🕷️ Crawler Inspector

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Raw Queries and Responses

1. Shard Calculation

Query:

Response:

Calculated Shard: 25 (from laksa138)

2. Crawled Status Check

Query:

curl -X POST \
  'http://laksa025.int.ahrefs:8124/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -H 'X-ClickHouse-Database: crawler3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic YXBpOg==' \
  -d 'SELECT getAhrefsURLFromUnparsed(src_unparsed) AS found_url, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(download_stamp), 0) AS crawl_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(props_url_first_seen), 0) AS first_indexed_time, download_http_code AS http_code, src_unparsed AS src_unparsed, src_root_hash AS src_root_hash, history_drop_reason AS history_drop_reason, meta_title AS meta_title, meta_descriptions AS meta_descriptions, attrs_boilerpipe_text AS attrs_boilerpipe_text, attrs_markdown AS attrs_markdown, attrs_readable_markdown AS attrs_readable_markdown, meta_canonical AS meta_canonical FROM crawler3.page_info_local FINAL PREWHERE (src_root_hash, src_unparsed) IN ((getAhrefsRootHashFromUnparsed(getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-09-09/lopez-column-covid-vaccines-rfk\')), getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-09-09/lopez-column-covid-vaccines-rfk\'))) FORMAT JSONEachRow'

Response:

{"found_url":"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2025-09-09\/lopez-column-covid-vaccines-rfk","crawl_time":1776028190,"first_indexed_time":1757435756,"http_code":200,"src_unparsed":"com,latimes!www,\/california\/story\/2025-09-09\/lopez-column-covid-vaccines-rfk s443","src_root_hash":"7344800029135033825","history_drop_reason":null,"meta_title":"When I got COVID, readers said it proved vaccines don't work. What has RFK Jr. wrought? - Los Angeles Times","meta_descriptions":["It’s hard to snuff out misinformation when the nation’s health services administration specializes in it."],"attrs_boilerpipe_text":"I can’t say I was surprised, but it didn’t take long for readers to jump at the bait last week when I wrote that for the first time,\nI had tested positive for COVID-19\ndespite having been regularly vaccinated throughout the pandemic.\n“Vaccines are poison,” wrote one reader, who said I’d fallen for a hoax. “Wake up!”\nActually, as I said last week, I wasn’t sure I was awake. I thought I might be having a COVID-induced nightmare as I watched anti-vax Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fire experts, dismantle his department, destroy morale, derail millions of dollars in vaccine research and then\nbark and bicker with senators about it.\nIt turned out my eyes were wide open the whole time.\nDespite testing positive, another reader scolded, I “continue to vilify vaccine skeptics generally, and … Kennedy specifically. Truly fascinating.”\nEven more fascinating is that with nothing but half-baked theories and no medical credentials, Kennedy was handed the most important job in American medicine.\n“Just ask yourself WHY Barack Obama and Michelle Obama and Joe Biden and Jill Biden, along with Anthony Fauci ALL GOT the Vaccines and the boosters and they ALL got COVID-19!” asked another reader.\nNo. I’m not going to ask myself WHY.\n“Lopez got a booster before his travels and then got COVID. What does that tell us?” asked yet another reader. “It warns us of the ineffectiveness of the vaccine and Lopez’s misleading propaganda.”\nLook, I get it. It’s hard to snuff out misinformation when the nation’s health services administration specializes in it. Kennedy’s Ministry of Hacks and Quacks has claimed there is\n“no clinical data”\nsupporting COVID vaccines and said anyone can get them, despite an outcry that the new restrictions are making them unavailable, more expensive or difficult to get.\nLook, it’s one thing to willingly give up the U.S. role as world leader in science, environmental protection and biomedical research, but let’s put on our thinking caps for a moment before surrendering what’s left of common sense.\nLike RFK Jr., I’m no doctor. But my understanding is that when the COVID vaccines were first developed — and President Trump took bows, by the way — they were not sold as cures. They were a way to help control the spread of the virus, reduce severity and save lives.\nDoes anyone remember that in the early days of COVID, before the vaccines were available, people were horribly sick, and that we were on our way to more than 1 million deaths in the U.S. and\n7 million worldwide\n?\nSome people built temporary immunity by surviving COVID. Others were protected by vaccines. The tide turned, and today, even with this latest COVID strain, hospitalizations and deaths are relatively rare.\nWhen I got vaccinated a month ago, here was my thinking:\nIt had been 10 months since my last vaccination and I was about to travel cross-country, increasing my exposure. I knew we were a month out from a new vaccine that would be a better weapon against the latest variant, but I opted for the existing vaccine, knowing that some protection is better than none.\nAs I write, I’ve just tested negative after 12 days. My symptoms were relatively mild overall, and Dr.\nPeter Chin-Hong\n, an infectious disease expert at UC San Francisco, told me I might well have been much sicker if I hadn’t been vaccinated a month ago and previously.\nReaders had a different takeaway, I told him. They said my infection was proof the vaccines don’t work.\n“That’s a very unfortunate interpretation,” he said, given the actual science of how and why the vaccines work. “The people I’m seeing in the hospital now are people who didn’t get vaccinated.”\nChin-Hong said confusion about the vaccine and concerns about side effects are “understandable” because of “all the talk coming out of Washington, D.C., and the assault on vaccines in general.”\nBut he said he tells people “we’ve had vaccines for many decades, they’re one of the greatest advances in modern medicine, and it’s the reason we don’t see many of these childhood diseases any more.”\nNow that most COVID cases are relatively mild (thanks in large part to the work of vaccines), and serious\nside effects from vaccines are rare\n, fewer people are getting vaccinated as regularly as they once did. If you’re wondering whether and how often your children should be vaccinated, I say you should follow the advice of your doctor rather than the mutterings of Kennedy and his minions.\nBut as\nRong-Gong Lin II reported for The Times\n, Kennedy’s new federal restrictions are making it difficult for people at higher risk to get access to the vaccine, even as cases surge.\nDr. Elizabeth E. Hudson\n, regional physician chief of infectious diseases for Kaiser Permanente Southern California, said people 65 and older, and those who are immunocompromised should get vaccinated. And so should healthy people of all ages if they’re in contact with high-risk populations.\nHudson told me mRNA technology is safe and effective, it goes back decades, and in the case of COVID vaccines, it allows scientists to quickly adapt to new strains.\n“As someone who was on the front lines in 2021, I would never go back to that time, ever. It was horrible,” said Hudson. “It’s easy to forget, and nobody wants to dwell on it, but in L.A. County, we almost ran out of oxygen because so many people were needing [it] and being intubated. … It’s a vivid memory that will stick with me for the rest of my life.\n“The vaccine changed the entire calculus and trajectory of COVID from an in-patient disease where many people died to an out-patient disease where the majority of people will feel miserable for a week or so, but they get better.”\nMakes sense to me, but I’m not sure what to do about readers who disagree.\n“I wanted to thank you for helping me out. Sometimes I forget just how brain dead the liberal left is but there is always an article or story to remind me,” said one. “Keep writing, I need the laughs.”\nWill do.\nAnd I’m feeling better now.\nCould it be the vaccine?