Vaccine politics, Epstein survivors, occupy Chicago: Editorial cartoons for Sept. 7, 2025

Members of the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday grilled Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about federal vaccine policy and turmoil at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some Republican senators who had voted to confirm Kennedy said he had backtracked on his promises by restricting access to the Covid-19 vaccine.

Nick Anderson leads this week’s editorial cartoon gallery with his explanation of Kennedy’s contradictory statements on vaccines then and now. The parasitic worm found in his brain says, “I’m not anti-vax!” Kennedy says, “I am.”

Walt Handelsman draws a doctor and children in a boat going over a waterfall with rocks named for vaccine-preventable diseases, while Kennedy holds their paddle. Dana Summers sees those diseases as cars making their way to Florida, which is moving to suspend vaccine mandates for schoolchildren. Mike Luckovich portrays Kennedy as an executioner and the public health system kneeling at the guillotine. Michael Ramirez draws him driving a hearse disguised as an ambulance.

Another hot topic is the news conference by women who said they were victimized by disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. The women called for the full release of the Epstein files, which presumably contain names of famous and powerful men. President Donald Trump has called the tumult over the files “the Epstein hoax,” a talking point ridiculed by David Horsey and Mike Luckovich.

Trump also made plans to send national guard troops to Chicago. Scott Stantis of the Chicago Tribune draws Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzer and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson protesting that crime is under control while plugging the muzzle of a gun with their fingers. Summers and Joey Weatherford make a similar point.

Cartoonists also noted the unfounded internet rumor that Trump was dead; court rulings against the president’s tariff and deportation policies; and our obsession with our social media personas riffing on sculptor Auguste Rodin’s “The Kiss.”

Cartoons were drawn by Jack Ohman, Nick Anderson, Bill Bramhall, Dana Summers, Drew Sheneman, Scott Stantis, Walt Handelsman, David Horsey, Phil Hands, Joel Pett and Joey Weatherford of Tribune Content Agency; and Mike Luckovich, Steve Breen and Michael Ramirez of Creators Syndicate.