Anti-science bills hit statehouses, stripping away public health protections built over a century

AP News ^ | Updated 9:36 AM CDT, October 21, 2025 | MICHELLE R. SMITH and LAURA UNGAR

[E. Pluribus Unum]

More than 420 anti-science bills attacking longstanding public health protections – vaccines, milk safety and fluoride – have been introduced in statehouses across the U.S. this year, part of an organized, politically savvy campaign to enshrine a conspiracy theory-driven agenda into law.

An Associated Press investigation found that the wave of legislation has cropped up in most states, pushed by people with close ties to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The effort would strip away protections that have been built over a century and are integral to American lives and society. Around 30 bills have been enacted or adopted in 12 states.

Also from AP’s investigation into the wave of anti-science bills in statehouses across the US:

• Powerful anti-vaccine advocates and people selling potentially harmful goods are profiting from the push to write anti-science policies into law. They portray the MAHA movement as grassroots, but it’s fueled by a web of well-funded national groups led by people who’ve profited from sowing distrust of medicine and science.
• How AP tracked and analyzed the legislation, with a focus on bills related to vaccines, fluoride and raw, unpasteurized milk

Trump administration officials are directing activists to push anti-science legislation in the states – where public health authority rests – with the ultimate goal of changing laws and minds nationally.

The effort normalizes ideas fueled by the anti-vaccine movement that Kennedy has helped lead for years. His Make America Healthy Again agenda masks anti-science ideas while promoting goals such as...

[metmom]

“I thought having the vaccines would protect our children,” Erik Dahlberg said. “Unfortunately, it did not because other kids, other adults, need to be vaccinated as well in order for it to work.”

How totally clueless. If the vaccine didn’t work for your son, then it wouldn’t have worked for other people as well even if they had been vaccinated.

If the vaccine worked, then your son wouldn’t have gotten sick even if nobody else was vaccinated.

[metmom]

Well, vaccines are known to have problems.

Fluoride is a problem, too.

I don’t know any dairy farm kids who don’t drink raw milk, well water, help with the animals, and play in the barnyard and they’re the healthiest ones on the planet.

[MileHi]

Spot on

[metmom]

The kid had other serious health issues that likely led to his death.

For the dr to blame unvaccinated people is completely irresponsible of him. He CANNOT know that for sure. Sounds just like an excuse to the parents for the failure of the vaccine to do what it was sold as to do.

It’s blame shifting to protect his own butt from litigation.

[Openurmind]

You just made me realize that I forgot one...

6. You work for Bill Gates!!!

And no I am not giving you my own sources so you can get them scrubbed off the net too. You were fishing... And I’m not biting...

[Organic Panic]

I need to consult the Department of Phrenology before I make any decisions.

[DugwayDuke]

Openurmind wrote: “And no I am not giving you my own sources so you can get them scrubbed off the net too. You were fishing... And I’m not biting...”

Your sources are like unicorns, they don’t exist.

[AppyPappy]

More than likely infected by someone in the country illegally

[Ford4000]

There are also cases where the vaccine causes the disease it is intended to prevent. Vaccine efficacy wanes over time as well.

Beyond that, the disease and the alleged son’s medical background are conspicuously absent from this “story.”

[DugwayDuke]

Ford4000 wrote: “There are also cases where the vaccine causes the disease it is intended to prevent. Vaccine efficacy wanes over time as well.”

True, but rare and then only with a small number of vaccines, such as those for measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR), contain a live but significantly weakened version of the virus.

Natural immunity wanes over time as well.