The Louisiana Department of Health “will no longer promote mass vaccination,” a memo by the state’s top heath official said on Thursday.
A department spokesperson confirmed that Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham had ordered his staff to stop engaging in media campaigns and community health fairs to encourage vaccinations, even as the state has experienced a surge in influenza.
Abraham’s announcement occurred the same day vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in by the US Senate to serve as US President Donald Trump’s health secretary.
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In a separate letter posted on the department’s Web site, Louisiana’s surgeon general decried “blanket government mandates” for vaccines and criticized the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 vaccination push.
Individuals should make their own decisions about vaccinations, Abraham said.
“Government should admit the limitations of its role in people’s lives and pull back its tentacles from the practice of medicine,” said Abraham, a Republican.
The department will still “stock and provide vaccines,” the memo said.
Jennifer Herricks, founder of the advocacy group Louisiana Families for Vaccines, said she feared that the new directive would lead to an increase in preventable illnesses and deaths.
“We are very concerned for people in Louisiana who have historically depended on vaccination drives to get easily accessible vaccines that are no longer going to be available,” Herricks said.
In liberal New Orleans, the city council passed a resolution on Thursday vowing to continue supporting vaccination efforts.
New Orleans Department of Health Director Jennifer Avegno said state-supported efforts have led thousands of people to receive vaccines in the past.
However, she anticipates vaccination rates for preventable diseases to drop due to the state’s new policy and misinformation promoted by the surgeon general’s letter.
She added that vaccines are most effective when they are widespread.
“Public health is really united on this issue: For more than a century, vaccines of all kinds have been a cornerstone of improving public health in America,” Avegno told the city council on Thursday. “There’s not scientific debate on this, this is as close as you can get to established fact that vaccinations, particularly mass vaccinations, and community immunity, saves millions and millions of lives.”
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