\nsteve.lopez@latimes.com\nMore to Read","attrs_markdown":"- [News](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/)\n  \n  - [Home Page](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/)\n  - [California](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california)\n  - [Election 2024](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/topic\/election-2024)\n  - [Housing & Homelessness](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/homeless-housing)\n  - [Politics](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/politics)\n  - [Science & Medicine](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/science)\n  - [World & Nation](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/world-nation)\n- [Business](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business)\n  \n  - [Artificial Intelligence](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/topic\/artificial-intelligence)\n  - [Autos](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/autos)\n  - [Jobs, Labor & Workplace](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/topic\/jobs-labor)\n  - [Real Estate](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/real-estate)\n  - [Technology and the Internet](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/technology)\n- [California](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california)\n  \n  - [California Politics](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/topic\/california-law-politics)\n  - [Earthquakes](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/topic\/earthquakes)\n  - [Education](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/topic\/education)\n  - [Housing & Homelessness](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/homeless-housing)\n  - [L.A. 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What has RFK Jr. wrought?\n\n![A nurse prepares a COVID-19 vaccination.](https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/54930b6\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/3000x2000+0+1\/resize\/2000x1333!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fe0%2Fa9%2F2c97917943549f33c42c61d57277%2F1473411-me-kaiser-covid-vaccines15-cs.jpg)\n\nA nurse prepares a COVID-19 vaccination.\n\n(Carlin Stiehl \/ Los Angeles Times)\n\n[![EL SEGUNDO, CA-DECEMBER 14, 2023:Steve Lopez, columnist, Los Angeles Times (Mel Melcon \/ Los Angeles Times)](https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/c91390b\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/4081x4081+1496+227\/resize\/130x130!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F63%2F49%2F53215af344189c5a3529a0a8dcfd%2F1375124-steve-lopez1-mam.jpg)](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/people\/steve-lopez)\n\nBy [Steve Lopez](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/people\/steve-lopez)\n\nColumnist\n\n[Follow](https:\/\/x.com\/latstevelopez)\n\nSept. 9, 2025 9:34 AM PT\n\n- 6 min\n  Click here to listen to this article\n- Share via\n  \n  Close extra sharing options\n  \n  - [Email](mailto:?body=Commentary%3A%20When%20I%20got%20COVID%2C%20readers%20said%20it%20proved%20vaccines%20don%27t%20work.%20What%20has%20RFK%20Jr.%20wrought%3F%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fcalifornia%2Fstory%2F2025-09-09%2Flopez-column-covid-vaccines-rfk%0A%0AIt%E2%80%99s%20hard%20to%20snuff%20out%20misinformation%20when%20the%20nation%E2%80%99s%20health%20services%20administration%20specializes%20in%20it.)\n  - [Facebook](https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fcalifornia%2Fstory%2F2025-09-09%2Flopez-column-covid-vaccines-rfk)\n  - [X](https:\/\/x.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fcalifornia%2Fstory%2F2025-09-09%2Flopez-column-covid-vaccines-rfk&text=Commentary%3A%20When%20I%20got%20COVID%2C%20readers%20said%20it%20proved%20vaccines%20don%27t%20work.%20What%20has%20RFK%20Jr.%20wrought%3F)\n  - [LinkedIn](https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fcalifornia%2Fstory%2F2025-09-09%2Flopez-column-covid-vaccines-rfk&title=Commentary%3A%20When%20I%20got%20COVID%2C%20readers%20said%20it%20proved%20vaccines%20don%27t%20work.%20What%20has%20RFK%20Jr.%20wrought%3F&summary=It%E2%80%99s%20hard%20to%20snuff%20out%20misinformation%20when%20the%20nation%E2%80%99s%20health%20services%20administration%20specializes%20in%20it.&source=Los%20Angeles%20Times)\n  - [Threads](https:\/\/threads.net\/intent\/post?text=Commentary%3A%20When%20I%20got%20COVID%2C%20readers%20said%20it%20proved%20vaccines%20don%27t%20work.%20What%20has%20RFK%20Jr.%20wrought%3F%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fcalifornia%2Fstory%2F2025-09-09%2Flopez-column-covid-vaccines-rfk)\n  - [Reddit](https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fcalifornia%2Fstory%2F2025-09-09%2Flopez-column-covid-vaccines-rfk&title=Commentary%3A%20When%20I%20got%20COVID%2C%20readers%20said%20it%20proved%20vaccines%20don%27t%20work.%20What%20has%20RFK%20Jr.%20wrought%3F)\n  - [WhatsApp](https:\/\/api.whatsapp.com\/send?text=Commentary%3A%20When%20I%20got%20COVID%2C%20readers%20said%20it%20proved%20vaccines%20don%27t%20work.%20What%20has%20RFK%20Jr.%20wrought%3F%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fcalifornia%2Fstory%2F2025-09-09%2Flopez-column-covid-vaccines-rfk)\n  - Copy Link URL Copied\\!\n  - Print\n\n0:00\n\n0:00\n\n1x\n\nThis is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies [here](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/about\/audio-stories).\n\n- Readers said my infection was proof the vaccines don’t work.\n- An infectious disease expert told me I might have been much sicker if I hadn’t been vaccinated a month ago and previously.\n\nI can’t say I was surprised, but it didn’t take long for readers to jump at the bait last week when I wrote that for the first time, [I had tested positive for COVID-19](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2025-09-02\/lopez-column-rfk-jr-trump-vaccine-policies) despite having been regularly vaccinated throughout the pandemic.\n\n“Vaccines are poison,” wrote one reader, who said I’d fallen for a hoax. “Wake up!”\n\nActually, as I said last week, I wasn’t sure I was awake. I thought I might be having a COVID-induced nightmare as I watched anti-vax Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fire experts, dismantle his department, destroy morale, derail millions of dollars in vaccine research and then [bark and bicker with senators about it.](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/politics\/story\/2025-09-04\/defiant-rfk-jr-hearing-senate-democrats-republicans)\n\nIt turned out my eyes were wide open the whole time.\n\nDespite testing positive, another reader scolded, I “continue to vilify vaccine skeptics generally, and … Kennedy specifically. Truly fascinating.”\n\nAdvertisement\n\nEven more fascinating is that with nothing but half-baked theories and no medical credentials, Kennedy was handed the most important job in American medicine.\n\n[![WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 26: U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks as President Donald Trump holds a cabinet meeting with members of his administration in the Cabinet Room of the White House on August 26, 2025 in Washington, DC. This is the seventh cabinet meeting of Trump's second term. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images)](https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/ec9fd29\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5856x3904+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fde%2Fae%2F7ecf12524b56bfe59ef1322f8c25%2F2232224373.jpg)](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2025-09-02\/lopez-column-rfk-jr-trump-vaccine-policies)\n\nVoices\n\n### [Lopez: I got COVID for the first time and can’t smell. But RFK Jr.’s vaccine policies still stink](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2025-09-02\/lopez-column-rfk-jr-trump-vaccine-policies)\n\nAs COVID surges yet again, the best tool against the virus — vaccine — is under assault by the Trump administration.\n\nSept. 2, 2025\n\n“Just ask yourself WHY Barack Obama and Michelle Obama and Joe Biden and Jill Biden, along with Anthony Fauci ALL GOT the Vaccines and the boosters and they ALL got COVID-19!” asked another reader.\n\nNo. I’m not going to ask myself WHY.\n\n“Lopez got a booster before his travels and then got COVID. What does that tell us?” asked yet another reader. “It warns us of the ineffectiveness of the vaccine and Lopez’s misleading propaganda.”