Daily Herald opinion: Trust and your child’s health: Should you accept a politician’s ‘gold standard’ vaccine policy? Ask your doctor

It perhaps should go without saying that, as a doctor, Donald Trump is a very good politician.

With that in mind, a certain question stands out in the wake of the president’s directive last week regarding childhood vaccinations: If your child is sick, who will you trust? Your doctor or a politician?

That question runs in a constant stream through our Marni Pyke’s Monday report on the reactions of local pediatricians to what Trump called his own “gold standard” for vaccine policy.

Speaking for the Itasca-based American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Anita Chandra-Puri told Pyke that, for the most part, doctors are not doing anything different as a result of Trump’s announcement, other than to “have more conversations with families to help them dispel the myths and weed through the misinformation that’s out there.”

One of the president’s most prominent successes as a politician has been his ability to prey on some people’s suspicions to sew doubt about the effectiveness of government and social institutions. Few of his achievements in this regard have been more directly dangerous than his attacks on medical science.

And, the results are quickly becoming apparent. Considered eradicated in 2000, measles cases skyrocketed in the United States beginning last year, shooting from as few as 285 in 2024 (and just 13 in 2020) to nearly 2,300 in 2025, a number that already has been eclipsed in 2026.

Dr. Ravi Jhaveri, head of Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital’s pediatric infectious diseases division, noted how often doctors treat patients for diseases that can be prevented by vaccines. Such cases naturally produce regrets, he said, when parents “see then firsthand the devastating effects that these infections can have.”

Doctors point to years of detailed scientific research that have reduced cases of brain disease resulting from mumps, birth defects and other complications from measles and even death from hepatitis A to the point where “we don’t see any of these things anymore.”

Especially in an environment of uncertainty and distrust, the doctors emphasized the importance of talking with your pediatrician about the vaccines — and all medicines — being considered for your child. Ask about the research behind their recommendations. Ask about the benefits to expect. Ask about the possible side effects of medicines and vaccines and about the potential for those side effects to occur.

“As a parent, you should have the ability to have conversations with your pediatrician about what your child is getting, what the side effect profile is, and what the benefits are,” said Chandra-Puri.

And when you are having those conversations, keep in mind the concluding statement from Lurie’s Jhaveri in Pyke’s story.

“When their kids are sick, (parents) call their pediatrician at 2 a.m. And, that person is there for them all the time,” he said. “Not some TikTok influencer, not some government agency. So they really should be valuing that person’s advice when they’re thinking about vaccines.”

Whom to trust, doctor or politician? For most of us, the answer should seem irrefutably clear.