Newly Elected Scientists Face Vaccine Divide Challenge

Physicians and researchers across the United States have successfully campaigned for election, but the next hurdle involves converting the skeptics who rejected them.

Public health leaders utilized strategies promoting vaccines and scientific reasoning to secure victories in areas often considered conservative. 314 Action, a group dedicated to electing Democratic scientists, helped flip ten congressional districts during the recent election.

Shaughnessy Naughton, founder of 314 Action, noted that experts who emphasized their scientific credentials saw an increase in credibility among voters, with people perceiving them as honest and trustworthy, which is what the public wants.

However, the midterm outcomes reveal a persistent split among the electorate regarding core scientific matters, with specific regions continuing to doubt public health measures.

Mixed Election Results Reflect Vaccine Divide

South Carolina chose pediatrician Annie Andrews as its first Democratic senator since 2005, yet simultaneously elected 18 officials who vowed to ban Covid vaccines from the market, according to Americans for Health Freedom.

Nationally, more than 120 legislators were elected despite opposing Covid shots, per the advocacy group. Anti-vaccine sentiment in statehouses has the potential to reshape vaccine policy. Last year, several states passed into law bills that vaccine advocates say would curb vaccine distribution and uptake.

On a statewide scale, the results were mixed. While Ohio voters chose Democrat Amy Acton, the former head of the state’s Covid response, as governor, Florida will be led by Byron Donalds, who stated eliminating all state vaccine mandates would be “a step in the right direction.” Donalds’ opponent, David Jolly, promised to “bring back science, data, math, vaccines, and public health.”

Brian Castrucci, the head of the de Beaumont Foundation, which advocates for public health, said that newly sworn-in experts must now address the question: Why should I trust you?

“We can answer that question, but it’s not going to be by telling people they’re wrong,” Castrucci said.

Restoring faith in science

Jeanne Marrazzo, CEO of the Infectious Disease Society of America, emphasized the importance of having leaders who can effectively communicate the damage caused by certain policies and their consequences.

Abdul El-Sayed, a Democrat who will represent Michigan in the Senate, has written about the necessity of better communicating with science skeptics. “Yelling ‘trust the science!’ at someone who’s afraid of vaccinating does little to allay their underlying fear. Rather, it gives them more reason not to trust — you, the vaccine, ‘the science,’” he wrote in a 2024 column for the Detroit Metro Times.

Building Trust with Science Skeptics

In an interview Wednesday, El-Sayed argued that “the root cause of the distrust in public health has less to do with distrust in science and a lot more to do with distrust with greed.”

El-Sayed said he hopes to build trust through his efforts to reinvigorate a movement for public health that is willing to stand up to the power of big corporations, and to show the grifters for who they are.

El-Sayed has made no secret of his desire to investigate Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., saying prior to the election that he is eager to “grill” the secretary.

Democrat Richard Pan, a physician elected to represent Sacramento County, Calif., in the House of Representatives, said that rebuilding trust will be challenging, but the first step is to “expose the corruption and bad decision-making” of the current administration.

“This administration and RFK Jr. and the people who he has appointed … have all undermined the idea that you can actually trust the federal government,” he said.

After the election, several Democratic lawmakers, including Patty Murray, vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, renewed calls for Kennedy to step down or be fired. A number of Democratic lawmakers have been calling for Kennedy’s ouster for more than a year, citing a lack of confidence in his ability to “carry out the duties of his office.”

Democrats Target Kennedy for Oversight

Democrats hope gaining the power to subpoena Trump administration officials will allow them to make headway on the investigations they launched when they were in the minority.

“We’ve not even really been able to get information out of RFK and the department,” Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.), co-chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, said. The Democratic majority means “we’re going to be able to do really vigorous oversight, help people understand how we are fighting for them, and then giving them accurate information,” she added.

Sen. Raphael Warnock tweeted that unless Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is interested in spending the next two years in front of Congressional committees, he should go ahead and resign now, while Andrews referred to Kennedy as her professional archnemesis.

El-Sayed acknowledged Wednesday that perhaps too much focus is on Kennedy himself, rather than his decisions. “Any investigation that we’re doing is about trying to correct the problems and address the flaws and the faults, rather than trying to achieve any sort of retribution,” El-Sayed said.

Vaccine Exemptions Rise Despite Pro-Science Wins

Still, the number of parents opting their children out of vaccines continues to grow across the country. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that vaccine exemptions grew in 41 states and the District of Columbia between the 2024 and 2025 school years.

Although Andrews was able to convince more than 1 million South Carolinians to support her pro-science message, it was a relatively small group of vaccine skeptics in Spartanburg County, in the northwestern corner of the state, that prompted the state’s 2025 measles outbreak, which at the time was the largest in the United States since measles was formally eliminated in 2000. (Pennsylvania’s current outbreak has since surpassed South Carolina’s record, with more than 1,500 cases.)

Vaccine skepticism persists despite election outcomes

Even small groups of vaccine skeptics can pose significant public health risks. Despite efforts by pro-science candidates like Annie Andrews, the region’s low vaccination rates leave it vulnerable to future outbreaks.