\n\nLook, I get it. It’s hard to snuff out misinformation when the nation’s health services administration specializes in it. Kennedy’s Ministry of Hacks and Quacks has claimed there is [“no clinical data”](https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Politics\/fact-checking-rfk-jrs-testimony-thursdays-hearing\/story?id=125263735) supporting COVID vaccines and said anyone can get them, despite an outcry that the new restrictions are making them unavailable, more expensive or difficult to get.\n\nLook, it’s one thing to willingly give up the U.S. role as world leader in science, environmental protection and biomedical research, but let’s put on our thinking caps for a moment before surrendering what’s left of common sense.\n\nLike RFK Jr., I’m no doctor. But my understanding is that when the COVID vaccines were first developed — and President Trump took bows, by the way — they were not sold as cures. They were a way to help control the spread of the virus, reduce severity and save lives.\n\nAdvertisement\n\nDoes anyone remember that in the early days of COVID, before the vaccines were available, people were horribly sick, and that we were on our way to more than 1 million deaths in the U.S. and [7 million worldwide](https:\/\/www.kff.org\/covid-19\/global-covid-19-tracker\/)?\n\nSome people built temporary immunity by surviving COVID. Others were protected by vaccines. The tide turned, and today, even with this latest COVID strain, hospitalizations and deaths are relatively rare.\n\nWhen I got vaccinated a month ago, here was my thinking:\n\nIt had been 10 months since my last vaccination and I was about to travel cross-country, increasing my exposure. I knew we were a month out from a new vaccine that would be a better weapon against the latest variant, but I opted for the existing vaccine, knowing that some protection is better than none.\n\nAs I write, I’ve just tested negative after 12 days. My symptoms were relatively mild overall, and Dr. [Peter Chin-Hong](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2025-08-26\/covid-rising-fast-in-california-fueled-by-new-stratus-variant-tied-to-omicron), an infectious disease expert at UC San Francisco, told me I might well have been much sicker if I hadn’t been vaccinated a month ago and previously.\n\nReaders had a different takeaway, I told him. They said my infection was proof the vaccines don’t work.\n\n“That’s a very unfortunate interpretation,” he said, given the actual science of how and why the vaccines work. “The people I’m seeing in the hospital now are people who didn’t get vaccinated.”\n\nAdvertisement\n\nChin-Hong said confusion about the vaccine and concerns about side effects are “understandable” because of “all the talk coming out of Washington, D.C., and the assault on vaccines in general.”\n\n[![LONG BEACH, CA - SEPTEMBER 4, 2025 - - Dr. Dung Trinh, MD, chief medical officer of the Healthy Brain Clinic, at his medical office in Long Beach on September 4, 2025. Dr. Trinh is also a member of the Alzheimer's LA Board of Directors, and will join other experts in upcoming community presentations to explain advances in detection, prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's. (Genaro Molina\/Los Angeles Times)](https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/5da1566\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/6720x4480+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F2b%2F32%2F312641a54a57922f236fa3839981%2F1520808-me-0904-lopez-alzheimers-research-gem-0011520808-me-0904-lopez-alzheimers-research-gem-005.jpg)](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2025-09-06\/lopez-column-advances-in-dementia-research-a-very-exciting-time)\n\nVoices\n\n### [Lopez: With recent advances, it’s ‘a very exciting time’ for dementia researchers](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2025-09-06\/lopez-column-advances-in-dementia-research-a-very-exciting-time)\n\nStudy suggests exercise, diet and engagement can improve cognition for those at risk of dementia. A team of experts will explain recent advances at three upcoming L.A.-area conferences.\n\nSept. 6, 2025\n\nBut he said he tells people “we’ve had vaccines for many decades, they’re one of the greatest advances in modern medicine, and it’s the reason we don’t see many of these childhood diseases any more.”\n\nNow that most COVID cases are relatively mild (thanks in large part to the work of vaccines), and serious [side effects from vaccines are rare](https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC10507236\/#sec8), fewer people are getting vaccinated as regularly as they once did. If you’re wondering whether and how often your children should be vaccinated, I say you should follow the advice of your doctor rather than the mutterings of Kennedy and his minions.\n\nBut as [Rong-Gong Lin II reported for The Times](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2025-09-05\/covid-vaccines-are-harder-to-get-under-trump-and-people-are-angry-about-it), Kennedy’s new federal restrictions are making it difficult for people at higher risk to get access to the vaccine, even as cases surge.\n\n[Dr. Elizabeth E. Hudson](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2025-08-26\/covid-rising-fast-in-california-fueled-by-new-stratus-variant-tied-to-omicron), regional physician chief of infectious diseases for Kaiser Permanente Southern California, said people 65 and older, and those who are immunocompromised should get vaccinated. And so should healthy people of all ages if they’re in contact with high-risk populations.\n\nHudson told me mRNA technology is safe and effective, it goes back decades, and in the case of COVID vaccines, it allows scientists to quickly adapt to new strains.\n\nAdvertisement\n\n“As someone who was on the front lines in 2021, I would never go back to that time, ever. It was horrible,” said Hudson. “It’s easy to forget, and nobody wants to dwell on it, but in L.A. County, we almost ran out of oxygen because so many people were needing \\[it\\] and being intubated. … It’s a vivid memory that will stick with me for the rest of my life.\n\n“The vaccine changed the entire calculus and trajectory of COVID from an in-patient disease where many people died to an out-patient disease where the majority of people will feel miserable for a week or so, but they get better.”\n\nMakes sense to me, but I’m not sure what to do about readers who disagree.\n\n“I wanted to thank you for helping me out. Sometimes I forget just how brain dead the liberal left is but there is always an article or story to remind me,” said one. “Keep writing, I need the laughs.”\n\nWill do.\n\nAnd I’m feeling better now.\n\nCould it be the vaccine?\n\n[*steve.lopez@latimes.com*](mailto:steve.lopez@latimes.com)\n\n### More to Read\n- [![WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 11: U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stands silently as Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins speaks during an event to \"Celebrate the Implementation of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans\" at the Health and Human Services Headquarters on February 11, 2026 in Washington, DC. HHS Secretary RFK Jr. celebrated the updated guidelines and the Make America Healthy Again movement with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, former boxing heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, U.S. Chief Design Officer Joe Gebbia, American Medical Association President Bobby Mukkamala, Chef Andrew Gruel, Defense Department Undersecretary Mike Obadal, and Bureau of Prisons Director William Marshall. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images)](https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/7d9cb98\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5983x4001+9+0\/resize\/320x214!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ffa%2F3e%2Fab7f1aba426abb290ba70dd4d459%2F2261095559.jpg)](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/opinion\/story\/2026-02-22\/rfk-jr-kid-rock-measles)\n  \n  Voices\n  \n  ### [Contributor: RFK Jr.’s focus on viral nonsense is putting children’s lives at risk](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/opinion\/story\/2026-02-22\/rfk-jr-kid-rock-measles)\n  \n  Feb. 22, 2026\n- [![RFK Jr.](https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/afe7898\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/2536x1696+127+0\/resize\/320x214!