RFK Jr. Is Systematically Undermining Vaccine Science and Endangering Health
President Donald Trump’s appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a decades-long vaccine skeptic, as secretary of health and human services (HHS) is already undermining public trust in highly safe and effective vaccines. During his February 2025 confirmation hearings, Kennedy made a series of promises to Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-LA), pledging to “work within the current vaccine approval and safety monitoring systems, and not establish parallel systems” and to “maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes.” Despite Sen. Cassidy’s skepticism and expressed reservations, he ultimately granted Kennedy his linchpin vote, predicated on ongoing communication and collaboration.
In just his first few months as secretary, Kennedy has already broken these promises, endangering America’s vaccine system’s credibility and leaving families and communities exposed to imminent health threats in the process.
Kennedy’s broken promises threaten vaccine science and public health
When Secretary Kennedy first took office, medical experts and scientists were primarily concerned about his weak messaging on vaccines—notably, his failure to strongly endorse measles vaccination and his promotion of dubious cures in the midst of a major measles outbreak in Texas. But Kennedy’s actions away from the cameras went further. He altered research priorities at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by canceling studies on mRNA vaccines and vaccine hesitancy as well as by closing a network of centers working to prevent future pandemics. He reduced transparency by limiting public comment opportunities during the development of new regulations. And, alarmingly, he hired David Geier, a known vaccine skeptic who Maryland regulators disciplined for practicing medicine without a license, to lead a study to reinvestigate the long-discredited theory that vaccines cause autism.
Secretary Kennedy’s actions also have had chilling effects at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the agency under HHS that regulates vaccines. In March, Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA’s top vaccine expert and a major figure in developing the COVID-19 vaccine, resigned over concerns about Kennedy’s promotion of vaccine misinformation. FDA vaccine policies changed soon thereafter. For example, in May, the FDA announced it would no longer approve COVID-19 vaccines, except for people over the age of 65 and those in high-risk groups.
Secretary Kennedy broke a core promise that got him his job: to not interfere with the ACIP.
In early June, Secretary Kennedy’s campaign against vaccines took a new and dangerous turn when he unilaterally fired all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), an expert panel that the surgeon general established in 1964 as the nation’s authoritative source on immunization guidelines. Kennedy said, without providing any supporting evidence, that the mass firing was needed to remove conflicts of interest among ACIP members and to restore “gold standard” science. Notably, the ACIP has a rigorous and transparent process for identifying and managing potential conflicts of interest. Yet after the firing, Kennedy hand-picked replacements, known for their own biases, without following any public or transparent process. The first eight publicly announced ACIP members include outspoken vaccine skeptics with little or no professional experience as vaccine researchers; the ACIP is already taking a political turn, with slides posted in advance of a June meeting citing a nonexistent study to support a false claim of vaccine risks.
Why should the public care about the ACIP?
The ACIP incident should concern the public for several reasons.
First, Secretary Kennedy broke a core promise that got him his job: to not interfere with the ACIP.
Second, inserting ideological agendas into the ACIP’s composition and work is likely to erode confidence in its recommendations and tarnish the advisory committee’s reputation for rigorous, unbiased analyses of the science on the benefits and harms of vaccines.
Third, as of this column’s publication, the CDC does not have a formerly appointed director or acting director. Without a CDC director, Kennedy—a lawyer with no training in medicine or public health—is, for now, the only individual who is authorized to approve ACIP recommendations and set official vaccine policy. He holds the power to further dismantle the nation’s vaccine system. This is especially troubling as CDC respiratory disease and vaccine scientists are losing confidence in vaccine-related policy decisions under the Trump administration and are already quitting or being fired as a result, further weakening the U.S. vaccine system.
