The Senate hearings have begun, and vaccine rates in America are falling significantly.

Why are these facts co-joined? Because Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine denier and conspiracy theorist, has been nominated to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

While he has a few good ideas about nutrition and drug advertising, his ideas about vaccines and autism are disqualifying as is his lack of training and experience. Over 17,000 doctors and 75 Nobel Laureates have written opposing his nomination.

By a large majority, we in Maine have wisely rejected a referendum in 2020 that would have loosened vaccine requirements, and today Maine has one of the highest vaccination rates in the nation at over 95%.

Public health experts believe that for protection against devastating preventable illnesses, such as measles and whooping cough, greater than 92% vaccination rates are needed. As a result, these and other diseases are reappearing.

I lived through the polio epidemic of 1952 when 58,000 were stricken, 3,200 died and 21,000 suffered varying degrees of paralysis. As a medical student, I helped care for unfortunates in iron lungs. I have also worked during a measles epidemic in Sierra Leone.

The complications of pneumonia, blindness, encephalitis and other neurological defects were frequent. It is a crime to allow these diseases to reappear.

Stephen A. Sokol, M.D., Lewiston, assistant professor of geriatrics, emeritus, University of New England