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F9b%2F5e%2F25a2834f410b9af768378a22d691%2Frfk-press.jpg)](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/story\/2026-02-18\/rfk-jr-s-attacks-on-vaccines-could-undermine-american-science-for-generations)\n  \n  Voices\n  \n  ### [Hiltzik: RFK Jr.’s attacks on vaccines will stifle American science for generations](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/story\/2026-02-18\/rfk-jr-s-attacks-on-vaccines-could-undermine-american-science-for-generations)\n  \n  Feb. 18, 2026\n- [![Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., right, President Donald Trump's nominee to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services, talks with Committee Chairman Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., following his testimony during a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing for his pending confirmation on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)](https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/3cf938b\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5981x4000+9+0\/resize\/320x214!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F0d%2F80%2Fb30c4f4949ae99e4bee412527211%2Ftrump-cabinet-kennedy-97048.jpg)](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/story\/2025-11-25\/in-new-low-cdc-publicizes-lie-about-vaccines-and-autism)\n  \n  Voices\n  \n  ### [Hiltzik: Reaching a new low, CDC discards science in claims about vaccines and autism](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/story\/2025-11-25\/in-new-low-cdc-publicizes-lie-about-vaccines-and-autism)\n  \n  Nov. 25, 2025\n\n[California](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california)[Science & Medicine](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/science)[Health & Wellness](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/topic\/wellness)[COVID-19 Pandemic](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/topic\/covid-19-pandemic)[Trump Administration](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/topic\/trump-administration)\n\n[![](https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/c91390b\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/4081x4081+1496+227\/resize\/130x130!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F63%2F49%2F53215af344189c5a3529a0a8dcfd%2F1375124-steve-lopez1-mam.jpg)](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/people\/steve-lopez)\n\n[Steve Lopez](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/people\/steve-lopez)\n\nFollow Us\n\n- [X](https:\/\/x.com\/latstevelopez)\n- [Email](mailto:steve.lopez@latimes.com)\n\nSteve Lopez is a California native who has been a Los Angeles Times columnist since 2001. He has won more than a dozen national journalism awards and is a four-time Pulitzer finalist. Lopez is the author most recently of “Independence Day: What I Learned About Retirement, From Some Who’ve Done It and Some Who Never Will.” His book “The Soloist,” inspired by his columns on his relationship with a Juilliard-trained homeless person, was a Los Angeles Times and New York Times best-seller, winner of the PEN USA Literary Award for Non-Fiction, and the subject of a Dream Works movie by the same name. He has also written three novels and two column collections.\n\n### More From the Los Angeles Times\n- [![FILE - This image released by the U.S. Navy shows an aerial view of Diego Garcia in the Chagos Island group. 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(Information Technician Second Class Ruskin Naval\/U.S. Navy via AP, file)](https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/5d1d69a\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/3591x2394+204+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F3e%2F94%2F28f54ef04cc7872fc4a038b1de94%2F2f807ee2744d43d9935b3ef94448c722)](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/politics\/story\/2026-04-12\/trumps-strait-of-hormuz-blockade-risks-clash-with-china)\n  \n  [Politics](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/politics)\n  \n  ### [News Analysis: Trump’s Strait of Hormuz blockade risks clash with China](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/politics\/story\/2026-04-12\/trumps-strait-of-hormuz-blockade-risks-clash-with-china)\n- [![Vice President JD Vance arrives for news conference after meeting with representatives from Pakistan and Iran, Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Islamabad, Pakistan. 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Now Where Do We Go?](https:\/\/swap.fm\/l\/PTyO1nh7aP6evsGeKmH4)\n  It’s been 16 months since the Palisades and Fires destroyed two historic communities in L.A. and the path forward, for many, is as unclear as ever.\n- [![Crimes of the Times logo](https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/9eee71d\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/4486x3000+7+0\/resize\/320x214!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ffc%2F4c%2F974f11404aaeafeff655c366b606%2Fla24-crimesofthetimes-9000x6000px.jpg)](https:\/\/swap.fm\/l\/CDcKV3zBOwFip0hxsI2K)\n  \n  ### [The Dahlia Zodiac Connection: Part One](https:\/\/swap.fm\/l\/CDcKV3zBOwFip0hxsI2K)\n  The identity of the Zodiac Killer has remained a mystery for decades, but new developments may finally point to an answer.\n- [![The words L.A. 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Times Careers](https:\/\/careers.latimes.com\/)\n  - [Manage Subscription](https:\/\/membership.latimes.com\/)\n  - [Reprints and Permissions](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/about\/how-to-obtain-rights-permissions)\n\nCopyright © 2026, Los Angeles Times \\| [Terms of Service](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/terms-of-service) \\| [Privacy Policy](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/privacy-policy) \\| [CA Notice of Collection](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/privacy-policy#california-notice-of-collection) \\| [Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information](https:\/\/membership.latimes.com\/privacy-settings)","attrs_readable_markdown":"I can’t say I was surprised, but it didn’t take long for readers to jump at the bait last week when I wrote that for the first time, [I had tested positive for COVID-19](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2025-09-02\/lopez-column-rfk-jr-trump-vaccine-policies) despite having been regularly vaccinated throughout the pandemic.\n\n“Vaccines are poison,” wrote one reader, who said I’d fallen for a hoax. “Wake up!”\n\nActually, as I said last week, I wasn’t sure I was awake. I thought I might be having a COVID-induced nightmare as I watched anti-vax Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fire experts, dismantle his department, destroy morale, derail millions of dollars in vaccine research and then [bark and bicker with senators about it.](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/politics\/story\/2025-09-04\/defiant-rfk-jr-hearing-senate-democrats-republicans)\n\nIt turned out my eyes were wide open the whole time.\n\nDespite testing positive, another reader scolded, I “continue to vilify vaccine skeptics generally, and … Kennedy specifically. Truly fascinating.”\n\nEven more fascinating is that with nothing but half-baked theories and no medical credentials, Kennedy was handed the most important job in American medicine.\n\n“Just ask yourself WHY Barack Obama and Michelle Obama and Joe Biden and Jill Biden, along with Anthony Fauci ALL GOT the Vaccines and the boosters and they ALL got COVID-19!” asked another reader.\n\nNo. I’m not going to ask myself WHY.\n\n“Lopez got a booster before his travels and then got COVID. What does that tell us?” asked yet another reader. “It warns us of the ineffectiveness of the vaccine and Lopez’s misleading propaganda.”\n\nLook, I get it. It’s hard to snuff out misinformation when the nation’s health services administration specializes in it. Kennedy’s Ministry of Hacks and Quacks has claimed there is [“no clinical data”](https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Politics\/fact-checking-rfk-jrs-testimony-thursdays-hearing\/story?id=125263735) supporting COVID vaccines and said anyone can get them, despite an outcry that the new restrictions are making them unavailable, more expensive or difficult to get.