When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was appointed secretary of Health and Human Services, some hoped that the responsibility of public office would temper his long-standing hostility toward vaccines. Instead, he is doing exactly what many of us feared: dismantling the systems that protect Americans from preventable infectious diseases.

The abrupt removal of all of the members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has sparked outrage and worry among many public health experts. That includes the American Medical Association,