Democrats are grappling with their lowest approval ratings in 35 years. Voters prefer Republicans on nearly every policy issue, according to new polling by the Wall Street Journal.
In fact, voters trust Democrats more than Republicans on only two issues: health care and vaccine policy.
It’s not hard to see why voters are dissatisfied on vaccines, even as the Trump administration racks up win after win on everything from the border to the economy. The Department of Health and Human Services has made a series of decisions that appear to undermine President Trump’s goal of making America healthy again. As the polling shows, these aren’t merely bad policy — they’re becoming a political liability for all Republicans.
Take, for example, the administration’s recent efforts to change longstanding, evidence-based vaccination guidelines. HHS fired every member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the expert panel responsible for making national vaccine recommendations, and replaced them largely with ideological allies.
The administration has also advanced policies that threaten vaccine development. HHS has proposed a requirement that all new vaccines be tested against saline injections, even though testing new vaccines against existing ones is much safer for trial participants.
I’m a Republican former congressman and doctor. A placebo-controlled vaccine trial mandate is dangerous
More recently, HHS has stated its intent to overhaul the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. This decades-old federal fund was established on a bipartisan basis to provide payments to patients in the rare instances when vaccines cause harm. Although not opposed to reforms, we urge extreme caution to avoid further erosion of policies that support access to vaccines, monitor their safety, and encourage the development of new immunizations.
HHS has promoted scientifically unsubstantiated theories that vaccines are unsafe while, at the same time, silencing science-based, pro-vaccination messaging from the CDC and other government agencies. Additionally, federal funding for infectious disease research and public health infrastructure has been cut.
Taken together, these policies and rhetoric are a recipe for public health failure — a fact that is already painfully apparent to many Americans.
Since the start of 2025, the U.S. has seen more than 1,400 confirmed cases of measles, the highest case count since 1992. We have already experienced almost twice as many measles outbreaks as in all of 2024. More than 90% of cases have occurred in unvaccinated people or those with unknown vaccination status.
If these trends continue, it could undo America’s hard-won achievement of officially “eliminating” measles 25 years ago. And considering that rates of childhood vaccination against other infectious diseases have been declining as well, the resurgence of measles is the canary in the coal mine warning of the dangers to come.
The most tragic part is that while distrust of vaccines has increased among some, the vast majority of Americans still understand the truth: Vaccines are our most effective and important safeguard against infectious disease.
A bipartisan poll conducted earlier this year found that nearly three-quarters of voters hold favorable views toward vaccines. A similar number say it should be a top priority to ensure that FDA-approved vaccines remain widely available. Eight in 10 voters believe America should continue to lead in developing new vaccines. Even as vaccination rates among kindergartners continue to decline, 92% of them across the nation have received the recommended vaccines. That’s not enough to stop the spread of measles, but it gives us a foundation on which to reverse trends.
Firing of CDC’s vaccine advisers puts spotlight on RFK Jr.’s promises to Cassidy
If the White House and congressional Republicans abandon smart vaccine policy, health-conscious voters will sour on the GOP, resulting in electoral losses in the upcoming midterms.
There’s no reason to continue down this path. Not only does it pose danger to the American public but, at a time when Republicans are winning policy arguments and generating results on so many fronts, it’s politically self-defeating to attack our country’s most successful, time-tested disease prevention efforts.
Embracing positive, evidence-based vaccination policies would be a remarkably easy way for Republicans to prove to voters that we’re serious about protecting their health — all while capitalizing on Democrats’ dysfunction.
America elected today’s Republican leaders to govern with clarity and common sense. Our stance on vaccinations should live up to that standard.
Larry Bucshon, M.D., practiced as a cardiothoracic surgeon for nearly two decades before representing Indiana’s 8th Congressional District from 2011 to 2025. Michael C. Burgess, M.D., represented Texas’s 26th Congressional District from 2003-2025 and previously practiced as a doctor of obstetrics and gynecology for more than 20 years.