\n\nLook, it’s one thing to willingly give up the U.S. role as world leader in science, environmental protection and biomedical research, but let’s put on our thinking caps for a moment before surrendering what’s left of common sense.\n\nLike RFK Jr., I’m no doctor. But my understanding is that when the COVID vaccines were first developed — and President Trump took bows, by the way — they were not sold as cures. They were a way to help control the spread of the virus, reduce severity and save lives.\n\nDoes anyone remember that in the early days of COVID, before the vaccines were available, people were horribly sick, and that we were on our way to more than 1 million deaths in the U.S. and [7 million worldwide](https:\/\/www.kff.org\/covid-19\/global-covid-19-tracker\/)?\n\nSome people built temporary immunity by surviving COVID. Others were protected by vaccines. The tide turned, and today, even with this latest COVID strain, hospitalizations and deaths are relatively rare.\n\nWhen I got vaccinated a month ago, here was my thinking:\n\nIt had been 10 months since my last vaccination and I was about to travel cross-country, increasing my exposure. I knew we were a month out from a new vaccine that would be a better weapon against the latest variant, but I opted for the existing vaccine, knowing that some protection is better than none.\n\nAs I write, I’ve just tested negative after 12 days. My symptoms were relatively mild overall, and Dr. [Peter Chin-Hong](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2025-08-26\/covid-rising-fast-in-california-fueled-by-new-stratus-variant-tied-to-omicron), an infectious disease expert at UC San Francisco, told me I might well have been much sicker if I hadn’t been vaccinated a month ago and previously.\n\nReaders had a different takeaway, I told him. They said my infection was proof the vaccines don’t work.\n\n“That’s a very unfortunate interpretation,” he said, given the actual science of how and why the vaccines work. “The people I’m seeing in the hospital now are people who didn’t get vaccinated.”\n\nChin-Hong said confusion about the vaccine and concerns about side effects are “understandable” because of “all the talk coming out of Washington, D.C., and the assault on vaccines in general.”\n\nBut he said he tells people “we’ve had vaccines for many decades, they’re one of the greatest advances in modern medicine, and it’s the reason we don’t see many of these childhood diseases any more.”\n\nNow that most COVID cases are relatively mild (thanks in large part to the work of vaccines), and serious [side effects from vaccines are rare](https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC10507236\/#sec8), fewer people are getting vaccinated as regularly as they once did. If you’re wondering whether and how often your children should be vaccinated, I say you should follow the advice of your doctor rather than the mutterings of Kennedy and his minions.\n\nBut as [Rong-Gong Lin II reported for The Times](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2025-09-05\/covid-vaccines-are-harder-to-get-under-trump-and-people-are-angry-about-it), Kennedy’s new federal restrictions are making it difficult for people at higher risk to get access to the vaccine, even as cases surge.\n\n[Dr. Elizabeth E. Hudson](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2025-08-26\/covid-rising-fast-in-california-fueled-by-new-stratus-variant-tied-to-omicron), regional physician chief of infectious diseases for Kaiser Permanente Southern California, said people 65 and older, and those who are immunocompromised should get vaccinated. And so should healthy people of all ages if they’re in contact with high-risk populations.\n\nHudson told me mRNA technology is safe and effective, it goes back decades, and in the case of COVID vaccines, it allows scientists to quickly adapt to new strains.\n\n“As someone who was on the front lines in 2021, I would never go back to that time, ever. It was horrible,” said Hudson. “It’s easy to forget, and nobody wants to dwell on it, but in L.A. County, we almost ran out of oxygen because so many people were needing \\[it\\] and being intubated. … It’s a vivid memory that will stick with me for the rest of my life.\n\n“The vaccine changed the entire calculus and trajectory of COVID from an in-patient disease where many people died to an out-patient disease where the majority of people will feel miserable for a week or so, but they get better.”\n\nMakes sense to me, but I’m not sure what to do about readers who disagree.\n\n“I wanted to thank you for helping me out. Sometimes I forget just how brain dead the liberal left is but there is always an article or story to remind me,” said one. “Keep writing, I need the laughs.”\n\nWill do.\n\nAnd I’m feeling better now.\n\nCould it be the vaccine?\n\n[*steve.lopez@latimes.com*](mailto:steve.lopez@latimes.com)\n\nMore to Read","meta_canonical":null}

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URL	https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-09-09/lopez-column-covid-vaccines-rfk
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Meta Title	When I got COVID, readers said it proved vaccines don't work. What has RFK Jr. wrought? - Los Angeles Times
Meta Description	It’s hard to snuff out misinformation when the nation’s health services administration specializes in it.
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Boilerpipe Text	I can’t say I was surprised, but it didn’t take long for readers to jump at the bait last week when I wrote that for the first time, I had tested positive for COVID-19 despite having been regularly vaccinated throughout the pandemic. “Vaccines are poison,” wrote one reader, who said I’d fallen for a hoax. “Wake up!” Actually, as I said last week, I wasn’t sure I was awake. I thought I might be having a COVID-induced nightmare as I watched anti-vax Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fire experts, dismantle his department, destroy morale, derail millions of dollars in vaccine research and then bark and bicker with senators about it. It turned out my eyes were wide open the whole time. Despite testing positive, another reader scolded, I “continue to vilify vaccine skeptics generally, and … Kennedy specifically. Truly fascinating.” Even more fascinating is that with nothing but half-baked theories and no medical credentials, Kennedy was handed the most important job in American medicine. “Just ask yourself WHY Barack Obama and Michelle Obama and Joe Biden and Jill Biden, along with Anthony Fauci ALL GOT the Vaccines and the boosters and they ALL got COVID-19!” asked another reader. No. I’m not going to ask myself WHY. “Lopez got a booster before his travels and then got COVID. What does that tell us?” asked yet another reader. “It warns us of the ineffectiveness of the vaccine and Lopez’s misleading propaganda.” Look, I get it. It’s hard to snuff out misinformation when the nation’s health services administration specializes in it. Kennedy’s Ministry of Hacks and Quacks has claimed there is “no clinical data” supporting COVID vaccines and said anyone can get them, despite an outcry that the new restrictions are making them unavailable, more expensive or difficult to get. Look, it’s one thing to willingly give up the U.S. role as world leader in science, environmental protection and biomedical research, but let’s put on our thinking caps for a moment before surrendering what’s left of common sense. Like RFK Jr., I’m no doctor. But my understanding is that when the COVID vaccines were first developed — and President Trump took bows, by the way — they were not sold as cures. They were a way to help control the spread of the virus, reduce severity and save lives. Does anyone remember that in the early days of COVID, before the vaccines were available, people were horribly sick, and that we were on our way to more than 1 million deaths in the U.S. and 7 million worldwide ? Some people built temporary immunity by surviving COVID. Others were protected by vaccines. The tide turned, and today, even with this latest COVID strain, hospitalizations and deaths are relatively rare. When I got vaccinated a month ago, here was my thinking: It had been 10 months since my last vaccination and I was about to travel cross-country, increasing my exposure. I knew we were a month out from a new vaccine that would be a better weapon against the latest variant, but