In this week’s guest blog, The Relentless School Nurse welcomes back Meg Jenkins, a deeply respected school nursing colleague and advocate from New Hampshire whose unwavering compassion and insight have shaped school health policy across the Northeast and beyond. Meg’s service as NASN Director and her decades at Gilford High School are a testament to the heart and grit of the school nursing profession. Today, she brings her voice to a crisis unfolding at the very top of our nation’s health leadership—a crisis rooted in the dangerous “protection for me and not thee” mindset exemplified by our current Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
How can someone bestowed with generational privilege and firsthand knowledge of vaccine-protected family health now champion rolling back proven immunization policies? How does this administration ignore the plain truth: that cancer survivors, like Ted Kennedy Jr., were likely spared deadly vaccine-preventable diseases thanks to the hard-won protections of herd immunity? Meg’s reflection not only examines the troubling tenure of Secretary Kennedy but reminds us what is truly at stake—especially for our most vulnerable students, whose ability to safely return to school after life-altering diagnoses depends on the steadfast defense of community immunity.
School nurses know the cost of policy dictated by science denial and privilege. In New Hampshire and across the country, drops in student immunization rates threaten what Meg calls “levels of defense” that once safeguarded every child, regardless of medical history or family circumstance. Meg’s perspective is a call to action: we must not allow the health and future of our children—nor the integrity of our profession—to be compromised by unqualified leadership and regressive health policy.
Join me in amplifying Meg Jenkins’ vital message—every school nurse, every parent, and every advocate must stand together against public health decisions that put our communities at risk. Thanks, Meg, you are a friend, a great colleague, and the best seatmate I could have asked for as a NASN Director. How lucky that NJ and NH are neighbors alphabetically!
Advocating Against Family??
by Meg Jenkins
There are so many concerns regarding the current US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (cousin to Ted Kennedy Jr and nephew to Sen Ted Kennedy Sr.) How can this man advocate for rolling back vaccines that have been proven effective? How can he look his family in the eye and know that his policies are counterproductive to those who are in the fight against cancer? How can he know that HIS family was spared vaccine-preventable disease (which could have been deadly) and yet advocate against others?
Protection for me and not thee…exemplified by this dangerous administration day after day.
Those of us who are of a certain age and also from the Northeast might remember when the son of US Senator Ted Kennedy, Teddy Jr., was diagnosed with cancer in 1973 at the age of 12. As is public knowledge, he was evaluated by his pediatrician and sent for testing, which resulted in an almost immediate amputation below the knee due to osteosarcoma. Being a member of the Kennedy clan, he was not afforded the same privacy that others go through; thus, much of his healthcare journey is available publicly. What is known is that he, in fact, had surgery that amputated his leg and then went through chemotherapy.
What is chemotherapy? Chemotherapy is a drug treatment that uses powerful chemicals to kill fast-growing cells in your body. At that point in time, it was a brutal regimen of medication that was given to obliterate any cancer cells that may have been left over after his surgery. This was in the days before chemotherapies were tailored more towards the pediatric population. Kids got adult doses of adult medications and struggled mightily with side effects.
Chemotherapy wipes out the immune system, thus making patients susceptible to vaccine-preventable diseases (VPD). Why? Because any immunity they might have with their routine vaccine schedule is wiped out by chemotherapy. This put them at risk if they were in fact exposed to any one of a number of VPDs.
Did Ted Kennedy Jr suffer from any vaccine-preventable diseases due to his immunocompromised state? There is no evidence of that. Probably because he was protected by the concept of herd immunity. Herd immunity refers to enough people being immune to a disease that the infection can’t spread from one person to another. This lack of movement protects those who aren’t immunized. Vaccines are one way that we can become immune to dangerous diseases. When he went back to school, one would assume that all his classmates had the required vaccines for school entry, thus protecting him because the levels of defense were so high. Ted Junior has been quoted as having said he did not miss much school and, in fact, graduated on time as he aged through the school system.
Today’s children who face such a diagnosis and need to undergo chemotherapy for cancer treatment may not be afforded the same protections in our public schools. Why is that? Because an increasing movement of non-vaccination or under-vaccination has grown steadily over the last number of years. In my own county alone in New Hampshire, we have dropped from 96 to 92% of students being considered fully immunized
We must fight against the tyrannical and highly unqualified person who is directing the health and welfare of our nation and generations to come
References:
1. Ted Kennedy Jr., A Commentary on Disability and Determination
3. The youngest patients, the toughest battles | NIH MedlinePlus Magazine
4. Vaccinations and Flu Shots | Vaccinations During Cancer Treatment | American Cancer Society
5. Herd Immunity: History, Vaccines, Threshold & What It Means
7. NH Immunization Program: 2024/2025 Annual School Immunization Report Percent by County
Bio: Meg Jenkins, MS, BSN, NCSN
- School nurse at Gilford (NH) High School since 1994
- BSN since 1983, Salve Regina College, and MS Health Care Administration 201,1 New England College
- Nationally Certified School Nurse since 2021
- Board Member, NHSNA since 2016, and NASN NH Director since 2023
- NASN Conference presenter 2025
- Chair of Gilford Got Lunch since 2023
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