A children’s doctor on the crisis of medical trust

January 2026

By: Matthew Abrams

Read the full story on AZ Capitol

I have spent most of my adult life preparing for one job: keeping babies alive.

That preparation took years — college, medical school, residency and fellowship — years of studying physiology measured in grams and millimeters, of learning how fragile life can be and how precise medicine must be to protect it. I chose neonatology because the margin between survival and catastrophe in an intensive care unit for infants is razor-thin.

Every decision we make is rooted in evidence. Every intervention is weighed against risk. And every recommendation is guided by the same promise I made on day one of my career: First, do no harm.

That is why the growing rejection of vaccines — by society at large, by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s HHS, and by state legislatures like Arizona’s that repeatedly entertain anti-vaccine bills while doing nothing to improve vaccine uptake — is not just frustrating.