I opted for the existing vaccine, knowing that some protection is better than none. As I write, I’ve just tested negative after 12 days. My symptoms were relatively mild overall, and Dr. Peter Chin-Hong , an infectious disease expert at UC San Francisco, told me I might well have been much sicker if I hadn’t been vaccinated a month ago and previously. Readers had a different takeaway, I told him. They said my infection was proof the vaccines don’t work. “That’s a very unfortunate interpretation,” he said, given the actual science of how and why the vaccines work. “The people I’m seeing in the hospital now are people who didn’t get vaccinated.” Chin-Hong said confusion about the vaccine and concerns about side effects are “understandable” because of “all the talk coming out of Washington, D.C., and the assault on vaccines in general.” But he said he tells people “we’ve had vaccines for many decades, they’re one of the greatest advances in modern medicine, and it’s the reason we don’t see many of these childhood diseases any more.” Now that most COVID cases are relatively mild (thanks in large part to the work of vaccines), and serious side effects from vaccines are rare , fewer people are getting vaccinated as regularly as they once did. If you’re wondering whether and how often your children should be vaccinated, I say you should follow the advice of your doctor rather than the mutterings of Kennedy and his minions. But as Rong-Gong Lin II reported for The Times , Kennedy’s new federal restrictions are making it difficult for people at higher risk to get access to the vaccine, even as cases surge. Dr. Elizabeth E. Hudson , regional physician chief of infectious diseases for Kaiser Permanente Southern California, said people 65 and older, and those who are immunocompromised should get vaccinated. And so should healthy people of all ages if they’re in contact with high-risk populations. Hudson told me mRNA technology is safe and effective, it goes back decades, and in the case of COVID vaccines, it allows scientists to quickly adapt to new strains. “As someone who was on the front lines in 2021, I would never go back to that time, ever. It was horrible,” said Hudson. “It’s easy to forget, and nobody wants to dwell on it, but in L.A. County, we almost ran out of oxygen because so many people were needing [it] and being intubated. … It’s a vivid memory that will stick with me for the rest of my life. “The vaccine changed the entire calculus and trajectory of COVID from an in-patient disease where many people died to an out-patient disease where the majority of people will feel miserable for a week or so, but they get better.” Makes sense to me, but I’m not sure what to do about readers who disagree. “I wanted to thank you for helping me out. Sometimes I forget just how brain dead the liberal left is but there is always an article or story to remind me,” said one. “Keep writing, I need the laughs.” Will do. And I’m feeling better now. Could it be the vaccine? steve.lopez@latimes.com More to Read
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What has RFK Jr. wrought? ![A nurse prepares a COVID-19 vaccination.](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/54930b6/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x2000+0+1/resize/2000x1333!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fe0%2Fa9%2F2c97917943549f33c42c61d57277%2F1473411-me-kaiser-covid-vaccines15-cs.jpg) A nurse prepares a COVID-19 vaccination. (Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times) [![EL SEGUNDO, CA-DECEMBER 14, 2023:Steve Lopez, columnist, Los Angeles Times (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/c91390b/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4081x4081+1496+227/resize/130x130!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F63%2F49%2F53215af344189c5a3529a0a8dcfd%2F1375124-steve-lopez1-mam.jpg)](https://www.latimes.com/people/steve-lopez) By [Steve Lopez](https://www.latimes.com/people/steve-lopez) Columnist [Follow](https://x.com/latstevelopez) Sept. 9, 2025 9:34 AM PT - 6 min Click here to listen to this article - Share via Close extra sharing options - [Email](mailto:?body=Commentary%3A%20When%20I%20got%20COVID%2C%20readers%20said%20it%20proved%20vaccines%20don%27t%20work.%20What%20has%20RFK%20Jr.%20wrought%3F%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fcalifornia%2Fstory%2F2025-09-09%2Flopez-column-covid-vaccines-rfk%0A%0AIt%E2%80%99s%20hard%20to%20snuff%20out%20misinformation%20when%20the%20nation%E2%80%99s%20health%20services%20administration%20specializes%20in%20it.) - [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fcalifornia%2Fstory%2F2025-09-09%2Flopez-column-covid-vaccines-rfk) - [X](https://x.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fcalifornia%2Fstory%2F2025-09-09%2Flopez-column-covid-vaccines-rfk&text=Commentary%3A%20When%20I%20got%20COVID%2C%20readers%20said%20it%20proved%20vaccines%20don%27t%20work.%20What%20has%20RFK%20Jr.%20wrought%3F) - [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fcalifornia%2Fstory%2F2025-09-09%2Flopez-column-covid-vaccines-rfk&title=Commentary%3A%20When%20I%20got%20COVID%2C%20readers%20said%20it%20proved%20vaccines%20don%27t%20work.%20What%20has%20RFK%20Jr.%20wrought%3F&summary=It%E2%80%99s%20hard%20to%20snuff%20out%20misinformation%20when%20the%20nation%E2%80%99s%20health%20services%20administration%20specializes%20in%20it.&source=Los%20Angeles%20Times) - [Threads](https://threads.net/intent/post?text=Commentary%3A%20When%20I%20got%20COVID%2C%20readers%20said%20it%20proved%20vaccines%20don%27t%20work.%20What%20has%20RFK%20Jr.%20wrought%3F%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fcalifornia%2Fstory%2F2025-09-09%2Flopez-column-covid-vaccines-rfk) - [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fcalifornia%2Fstory%2F2025-09-09%2Flopez-column-covid-vaccines-rfk&title=Commentary%3A%20When%20I%20got%20COVID%2C%20readers%20said%20it%20proved%20vaccines%20don%27t%20work.%20What%20has%20RFK%20Jr.%20wrought%3F) - [WhatsApp](https://api.whatsapp.com/send?text=Commentary%3A%20When%20I%20got%20COVID%2C%20readers%20said%20it%20proved%20vaccines%20don%27t%20work.%20What%20has%20RFK%20Jr.%20wrought%3F%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fcalifornia%2Fstory%2F2025-09-09%2Flopez-column-covid-vaccines-rfk) - Copy Link URL Copied\! - Print 0:00 0:00 1x This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies [here](https://www.latimes.com/about/audio-stories). - Readers said my infection was proof the vaccines don’t work. - An infectious disease expert told me I might have been much sicker if I hadn’t been vaccinated a month ago and previously. I can’t say I was surprised, but it didn’t take long for readers to jump at the bait last week when I wrote that for the first time, [I had tested positive for COVID-19](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-09-02/lopez-column-rfk-jr-trump-vaccine-policies) despite having been regularly vaccinated throughout the pandemic. “Vaccines are poison,” wrote one reader, who said I’d fallen for a hoax. “Wake up!” Actually, as I said last week, I wasn’t sure I was awake. I thought I might be having a COVID-induced nightmare as I watched anti-vax Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fire experts, dismantle his department, destroy morale, derail millions of dollars in vaccine research and then [bark and bicker with senators about it.](https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2025-09-04/defiant-rfk-jr-hearing-senate-democrats-republicans) It turned out my eyes were wide open the whole time. Despite testing positive, another reader scolded, I “continue to vilify vaccine skeptics generally, and … Kennedy specifically. Truly fascinating.” Advertisement Even more fascinating is that with nothing but half-baked theories and no medical credentials, Kennedy was handed the most important job in American medicine. [![WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 26: U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks as President Donald Trump holds a cabinet meeting with members of his administration in the Cabinet Room of the White House on August 26, 2025 in Washington, DC. This is the seventh cabinet meeting of Trump's second term. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ec9fd29/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5856x3904+0+0/resize/840x560!