Before beginning his political career, Robert Kennedy Jr, the current US secretary of health and human services, was a lawyer known for his stances on vaccination. He associated vaccines with a range of ailments, including autism – an accusation that has circulated for nearly 40 years and which he has amplified on a national scale. The appointment of such an unorthodox figure to head the health department is all the more striking given that the US is the birthplace of modern vaccination; indeed, the core features of this method of prevention – with its emphasis on standardization, unrivaled simplicity of injection and cost-effectiveness – mirror the fundamental values that have shaped American life and underpinned its power.

The vaccination system as we know it, with numerous injections scheduled on a national calendar, would not exist without American Big Science. The unique alliance between the military, industries and universities gave rise to a series of innovations starting during World War II; 10 vaccines for military use were developed during the conflict.

Biologist Jonas Salk (1914-1995) subsequently developed a vaccine against polio as well as the concept of "vaccinology." On the industrial side, Maurice Hilleman (1919-2005), a specialist in the field, developed most of the childhood vaccines marketed by the multinational pharmaceutical company Merck. This scientific and technological dominance extended beyond laboratory disciplines: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta − also a product of the war − have trained physicians from around the world in the statistical study of infectious diseases since the 1970s.

Protest movements

Massive investment in research has not escaped critics and skeptics; after all, the history of public health in the US has been punctuated by setbacks. The first was the "Cutter Incident" in 1955, which occurred soon after the widely publicized announcement of Salk's successful polio vaccine. Among California children who received doses from the Cutter company – whose virus inactivation protocols tragically failed – there were several hundred cases of poliomyelitis and deaths. From then on, protest movements followed in succession.

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