Chase Bearden

The disability community is closely watching the presidential nominations and Senate confirmation process across a wide range of agencies.

What happens in Washington can have a significant impact on all Texans’ health and on the policies our own state legislature may adopt, especially healthcare and vaccine access and healthcare delivered through Medicaid and CHIP.

In particular, the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Health and Human Services Department will have significant consequences for Texans with disabilities, including their children and families. We are deeply concerned by his appointment, given his position on vaccines.

It cannot be understated how important vaccines are to the disability community, not only access to them, but also what they have meant for public health in Texas and throughout the world.

Our coalition members trust the long-tested science behind vaccines and strongly believe that herd immunity from vaccines helps to protect all Texans. Many Texans with disabilities have comorbidities that put them at greater risk for life-threatening diseases, making access to life-saving, health-protecting vaccines even more important.

According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, using proven and tested vaccines can prevent more than 20 diseases, including diphtheria, measles, yellow fever and polio. In fact, Texas’ history in the fight against polio is notable. In the 1930s, the area around the waters of Warm Springs in Gonzales, Texas, was developed to rival President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s famous polio retreat in Warm Springs, Georgia. By the early 1940s, the Warm Springs Rehabilitation System in Gonzales became a leader in the fight against pediatric polio.

Decreased rates of vaccination and increased incidence of illnesses such as measles and whooping cough can also lead to brain damage in babies, therefore causing life-long developmental and intellectual disabilities.

With the passage of time and a more chaotic news and social media environment, the public and even some leaders in Texas and D.C. can become complacent, forgetting how important vaccines are to all of us, and the struggles and fears that our parents and grandparents had with respect to these illnesses before vaccines were available, and that because of vaccines, we have been lucky to be without.

Those of us who live with a disability are worried. One of our biggest fears is that, if people stop getting vaccines, those of us with compromised immune systems and other health issues will find ourselves having to isolate more and take more risks with our own health and wellbeing, just to live our lives. We don’t want to be isolated. We want to be productive, active members in our communities, workplaces, churches and schools.

Beyond vaccines, Mr. Kennedy’s nomination deserves careful scrutiny by Texas’ U.S. senators and their colleagues. Within his department are a number of regulatory agencies and programs whose decisions affect our daily lives, and he will be making additional Senate-confirmed appointments to them. These include the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

CMS is a critical agency for many Texans with disabilities who rely on Medicare and Medicaid for healthcare coverage. And without proper oversight from agencies such as the NIH and FDA, there would be lower standards for medication and vaccine safety, which would put all Texans at risk.

As the Senate considers the president’s nominees, let the wisdom of the American Public Health Association guide their consideration of these appointments: “Public health saves money, improves our quality of life, helps children thrive, and reduces human suffering.” Leaders that lift up those principles, not threaten them, are the leaders we need.