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fde%2Fae%2F7ecf12524b56bfe59ef1322f8c25%2F2232224373.jpg)](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-09-02/lopez-column-rfk-jr-trump-vaccine-policies) Voices ### [Lopez: I got COVID for the first time and can’t smell. But RFK Jr.’s vaccine policies still stink](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-09-02/lopez-column-rfk-jr-trump-vaccine-policies) As COVID surges yet again, the best tool against the virus — vaccine — is under assault by the Trump administration. Sept. 2, 2025 “Just ask yourself WHY Barack Obama and Michelle Obama and Joe Biden and Jill Biden, along with Anthony Fauci ALL GOT the Vaccines and the boosters and they ALL got COVID-19!” asked another reader. No. I’m not going to ask myself WHY. “Lopez got a booster before his travels and then got COVID. What does that tell us?” asked yet another reader. “It warns us of the ineffectiveness of the vaccine and Lopez’s misleading propaganda.” Look, I get it. It’s hard to snuff out misinformation when the nation’s health services administration specializes in it. Kennedy’s Ministry of Hacks and Quacks has claimed there is [“no clinical data”](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fact-checking-rfk-jrs-testimony-thursdays-hearing/story?id=125263735) supporting COVID vaccines and said anyone can get them, despite an outcry that the new restrictions are making them unavailable, more expensive or difficult to get. Look, it’s one thing to willingly give up the U.S. role as world leader in science, environmental protection and biomedical research, but let’s put on our thinking caps for a moment before surrendering what’s left of common sense. Like RFK Jr., I’m no doctor. But my understanding is that when the COVID vaccines were first developed — and President Trump took bows, by the way — they were not sold as cures. They were a way to help control the spread of the virus, reduce severity and save lives. Advertisement Does anyone remember that in the early days of COVID, before the vaccines were available, people were horribly sick, and that we were on our way to more than 1 million deaths in the U.S. and [7 million worldwide](https://www.kff.org/covid-19/global-covid-19-tracker/)? Some people built temporary immunity by surviving COVID. Others were protected by vaccines. The tide turned, and today, even with this latest COVID strain, hospitalizations and deaths are relatively rare. When I got vaccinated a month ago, here was my thinking: It had been 10 months since my last vaccination and I was about to travel cross-country, increasing my exposure. I knew we were a month out from a new vaccine that would be a better weapon against the latest variant, but I opted for the existing vaccine, knowing that some protection is better than none. As I write, I’ve just tested negative after 12 days. My symptoms were relatively mild overall, and Dr. [Peter Chin-Hong](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-26/covid-rising-fast-in-california-fueled-by-new-stratus-variant-tied-to-omicron), an infectious disease expert at UC San Francisco, told me I might well have been much sicker if I hadn’t been vaccinated a month ago and previously. Readers had a different takeaway, I told him. They said my infection was proof the vaccines don’t work. “That’s a very unfortunate interpretation,” he said, given the actual science of how and why the vaccines work. “The people I’m seeing in the hospital now are people who didn’t get vaccinated.” Advertisement Chin-Hong said confusion about the vaccine and concerns about side effects are “understandable” because of “all the talk coming out of Washington, D.C., and the assault on vaccines in general.” [![LONG BEACH, CA - SEPTEMBER 4, 2025 - - Dr. Dung Trinh, MD, chief medical officer of the Healthy Brain Clinic, at his medical office in Long Beach on September 4, 2025. Dr. Trinh is also a member of the Alzheimer's LA Board of Directors, and will join other experts in upcoming community presentations to explain advances in detection, prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/5da1566/2147483647/strip/true/crop/6720x4480+0+0/resize/840x560!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F2b%2F32%2F312641a54a57922f236fa3839981%2F1520808-me-0904-lopez-alzheimers-research-gem-0011520808-me-0904-lopez-alzheimers-research-gem-005.jpg)](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-09-06/lopez-column-advances-in-dementia-research-a-very-exciting-time) Voices ### [Lopez: With recent advances, it’s ‘a very exciting time’ for dementia researchers](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-09-06/lopez-column-advances-in-dementia-research-a-very-exciting-time) Study suggests exercise, diet and engagement can improve cognition for those at risk of dementia. A team of experts will explain recent advances at three upcoming L.A.-area conferences. Sept. 6, 2025 But he said he tells people “we’ve had vaccines for many decades, they’re one of the greatest advances in modern medicine, and it’s the reason we don’t see many of these childhood diseases any more.” Now that most COVID cases are relatively mild (thanks in large part to the work of vaccines), and serious [side effects from vaccines are rare](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10507236/#sec8), fewer people are getting vaccinated as regularly as they once did. If you’re wondering whether and how often your children should be vaccinated, I say you should follow the advice of your doctor rather than the mutterings of Kennedy and his minions. But as [Rong-Gong Lin II reported for The Times](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-09-05/covid-vaccines-are-harder-to-get-under-trump-and-people-are-angry-about-it), Kennedy’s new federal restrictions are making it difficult for people at higher risk to get access to the vaccine, even as cases surge. [Dr. Elizabeth E. Hudson](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-26/covid-rising-fast-in-california-fueled-by-new-stratus-variant-tied-to-omicron), regional physician chief of infectious diseases for Kaiser Permanente Southern California, said people 65 and older, and those who are immunocompromised should get vaccinated. And so should healthy people of all ages if they’re in contact with high-risk populations. Hudson told me mRNA technology is safe and effective, it goes back decades, and in the case of COVID vaccines, it allows scientists to quickly adapt to new strains. Advertisement “As someone who was on the front lines in 2021, I would never go back to that time, ever. It was horrible,” said Hudson. “It’s easy to forget, and nobody wants to dwell on it, but in L.A. County, we almost ran out of oxygen because so many people were needing \[it\] and being intubated. … It’s a vivid memory that will stick with me for the rest of my life. “The vaccine changed the entire calculus and trajectory of COVID from an in-patient disease where many people died to an out-patient disease where the majority of people will feel miserable for a week or so, but they get better.” Makes sense to me, but I’m not sure what to do about readers who disagree. “I wanted to thank you for helping me out. Sometimes I forget just how brain dead the liberal left is but there is always an article or story to remind me,” said one. “Keep writing, I need the laughs.” Will do. And I’m feeling better now. Could it be the vaccine? [steve.lopez@latimes.com](mailto:steve.lopez@latimes.com) ### More to Read - [![WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 11: U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stands silently as Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins speaks during an event to "Celebrate the Implementation of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans" at the Health and Human Services Headquarters on February 11, 2026 in Washington, DC. HHS Secretary RFK Jr. celebrated the updated guidelines and the Make America Healthy Again movement with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, former boxing heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, U.S. Chief Design Officer Joe Gebbia, American Medical Association President Bobby Mukkamala, Chef Andrew Gruel, Defense Department Undersecretary Mike Obadal, and Bureau of Prisons Director William Marshall. (Photo by Michael M. 