If Republicans say X, the AAP will say Y, no matter what the data actually support. That’s not medicine. That’s politics with a stethoscope.
Meanwhile, Kennedy’s approach at the CDC has been messy but revealing. He has pulled the plug on continued federal investment in mRNA vaccine research, arguing that the technology was rushed and oversold. Critics, myself included, say he is “throwing the baby out with the bathwater.” But he is openly questioning a technology the public lost trust in years ago, instead of pretending it’s infallible. There are likely many uses for the technology, and unfortunately, Kennedy’s blanket and ill-advised decision to halt all research and development will have consequences for public health. His bluntness makes headlines but also pulls the curtain back on a public health establishment that would prefer to avoid any accountability.
The irony is that the media thinks Kennedy is a threat to public health. But in the long run, the AAP poses a bigger danger. Kennedy’s rhetoric may sound conspiratorial, but parents already know to take him with a grain of salt. The AAP, by contrast, still trades on the authority of “the experts.” When it abuses that authority for political ends, it poisons the well for everyone. Every time the AAP bends its guidance to spite Trump, or now to spite Kennedy, it teaches parents that their medical advice can’t be trusted at all. And once that trust is gone, it doesn’t come back.
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The press should be telling parents the truth: The AAP’s recommendations are out of step with the rest of the world, its history shows a pattern of political posturing, and its current guidance is about preserving its own relevance, not protecting children. Instead, reporters act like stenographers, repeating AAP press releases while dismissing Kennedy as a crank. That’s journalistic malpractice. The job of journalism isn’t to protect institutions from scrutiny. It’s to give parents the full picture so they can make informed decisions for their children.
Kennedy’s skepticism may be messy. But the AAP’s arrogance is corrosive. And in the long run, it is not Kennedy who will destroy public trust in medicine. It’s the pediatric establishment itself — an institution that has done more to radicalize parents against public health than any skeptic ever could.
Bethany Mandel (@bethanyshondark) is a homeschooling mother of six and a writer. She is the bestselling coauthor of Stolen Youth: How Radicals Are Erasing Innocence and Indoctrinating a Generation.