Here's Why We Shouldn't Trust the Medical Establishment

Here’s what happened. While questioning Kennedy, he leaned on Trump’s own praise of the vaccines, calling them “one of the greatest miracles in the history of modern-day medicine that saved tens of millions of lives worldwide,” and cited a Lancet study claiming nearly 20 million lives were saved in the first year. 

When Kennedy refused to endorse that framing, Sanders pivoted immediately to institutional authority: “We’ve got the entire medical community on one side,” he said, naming groups like the AMA, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Public Health Association. “All of these organizations are telling us that COVID vaccines and vaccines in general are safe and effective. You are casting doubt on that. Who are your scientific organizations that agree with you?”

Kennedy wants us to treat whatever these three organizations say as gospel truth. That isn’t happening. These groups may have had credibility in the past, but today they are anything but neutral arbiters of science and health—and I can prove it. Their agendas are driven by ideology and politics, not evidence, and trusting them blindly is a risk the American public cannot afford.

The American Medical Association has gone all in on the radical push for gender transitions — even for kids. In a sweeping policy statement, the AMA declared so-called “gender-affirming” medical and surgical treatments to be “medically necessary,” and promised to fight any law that restricts them. That includes opposing state efforts to stop minors from being subjected to these procedures and defending parents who push their children into them. On top of that, the group wants doctors shielded from liability and insurers forced to pay for it all, whether taxpayers like it or not.

The American Academy of Pediatrics also believes kids should have access to so-called “gender-affirming” treatments, no questions asked. In a recent policy reaffirmation, the AAP doubled down on its claim that these procedures are “essential” for the health of transgender and gender-diverse youth and vowed to fight any state laws that try to stop them. Like the AMA, the AAP is insisting that minors, parents, and doctors all get a green light to push these procedures, all while brushing off growing political and public opposition.

And finally, the American Public Health Association also went all in on wokeness. Their policy calls for laws and funding to ensure “inclusive” access to services, research into gender identity, and protections against discrimination or hate crimes. Essentially, the APHA is demanding that every institution bend to its vision of gender ideology, all in the name of reducing what it calls “health inequities.”

But here’s the hard truth Sanders refuses to confront: these institutions have shown time and again that they put ideology and politics ahead of science. The AMA, AAP, and APHA not only push radical agendas, but they also actively reject the reality that gender dysphoria is a mental health condition, choosing instead to treat it with irreversible surgeries, dangerous drugs, and other so-called “affirming” procedures. If they are willing to normalize and medicalize mental disorders in the name of ideology, why on earth should anyone take their claims about COVID vaccines at face value? 

Trusting these organizations blindly isn’t just naïve; it’s dangerous. Americans deserve a medical establishment that answers to science and reason, not to political correctness and profit-driven agendas. Until these groups prove they can separate ideology from medicine, we should approach their declarations about the COVID vaccines with skepticism, rather than unquestioning fealty. And yet, Sanders wants the country to treat their word as gospel, showing once again that Washington’s political class is more concerned with defending its allies than defending the public.