Kennedy’s 12 Actions Undermining Vaccine Confidence as Health Secretary

Seven months into his tenure as U.S. health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has implemented sweeping changes to American vaccine policy that critics say undermine public health and sow confusion about immunization safety.

Kennedy’s actions have included dismantling the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, replacing expert members with individuals described by critics as vaccine skeptics, cutting funding for mRNA vaccine development, and repeatedly making statements questioning vaccine safety despite scientific consensus to the contrary.

In May, Kennedy broke from established policy by announcing that COVID vaccines would no longer be recommended for pregnant people and healthy children, a move that could affect insurance coverage and vaccine access. He later slashed $500 million in funding for mRNA vaccine research, despite evidence that these vaccines saved millions of lives during the pandemic.

“This was the most dangerous public health decision I have ever seen made by a government body,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, regarding the funding cuts.

Kennedy’s tenure has been marked by significant personnel changes at key health agencies. In August, he fired CDC Director Susan Monarez, who later testified before Congress that her dismissal came after she refused to preapprove recommendations from Kennedy’s revamped advisory committee without scientific evidence.

“I was fired for holding the line on scientific integrity,” Monarez told lawmakers. Her firing triggered resignations of senior CDC officials, including Dr. Debra Houry, the agency’s chief medical officer, and Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who directed the CDC’s National Center for Immunizations and Respiratory Diseases.

Health experts warn that Kennedy’s policy shifts could have profound consequences for public health. During her Congressional testimony, Monarez cautioned that more children will die from preventable illnesses such as polio, measles, diphtheria and whooping cough under Kennedy’s leadership.

The impact is already visible in some areas. When Kennedy’s new vaccine advisory panel met in September, they declined to recommend COVID shots for all Americans and removed an option that combined vaccines against measles, mumps, rubella and varicella for children under age 4.

“Now what they’ve done is take away the choice for parents,” Dr. Sean O’Leary from the American Academy of Pediatrics told PBS News.

Most concerning to many public health experts are Kennedy’s public statements linking vaccines to autism, despite decades of research disproving such connections. At a September event alongside President Trump, Kennedy claimed that prior federal research into autism causes had been “entirely fruitless” and promised to investigate potential links between vaccines and autism.

During that same event, Kennedy supported Trump’s unfounded claim that certain groups who don’t take vaccines have no autism, specifically mentioning the Amish community—a claim that has been thoroughly debunked by researchers.

“This has been looked at so carefully,” countered Dr. Linda Eckert, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Washington. “There are many studies, tens and tens of studies, a very large number of patients all over the world that have shown that there is not a link between autism and vaccine use.”

During his confirmation hearings, Kennedy had promised he would “do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking” vaccines. However, his subsequent actions have alarmed health professionals who fear declining vaccination rates will leave communities vulnerable to preventable diseases.

The United States was declared measles-free in 2000, but this year has seen the worst measles outbreak in more than three decades, with hundreds of cases reported and multiple deaths among unvaccinated children.

As vaccination rates continue to decline, experts warn that Kennedy’s leadership at HHS may reverse decades of progress in preventing infectious diseases, with potentially devastating consequences for public health.