Fourth, patients and parents, who have been accustomed to obtaining vaccines at no charge since 2009, may soon be forced to pay for them absent ACIP recommendations. A provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) stipulates that all insurance plans—both public payers such as Medicare and Medicaid and private health insurers—must cover 100 percent of the charges for ACIP-recommended vaccines. Additionally, since 1994, the Vaccines for Children Program has provided vaccines at no charge to low-income children, but, by statute, the program only covers ACIP-recommended and CDC-approved vaccines.
Although AHIP, a trade association of health insurance companies, issued a statement of commitment to “ongoing coverage of vaccines,” if Kennedy’s revamped ACIP votes against routine childhood immunizations, parents who want their children to receive certain vaccines may need to cover copayments or the full cost. As an example of the potential implications, a two-dose series of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine costs $180 to $250 on average for those without insurance. Requiring parents to pay the costs of vaccines would create a two-tiered system in which wealthier Americans would have greater access to immunizations than the poor, who often face the highest risk of sickness or death from infectious diseases.
Fifth, beyond costs, these changes may also lead to patients being turned away when seeking vaccines. Recent incidents suggest such an outcome. For example, after Kennedy announced on social media on May 27 that COVID-19 vaccines would no longer be recommended for healthy pregnant women—in spite of research revealing that pregnant women are at higher risk of serious complications from COVID-19 and that the COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective for pregnant women—CDC’s immunization schedule stopped including COVID-19 vaccine guidance or recommendations for pregnancy. As a result, some women have already reported difficulties in getting the vaccine from pharmacies as recommended by their providers.
Meanwhile, the standard vaccine schedule for children, which the reestablished ACIP may soon upend, protects them against polio, chickenpox, diphtheria, tetanus, and other diseases that were once routine killers but are now unfamiliar to the public. Researchers estimate that routine vaccinations have prevented nearly 508 million cases of illness, 32 million hospitalizations, and 1 million deaths among children born in the United States between 1994 and 2023. Vaccines also protect against leading causes of death among adults, such as influenza, COVID-19, and pneumonia, among others.
The ultimate result of Secretary Kennedy’s actions could be a resurgence in vaccine-preventable infections. Diseases that modern countries have almost completely eradicated may soon return to the United States. The current measles outbreak was likely the first shot across the bow. As of June 2025, new measles cases in the United States have reached nearly a 20-year high. Pertussis, or whooping cough, cases have also been rising. Kentucky recently reported two pertussis deaths of unvaccinated children, despite strong protection provided to babies and pregnant women by the diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DtaP) vaccine.
ACIP-recommended immunizations have saved millions of lives
Practice insights from Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Steven H. Woolf, MD:
When I attended medical school in the early 1980s, patients admitted to my teaching hospital often included infants and young children with meningitis—an infection of the brain caused by a bacterium called Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib). At that time in the United States, about 20,000 people, primarily children, were infected each year; 1 in 200 children under age 5 developed invasive Hib disease; and 3 to 6 percent of infected children died. Children who survived Hib meningitis were often left with lifelong neurologic complications, and 15 to 30 percent of those affected developed hearing loss. All that changed in 1985, when the first Hib vaccine was licensed and cases began to plummet nationwide, declining by more than 99 percent since pre-vaccine times.
A 1998 article reported the “near disappearance” of Hib disease. Now, almost three decades later, most American physicians have never seen a child with Hib disease. In a population of almost 20 million children under age 5, there were only 17 deaths from Hib meningitis between 2018 and 2023, almost all among unvaccinated children.
The Hib vaccine, a public health achievement that has saved the lives of countless children, is part of the vaccine series that the newly constituted ACIP may discontinue. If U.S. children stop getting the Hib vaccine, the horrific death toll I remember from the 1980s will return. Once again, infants and children will start dying from Hib meningitis in large numbers, but this time with a tragic difference: Their deaths will have been completely preventable, caused by the reckless discontinuation of the vaccine.
