Texas Attorney General and Republican US Senate candidate Ken Paxton is aligning himself with the Make America Healthy Again movement by investigating pediatricians for administering vaccines, a move that could further restrict access to immunizations as deadly outbreaks unfold across the state. Paxton announced an inquiry in January into an alleged conspiracy involving pediatricians, vaccine makers, and insurance companies, and at least one Texas pediatrician has confirmed she is currently under investigation.
In his announcements, Paxton linked his efforts to vaccine-skeptical campaigns by Donald Trump and Robert F Kennedy Jr., the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, while explicitly invoking the Maha movement. President Trump endorsed Paxton’s Senate campaign in May. Paxton alleges that pharmaceutical and insurance industries attempted to bribe medical providers through sweeping collusion that illegally incentivized doctors to administer vaccines.
Paxton also launched an investigation into the American Academy of Pediatrics in August, accusing the organization of potentially recommending vaccines for financial gain. That announcement referenced a lawsuit filed by the AAP earlier in the year to halt sweeping changes to the childhood immunization schedule. Meanwhile, a new Texas law makes it easier for parents to request school vaccine exemptions as measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination rates decline, leaving only 93.3% of kindergarteners in the state fully vaccinated against measles.
Medical professionals stress that pediatricians are among the lowest-paid medical specialists and barely break even on vaccines. Marjan Linnell, a pediatrician and president-elect of the Texas Pediatric Society, noted that primary care already faces a shortage in Texas, and actions like these could worsen the crisis by threatening practices with costly lawsuits. Katherine Wells, director of Lubbock Public Health, explained that health departments often take a financial loss on every vaccine administered because public reimbursements fail to cover the actual costs of nursing time, education, and overhead.
By contrast, critics point to potential conflicts of interest among federal figures, noting that Kennedy has made millions suing vaccine makers through legal referrals. During his confirmation hearing, lawmakers questioned Kennedy regarding these financial ties and whether he would continue profiting from vaccine litigation while overseeing the health department. Kennedy later amended his ethics disclosures to state he would give the money to one of his sons.
Despite high levels of public trust in primary care doctors and pediatric groups, pediatricians have frequently been targeted by anti-vaccine activists. Legal experts and medical advocates warn that broad investigations by the attorney general's consumer protection division—requesting exhaustive details on financial benefits, rewards, and rebates related to childhood vaccines—are forcing doctors to spend thousands in legal fees and threatening the future of pediatric practice in Texas as preventable illnesses like measles climb.