Louisiana health leaders: Government should stop pushing vaccines, focus on trust in medicine

BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — Louisiana’s top health officials say public health agencies lost public trust during the COVID-19 pandemic and need to shift their focus away from vaccine promotion and toward broader healthcare concerns.

In a letter released Thursday, Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph L. Abraham, MD, and Deputy Surgeon General Wyche T. Coleman, III, MD, criticized the federal government’s handling of the pandemic and urged a rollback of government-led vaccine promotion.

The letter came on the same day the U.S. Senate confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services, a development Abraham and Coleman did not directly mention but one that reflects ongoing national debates about vaccine policies and public health oversight.

Health leaders say COVID response eroded trust

Abraham and Coleman wrote that public health agencies made misleading statements early in the pandemic—particularly on vaccine effectiveness—and failed to adjust policies when new information emerged.

“Within months of their approval, COVID vaccines were shown to have no third-party benefit in terms of reduced transmission, yet they were still mandated—through both policy and social pressure. That was an offense against personal autonomy that will take years to overcome,” the doctors wrote.

They pointed to surveys showing declining trust in public health institutions:

• A Health Affairs study found only 37% of Americans trusted the CDC a “great deal” after the pandemic.
• A JAMA survey showed confidence in doctors dropped from 71% in 2020 to 40% in 2024.

“Until confidence is restored, the majority aren’t going to take advice from public health, no matter how well-founded it may be,” they wrote.

Doctors call for shift in priorities

Abraham and Coleman argue that public health officials should focus less on vaccines and pharmaceuticals and more on chronic health issues like cancer screenings, maternal mortality, and opioid addiction.

“Many public health departments are still stuck in pandemic-response mode,” they wrote, adding that misplaced priorities have led to delayed diagnoses, untreated substance abuse, and worsening chronic disease rates.

They also criticized the CDC’s recommendation that infants as young as six months receive COVID vaccines, calling it “woefully out of touch with reality”.

Opposition to government-led vaccine promotion

The doctors argued that government should not push specific pharmaceutical products, especially when drug manufacturers are protected from liability.

“Perhaps there are some treatments that every human being should take, but they are few and far between, and things that are good generally don’t have to be pushed by the government,” they wrote.

Instead, they called for a return to a patient-doctor decision-making model, free from government influence.

“The path to regaining public trust lies in acknowledging past missteps, refocusing on unbiased data collection, and providing transparent, balanced information for people to make their own health decisions.”

Read the letter here.

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