India, Jan. 8 -- The US federal government dropping a set of vaccines from its list of recommendations for universal vaccination will very likely push up risks of morbidity among children in that country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention bypassing the usual process of external expert review for the decision was expected, given US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr's anti-vaccine stance and the Trump administration's disregard for science, processes, and institutions (although, ironically, the US insists on proof that people visiting the country have been administered all these vaccines). Beyond American borders, the move is likely to fuel vaccine denialism, even in countries where health programmes are critically dependent on preventive interventions. The larger concern is that this is a symptom of a broader problem: Allowing ideology to trump science across various fields, including policy, epistemology, and historiography. And it is not limited to just the US. Power and capital, in many parts of the world, are turning their backs on science, which is reflected in the cuts to public funding for research and development. While US universities have seen significant cuts, funding has remained flat in many Western nations. Pharmaceutical companies have pivoted from vaccine research to therapeutic research for chronic diseases. Dubious systems have been spun into multi-billion-dollar industries in the wellness space, endorsed by persons in public office and influencers (usually paid) making claims that can't stand scientific rigour. The need now is to reorient the discourse. Only by putting science back in the driver's seat can leaders restore trust in vaccines....