The modern anti-vaccine movement in the United States has evolved over several decades into a mainstream fusion of what were once fringe factions of the political left and right.
For much of its early history, vaccine skepticism was concentrated on the ideological left, fueled by distrust of pharmaceutical companies, regulators, and “industrialized” medicine, as well as the now-discredited belief that vaccines — particularly childhood vaccines — were linked to autism. That narrative was widely promoted by celebrities, alternative-health advocates, and progressive activists, and it gained traction in affluent, highly educated communities.
The effects of this left-driven skepticism were visible before COVID: four of the five U.S. counties with the lowest childhood vaccination rates were affluent, deeply liberal collar counties surrounding San Francisco.
The COVID vaccine backlash marked a turning point, shifting the movement’s focus from autism to COVID and fusing long-standing left-wing “natural health” skepticism about childhood vaccines with right-wing, anti-mandate populism. This convergence ultimately crystallized into the Make America Healthy (MAHA) movement, transforming vaccine skepticism into a broader, cross-ideological political force.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been a prominent figure in both factions. He began his career as a progressive environmental crusader and became a leading voice of vaccine skepticism within liberal circles. Kennedy served for nearly 30 years as a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the most influential advocacy organizations on the left, and was embraced there even as his vaccine views became increasingly extreme.
Anti-vaccine sentiment has expanded from fringe spaces into mainstream discourse, driven by social media misinformation that recasts vaccines as symbols of systemic corruption rather than public health tools. COVID-19 dramatically accelerated this shift, and in 2025, these narratives created policy.
One early target was mRNA vaccines. They were a critical technology behind the first COVID vaccines and offer enormous promise for vaccine development more broadly. Kennedy and his allies oppose them, portraying the platform as untested and harmful, despite strong scientific consensus that mRNA technology represents a major public health advance.
More recently, vaccine skeptics have cited Denmark as a model for reducing vaccination, but the comparison is misleading. Denmark’s small population, centralized governance, and universal healthcare system bear little resemblance to U.S. conditions, making its policies a poor analogue for American public-health decision-making.
As intransigence has deepened, debating anti-vaccine figures has become largely pointless because vaccine safety questions are resolved through rigorous, peer-reviewed science capable of identifying genuine harms. Otherwise, it’s simply a performative opportunity for those without scientific backing to present themselves as credible, push false narratives, and further erode public trust.
Claims by figures such as RFK Jr. and his acolytes rely on unpublished, methodologically flawed studies and conspiracy narratives that fail to meet the scientific standards required to demonstrate real vaccine risks.
In this context, Genetic Literacy Project is sharpening and expanding its mission as we move into 2026. In the weeks ahead, we will complete our transition to the Science Literacy Project, a name that reflects both a broader scope and a clearer sense of urgency.
This change represents not a shift away from our roots, but a recommitment to confronting misinformation wherever it undermines evidence, policy, and public understanding — particularly as emerging technologies and high-stakes scientific debates become fertile ground for ideological distortion.
As GLP becomes SLP, we will continue in-depth reporting on agricultural innovation, crop protection, and advances in gene editing and gene-based medicine. At the same time, we will expand our focus to other domains where misinformation thrives: vaccines and public health, chemicals and risk assessment, energy technologies including nuclear, fracking, and geothermal, and the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence, which now shapes nearly every scientific field.
We mark this transition with a retrospective collection of major features from the past year that exemplify this expanded mission. Organized into six thematic areas, these articles reflect both the diversity of modern science and the recurring strategies through which ideology, influencer-driven narratives, and monetized activism distort evidence and policymaking.
- Politicization of Health & Science
- Vaccines Under Fire
- Deadly Rise of Wellness Grift
- Disinformation Attacks on Food and Farming
- Chemophobia and Monetized Activism
- AI’s Open Questions
The articles highlighted from 2025 underscore the more focused, more assertive role the Science Literacy Project will play going forward.
In Part 2, we examine the growing threats to public health created by the institutionalization of anti-vaccine ideology—embodied most clearly by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., whose prominence as a vaccine litigation lawyer and long-time critic of immunization programs has helped normalize science denial at the highest levels of government.
Vaccines Under Fire
Comparing the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule to Denmark’s is ideologically driven, scientifically unsupported, and dangerous, ignoring critical differences in population size, healthcare systems, and disease risk.
Share this article
RFK, Jr.’s Denmark vaccine schedule delusion—Why it would be a health disaster in the U.S. by Jess Steier, Elana Pearl BenJoseph, Izzy Brandstetter Figueroa, and David Higgins
Real vaccine safety issues are identified and corrected through rigorous, peer-reviewed science — not through debates or conspiracy-driven claims promoted by anti-vaccine activists.
Viewpoint: RFK, Jr.’s cronies offered global vaccine expert Dr. Paul Offit $1 million to debate the safety of vaccines. He said no. Why? They’re disingenuous and nuts by Paul Offit
The mRNA vaccine is a transformative medical innovation with vast potential to treat cancer and genetic diseases, but its future is jeopardized by misinformation-driven funding cuts that threaten scientific progress and public safety.
mRNA is ground zero in RFK, Jr. and MAHA’s war on expertise by Aimee Pugh Bernard and Jess Steier
RFK Jr.’s Tylenol–vaccine autism claim was rooted in his past connections to tort litigations against the maker of the medicine, not in reproducible, peer-reviewed scientific evidence, a playbook pulled from attempts to link vaccines to autism.
GLP Video: First, it was vaccines and autism. Now Tylenol? by Jon Entine, Cameron English, and Liza Lockwood
Looking back better prepares us to address future challenges posed by the current surge in disinformation. These four pieces from 2025 that challenge vaccine misinformation illustrate our refined focus going forward.
Follow our six-part Year in Review series on Instagram
Jon Entine is the founding executive director of the Genetic Literacy Project and winner of 19 major journalism awards. He has written extensively in the popular and academic press on agricultural and population genetics. You can follow him on X @JonEntine
Jess Steier is a public health scientist dedicated to bridging the gap between complex scientific evidence and public understanding. Jess is the Founder of Unbiased Science, CEO of Vital Statistics Consulting, and Executive Director of The Science Literacy Lab (a 501c3 non-profit organization).
Elana Pearl BenJoseph is a physician with a focus on pediatrics, health communication, and public health. Find Elana on LinkedIn
Izzy Brandstetter Figueroa is an epidemiologist, educator, and statistics consultant for Unbiased Science. Find Izzy on LinkedIn
David Higgins is a physician, researcher, writer, and speaker. Standing at the intersection of pediatrics, preventive medicine, and public health. Follow David on Substack @drhigginsmd
Aimee Pugh Bernard, PhD is an immunologist, educator, science communicator, and science advocate. Follow Aimee on TikTok @funsizeimmuninja
Dr. Liza Lockwood is a medical toxicologist and the medical affairs lead at Bayer Crop Science. Follow her on X @DrLizaMD
Cameron J. English is the director of bio-sciences at the American Council on Science and Health. Follow him on X @camjenglish
