RFK Jr.'s partial vaccine legacy

Health Secretary Robert F.

Kennedy Jr.'s vaccine agenda is one of the biggest political liabilities hanging over Republicans, but his suspicion of the medical system is likely to endure with the GOP base.

Why it matters: Kennedy will one day leave public life, whether it's after the midterms or later, and it is an open question who — if anyone — will pick up where he left off merging vaccine skepticism with official health policy.

Mistrust of the medical establishment and willingness to question foundations of public health like the childhood vaccine schedule are already baked into segments of the Republican faithful.

Even without Kennedy — the nation's most prominent vaccine critic before entering the Trump administration — the GOP isn't likely to rewind the clock.

"The medical leaders ... who are kind of hoping that Bobby Kennedy and this conversation goes away, think we're going to go back to normal where we just salute the ghouls at these institutions that are just telling us to shut the hell up and trust the science — that's never coming back," Health and Human Services adviser Calley Means recently said in a video he posted on social media.

The big picture: The "Make America Healthy Again" coalition has always been home to a big tent of health concerns.

Polling has repeatedly indicated that its positions on healthier food and increased regulation of pesticides are much more popular than its vaccine skepticism.

"We've seen partisanship creep into vaccine attitudes in a way that we haven't seen it before, but we still have majorities across partisan [lines] generally supportive of vaccines," said KFF senior vice president Liz Hamel.

"I don't think the data supports the Republican Party as an anti-vax party, or Republicans as an overwhelmingly anti-vax group," she added.

Between the lines: Suspicion of public health institutions and pharmaceutical companies is widespread within the GOP.

So, too, is the belief that federal agencies overseeing the drug industry have become captive to it.

Kennedy's rise to power wasn't the precipitating event for a lot of this — COVID and the government's response was.

"This predates RFK.