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Kennedy, Jr., right, President Donald Trump's nominee to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services, talks with Committee Chairman Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., following his testimony during a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing for his pending confirmation on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, in Washington. 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He has won more than a dozen national journalism awards and is a four-time Pulitzer finalist. Lopez is the author most recently of “Independence Day: What I Learned About Retirement, From Some Who’ve Done It and Some Who Never Will.” His book “The Soloist,” inspired by his columns on his relationship with a Juilliard-trained homeless person, was a Los Angeles Times and New York Times best-seller, winner of the PEN USA Literary Award for Non-Fiction, and the subject of a Dream Works movie by the same name. He has also written three novels and two column collections. ### More From the Los Angeles Times - [![FILE - This image released by the U.S. Navy shows an aerial view of Diego Garcia in the Chagos Island group. 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Readable Markdown	I can’t say I was surprised, but it didn’t take long for readers to jump at the bait last week when I wrote that for the first time, [I had tested positive for COVID-19](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-09-02/lopez-column-rfk-jr-trump-vaccine-policies) despite having been regularly vaccinated throughout the pandemic. “Vaccines are poison,” wrote one reader, who said I’d fallen for a hoax. “Wake up!” Actually, as I said last week, I wasn’t sure I was awake. I thought I might be having a COVID-induced nightmare as I watched anti-vax Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fire experts, dismantle his department, destroy morale, derail millions of dollars in vaccine research and then [bark and bicker with senators about it.](https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2025-09-04/defiant-rfk-jr-hearing-senate-democrats-republicans) It turned out my eyes were wide open the whole time. Despite testing positive, another reader scolded, I “continue to vilify vaccine skeptics generally, and … Kennedy specifically. Truly fascinating.” Even more fascinating is that with nothing but half-baked theories and no medical credentials, Kennedy was handed the most important job in American medicine. “Just ask yourself WHY Barack Obama and Michelle Obama and Joe Biden and Jill Biden, along with Anthony Fauci ALL GOT the Vaccines and the boosters and they ALL got COVID-19!” asked another reader. No. I’m not going to ask myself WHY. “Lopez got a booster before his travels and then got COVID. What does that tell us?” asked yet another reader. “It warns us of the ineffectiveness of the vaccine and Lopez’s misleading propaganda.” Look, I get it. It’s hard to snuff out misinformation when the nation’s health services administration specializes in it. Kennedy’s Ministry of Hacks and Quacks has claimed there is [“no clinical data”](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fact-checking-rfk-jrs-testimony-thursdays-hearing/story?id=125263735) supporting COVID vaccines and said anyone can get them, despite an outcry that the new restrictions are making them unavailable, more expensive or difficult to get. Look, it’s one thing to willingly give up the U.S. role as world leader in science, environmental protection and biomedical research, but let’s put on our thinking caps for a moment before surrendering what’s left of common sense. Like RFK Jr., I’m no doctor. But my understanding is that when the COVID vaccines were first developed — and President Trump took bows, by the way — they were not sold as cures. They were a way to help control the spread of the virus, reduce severity and save lives. Does anyone remember that in the early days of COVID, before the vaccines were available, people were horribly sick, and that we were on our way to more than 1 million deaths in the U.S. and [7 million worldwide](https://www.kff.org/covid-19/global-covid-19-tracker/)? Some people built temporary immunity by surviving COVID. Others were protected by vaccines. The tide turned, and today, even with this latest COVID strain, hospitalizations and deaths are relatively rare. When I got vaccinated a month ago, here was my thinking: It had been 10 months since my last vaccination and I was about to travel cross-country, increasing my exposure. I knew we were a month out from a new vaccine that would be a better weapon against the latest variant, but I opted for the existing vaccine, knowing that some protection is better than none. As I write, I’ve just tested negative after 12 days. My symptoms were relatively mild overall, and Dr. [Peter Chin-Hong](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-26/covid-rising-fast-in-california-fueled-by-new-stratus-variant-tied-to-omicron), an infectious disease expert at UC San Francisco, told me I might well have been much sicker if I hadn’t been vaccinated a month ago and previously. Readers had a different takeaway, I told him. They said my infection was proof the vaccines don’t work. “That’s a very unfortunate interpretation,” he said, given the actual science of how and why the vaccines work. “The people I’m seeing in the hospital now are people who didn’t get vaccinated.” Chin-Hong said confusion about the vaccine and concerns about side effects are “understandable” because of “all the talk coming out of Washington, D.C., and the assault on vaccines in general.” But he said he tells people “we’ve had vaccines for many decades, they’re one of the greatest advances in modern medicine, and it’s the reason we don’t see many of these childhood diseases any more.” Now that most COVID cases are relatively mild (thanks in large part to the work of vaccines), and serious [side effects from vaccines are rare](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10507236/#sec8), fewer people are getting vaccinated as regularly as they once did. If you’re wondering whether and how often your children should be vaccinated, I say you should follow the advice of your doctor rather than the mutterings of Kennedy and his minions. But as [Rong-Gong Lin II reported for The Times](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-09-05/covid-vaccines-are-harder-to-get-under-trump-and-people-are-angry-about-it), Kennedy’s new federal restrictions are making it difficult for people at higher risk to get access to the vaccine, even as cases surge. [Dr. Elizabeth E. Hudson](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-26/covid-rising-fast-in-california-fueled-by-new-stratus-variant-tied-to-omicron), regional physician chief of infectious diseases for Kaiser Permanente Southern California, said people 65 and older, and those who are immunocompromised should get vaccinated. And so should healthy people of all ages if they’re in contact with high-risk populations. Hudson told me mRNA technology is safe and effective, it goes back decades, and in the case of COVID vaccines, it allows scientists to quickly adapt to new strains. “As someone who was on the front lines in 2021, I would never go back to that time, ever. It was horrible,” said Hudson. “It’s easy to forget, and nobody wants to dwell on it, but in L.A. County, we almost ran out of oxygen because so many people were needing \[it\] and being intubated. … It’s a vivid memory that will stick with me for the rest of my life. “The vaccine changed the entire calculus and trajectory of COVID from an in-patient disease where many people died to an out-patient disease where the majority of people will feel miserable for a week or so, but they get better.” Makes sense to me, but I’m not sure what to do about readers who disagree. “I wanted to thank you for helping me out. Sometimes I forget just how brain dead the liberal left is but there is always an article or story to remind me,” said one. “Keep writing, I need the laughs.” Will do. And I’m feeling better now. Could it be the vaccine? [steve.lopez@latimes.com](mailto:steve.lopez@latimes.com) More to Read
Shard	25 (laksa)
Root Hash	7344800029135033825
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