The Louisiana Department of Health has implemented a new policy that bans promoting COVID, Flu, and monkeypox vaccines even though Louisiana is ranked #32 on vaccination rates.
According to a recent article by NPR, “the policy would be implemented quietly and would not be put in writing. Staffers were also told that it applies to every aspect of the health department’s work: Employees could not send out press releases, give interviews, hold vaccine events, give presentations, or create social media posts encouraging the public to get the vaccines. They also could not put up signs at the department’s clinics that COVID, flu, or mpox vaccines were available on-site.”
This new policy has come at a time when some politicians like Majorie Taylor Greene & Ron DeSantis, including President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources, Robert Kennedy Jr., are well-known anti-vaccine activists. So far, five bills and two resolutions have been signed by Governor Jeff Landry, who has also filed lawsuits on federal and state vaccine mandates aimed at vaccine requirements.
“It’s reckless,” said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University, told NPR. “I think it’s a sign of what is about to happen under the second Trump administration.”
Louisiana is tied with Oregon as the highest-ranked state in flu and respiratory illness rates. 586 people have died from the flu, and 652 people were killed from COVID last year in Louisiana alone. As of December in Louisiana, only 33% of adults and 32% of children between the ages of six months to 17 years old have gotten their flu shots. Meanwhile, nationally, it’s 42% for adults and 42% for children.
Public health experts are worried if other states decide to follow Louisiana’s example, the US will face frightening rising levels of disease and further distrust in the nation’s public health infrastructure. “The policy is akin to “malpractice,” especially given Louisiana’s poor health outcomes,” said Dr. Georges Benjamin, the executive director of the American Public Health Association.
