I was able to attend this briefing from American Community Media, which arrived at a moment when vaccine policy in the United States is no longer just a public health issue.
Now, we see that It is a trust issue, a governance issue, and, increasingly, an equity issue. The backdrop was hard to ignore. Measles cases have already climbed past 1,300 in 2026, with most tied to outbreaks, while a 2025 KFF-Washington Post survey found that about one in six parents say they have skipped or delayed a recommended vaccine for their child.
Recent analysis from KFF warned that falling vaccination rates and federal policy shifts could increase the risk of preventable disease outbreaks in American Indian and Alaska Native communities.
I saw the briefing centered on Dr. Rich Besser, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a longtime pediatrician, and a former acting director of the CDC at the start of the 2009 swine flu pandemic. Besser has spent years watching public trust erode - quickly!
“Journalism has never been more important than it is today,” he said, “when just the concept of a shared set of facts is being contested around the country.” It was a pointed opening, which is interestly felt throughout many commmunities. In his view, the country is not simply experiencing disagreement over vaccines. It is experiencing the collapse of a common factual baseline, and that collapse is now shaping how parents make decisions about their children’s health.
Besser was blunt about what that means in practice. “I don’t recommend taking your medical advice from politicians,” he said, urging parents instead to rely on providers they know and trust. He described childhood vaccination as the single most effective intervention of his three decades in pediatrics, then contrasted that record with the present climate of confusion. In one of the briefing’s sharper moments, he said, “I would not recommend looking at the CDC website. It is now full of misinformation and disinformation.” (!)
That is an extraordinary statement from a former CDC leader, and it underscored the degree to which vaccine guidance has become destabilized by politics. He also argued that the now-disrupted federal advisory process has broken from its earlier model of independent scientific review, saying, “What we’re seeing now was absolutely unthinkable.”
For Indigenous journalists and Indigenous readers, the most relevant part of the conversation may have been what Besser said about access. He noted that not every family has a trusted doctor, and that the number of people with a regular provider is declining. That problem is not abstract in Indian Country. We have long carried responsibility with limited resources, even as Congress has continued to acknowledge major funding needs across Tribal health programs.
The issue is not only whether a vaccine is recommended, but also we now have a knoweldge gap. Where can parents get clear factual infomation from someone that understands thier family and needs? We struggle to answer.Tribal health organizations were already trying to fill those gaps during the measles resurgence, hosting clinics, calling families directly, and building outreach that did not rely on federal messaging alone.
The briefing also touched a broader political nerve. Besser criticized the United States’ withdrawal from the World Health Organization, arguing that “pulling back from the World Health Organization will not make people in this country safer.”
Public health failure travels across communities, tthrough schools, and into families. When Besser said, “There will be another pandemic,” his point was said with the gravity of someone who understands how health information is shared.
With these actions, country is weakening the institutions it will need the next time a health crisis arrives. The WHO itself said the U.S. withdrawal makes both the country and the world less safe.
What is happening with even the scientific guidance is ignored? We have seen this pattern before. In Indigenous news, health coverage is also about our access and context. How can communities recieve this information - through what infrastructure? And can it be timely?
Health information is no longer in the territory of science, politics now have thier hands all over it. And when that happens, some communities are disproportionately affected.