Resistance is growing among health care professionals, policymakers, and health advocates
Leading medical and public health organizations that were largely silent about Secretary Kennedy’s earlier actions were quick to speak out after the ACIP firings. The American Medical Association warned that the decision “upends a transparent process that has saved countless lives.” Both the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American College of Physicians—representing specialists in internal medicine—said that they were “outraged.” And the American Academy of Pediatrics warned that “families and children will be the ones to pay the price for this decision.” Other groups expressing alarm have included the American Academy of Physician Associates, American College Health Association, American Association of Nurse Practitioners, American Pharmacists Association, American Public Health Association, and Infectious Diseases Society of America, along with the presidents of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. These entities may be prompted to issue their own vaccine advisories if the ACIP loses credibility.
Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), ranking member of the Senate HELP Committee, and Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ), ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, have each called for a bipartisan investigation into the ACIP firings. Members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform have asked Kennedy to provide detailed information, including justifications for each of the firings, which he has not yet provided. And Sen. Cassidy called for a hold on the ACIP meeting scheduled for June 25 and 26 based on the lack of relevant experience of the newly appointed ACIP members.
Momentum is also growing within Congress to create vaccine systems that are less susceptible to conspiracy theories and abuse of power. For example, the Family Vaccine Protection Act, introduced by Reps. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ) and Kim Schrier (D-WA), would establish protections for the ACIP’s independence, ensure its decisions are based on scientific evidence, and preserve cost-free insurance coverage for ACIP-recommended vaccines.
Across the country, policymakers, scientists, health professionals, and advocates are calling to remove politics from vaccine policy, to promote evidence-based health policy, and to remove Kennedy as health secretary.
Amid an increasingly hostile environment for scientific evidence and transparency, states and private organizations have been taking action to fill the void. Colorado, for instance, enacted legislation to protect vaccine decisions from political interference, and several states are discussing developing a Northeast regional vaccine advisory group. Additionally, the Vaccine Integrity Project (VIP), spearheaded by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, established a steering committee of national public health and policy experts that plans to recommend how nongovernmental entities can support efforts to ensure evidence-based vaccine use. The committee is considering options such as directly ordering vaccines from manufacturers and basing insurance coverage on professional societies’ recommendations, rather than the ACIP.
Calls are also coming for Kennedy to be replaced as health secretary. Following the ACIP firings, current and former CDC employees demonstrated outside the agency’s headquarters, protesting the gutting of programs, slashing of staff, and absence of CDC leadership, while also calling for Kennedy’s resignation. The American Public Health Association and Doctors for America, likewise, called for Kennedy to resign or be fired; and the American Medical Association has called for a Senate investigation into Kennedy based on the ACIP terminations.
At the same time, broader uproar over Secretary Kennedy’s actions is growing. In early June, more than 6,000 health care professionals signed an open letter warning the public that their health is at risk due to severe cuts and dismantling of programs designed to promote and protect health. And in a historic move, more than 400 NIH scientists signed an open letter to NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya criticizing the Trump administration over recent actions that undermine the institutes’ mission and threaten to harm the public’s health. Now, the courts are weighing in: A federal judge recently ordered NIH to restore funds for research related to “racial minorities” and LGBTQ+ people, accusing the Trump administration of racial discrimination.
Across the country, policymakers, scientists, health professionals, and advocates are calling to remove politics from vaccine policy, to promote evidence-based health policy, and to remove Kennedy as health secretary. If ACIP recommendations become an untenable option due to lack of scientific integrity and credibility, the public would be reliant on Congress, states, and private nongovernmental entities to protect vaccine decisions from political interference.
Conclusion
In addition to sowing doubt and spreading false information about vaccines, Secretary Kennedy is ignoring evidence and making unilateral decisions that he promised not to make. His latest actions threaten to erode the U.S. vaccine system, which, for decades, has ensured access to safe and effective vaccines that protect children and communities from preventable disease. Kennedy’s actions are also out of step with the majority of Americans who support wide availability of FDA-approved vaccines. Congress needs to hold Kennedy accountable for his actions in order to restore trust in the U.S. vaccine system and ensure families and communities are protected from imminent health threats.