By Leah Douglas
WASHINGTON, Feb 3 (Reuters) – U.S. activists allied with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hope to ban vaccine mandates in as many as a dozen states this year, building on a law they conceived and passed in Idaho, according to interviews with three people working on the effort.
Vaccine skepticism has gained traction under President Donald Trump, who has embraced the Kennedy-aligned “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.
Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist, last year remade the government’s vaccine advisory committee, replacing independent experts with many appointees who are also aligned with the MAHA agenda and share his anti-vaccine views.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its revamped advisory panel have weakened the government’s childhood vaccine recommendations, which traditionally underpinned state mandates for which inoculations students must have to attend schools.
The Medical Freedom Act Coalition, which combines 14 MAHA-aligned organizations, launched in January and aims to advance that agenda by taking on state vaccine mandates they say are government overreach, leaders of three coalition groups told Reuters.
Medical experts say vaccine mandates for employment or school attendance are a critical public health tool.
Idaho’s passage last year of a first-in-the-nation vaccine mandate ban motivated Leslie Manookian, founder of the group Health Freedom Defense Fund and author of the Idaho legislation, to create the coalition, she said.
“We breached the dam in Idaho in 2025. And now I think the mission is to burst the dam open,” she said.
Kennedy’s success in promoting MAHA priorities has empowered the groups, she said. Manookian said she and Kennedy, who founded the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense, have worked on similar issues for 15 years.
“What Secretary Kennedy is doing with the support of President Trump is jaw-dropping, and very, very important in shifting public sentiment,” she said.
Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon said the department was “encouraged to see states like Idaho shift away from mandates and return decision-making power to families.”
VACCINE MANDATES ERODING
The impact of state vaccine mandates has eroded in recent years with wider adoption of religious or personal exemptions, allowed by 46 states and Washington, D.C., according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Further curbing mandates could impede public health efforts to achieve herd immunity for diseases that vaccines had all but eliminated, like measles, said Philip Huang, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services.
“Vaccinations are one of the greatest public health achievements that we’ve had,” said Huang.
Public health experts say 95% coverage is needed for herd immunity that protects those unable to receive vaccines.
The national vaccination rate for measles fell to 91% in 2024 from nearly 94% in 2019, according to a 2025 study in JAMA. An ongoing measles outbreak in South Carolina has sickened more than 800 people.
South Carolina legislators last year considered a bill to ban vaccine mandates but it did not become law. No similar bill has been introduced so far this year.
STATE LAWS BEING TARGETED
Indiana, Oklahoma, Arizona, New York, New Hampshire, and Hawaii have introduced legislation this year that would restrict vaccine mandates. Indiana’s legislature did not take up its bill in time for it to advance this year. State lawmakers are still considering the others.
Florida’s surgeon general last year said the state would end school vaccine mandates, though a bill being considered by the state legislature would expand allowable exemptions but keep attendance requirements in place.
Leah Wilson, executive director of Stand for Health Freedom, which co-founded the coalition and works with partners in 45 states, said there is appetite for similar bills in as many as a dozen of them. Reuters was not able to verify all dozen states and whether introduced legislation will advance.
State laws are key because of their role in setting vaccine regulations, said Wilson. “You can have concepts, but policy has to catch up, and that happens at the state level,” she said.
Since passage of Idaho’s Medical Freedom Act, the health department encourages schools to consider the law when implementing school vaccine requirements, said Idaho Department of Health and Welfare spokesperson AJ McWhorter.
COALITION OF KENNEDY ALLIES
Many of the 14 coalition groups have close ties to Kennedy, including Children’s Health Defense, which Kennedy ran from 2016 until 2023, and the MAHA Institute, whose president, Mark Gorton, co-founded the political action committee that funded Kennedy’s presidential run.
Another, MAHA Action, is led by Tony Lyons, who runs Skyhorse Publishing, which has published books by Kennedy. Kennedy has attended several events and spoken at webinars hosted by the group.
Also included are Moms Across America, whose founder Zen Honeycutt is a MAHA leader, and the Independent Medical Alliance, which has promoted unproven medical treatments and whose website lists two of Kennedy’s picks for the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel as senior fellows.
Stand for Health Freedom representatives have attended HHS events, including Kennedy’s confirmation, Wilson said, adding that she has briefed the administration several times.
(Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington; Editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot)
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