Dr. James Riddleberger is a family medicine specialist in Portland.

As a family medicine doctor, I take great pride in the care I provide the families who come into my practice. Each time, my goal is the same — to provide evidence-based care and promote long-term health. Guiding families through each new phase of health care can mean anything from discussing developmental milestones, lifetime healthy habits and more.

Health care is always a discussion to ensure the families I see receive credible information, and feel confident in the recommendations and guidance I provide. In recent years, I have heard an increasing number of concerns about vaccines. Some parents who enter my office have questioned whether it is safe for their child.

As a parent of young kids, I know how much information, sometimes conflicting, is out there. But much of this newfound doubt is the result of the actions of Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has repeatedly shared false information about vaccines and other medical interventions.

Kennedy has made a variety of irresponsible decisions to promote his anti-vaccine positions, such as changes to the childhood immunization schedule that were made without scientific input or the thorough processes that Americans have come to expect and trust. The decision was recently put on hold by a federal judge, further adding to confusion for families.

Parents are right to want to choose the best health care for their children, but this rhetoric has spread unnecessary and dangerous uncertainty about a treatment that is supported by decades and scientific data and the medical community.

Vaccines have undergone numerous clinical trials involving tens of thousands of volunteers, which have produced results that have been repeatedly validated in peer-reviewed studies. Since vaccines were introduced in the late 18th century, they have prevented countless hospitalizations and saved millions of lives, more than any medical intervention in history. Routine vaccinations for children born from 1994-2023 alone will have saved over 1.1 million lives.

Simply put, Kennedy’s claims are untrue and dangerous. By confusing families and making parents question an established, research-backed treatment, he has put children at risk of catching dangerous diseases like measles, polio and smallpox. Before vaccines, measles alone killed 400-500 people annually in America. In 2025, preventable measles outbreaks surged, despite the fact that it was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000.

I have spent my career building relationships with Maine families, earning their trust one appointment at a time. I consider it an honor. And it is precisely because of that trust that I feel obligated to be direct: the claims that Secretary Kennedy is making about vaccines are untrue and dangerous. They are putting children at risk of diseases we know how to prevent.

Our elected officials must feel this obligation too. The leaders who represent us here in Maine and in Washington must stand up for children and families. With each day that legislators refuse to protect vaccine access, more children’s lives are at risk. It is up to our elected officials to cut through the noise and defend the medical information that they know to be true.