RFK, Jr. and the Trump administration’s political purge of scientists echoes the darkest days of the McCarthy period Geoffrey Kabat | March 18, 2026

https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2026/03/18/rfk-jr-and-the-trump-administrations-polical-purge-of-scientists-echoes-the-darkest-days-of-the-mccarthy-period/ Something sinister and yet vaguely familiar has been happening in American public health policy. This week’s federal court decision reversing Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s gutting of Covid-vaccine and childhood-immunization policy, and overturning his firing of the independent scientists who had overseen it, amounted to a judicial rebuke of a campaign that echoes one of the darkest chapters in American history.