Sources for this timeline are publicly available and include reporting from The Wall Street Journal, Axios, Reuters, AP News, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Kaiser Family Foundation News (KFF) and Stat News. All stories have multiple sources, even if they are not listed in the vignette.
The only exception was the March 25th story. Since then, HHS has commented on that story. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy has confirmed the hiring of an individual with a documented history of opposing vaccines but denies that he is overseeing any autism-related research or databases.
Instead, the HHS Secretary claimed this individual was the only person capable of determining whether records have been deleted from a specific database—an assertion for which no clear justification has been provided. Kennedy has also disputed the individual’s prior misconduct allegations.
The report section of this page reflects events from January through April 2025. Additional reports will be linked here.
Between February and April 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. initiated a series of actions that have fundamentally altered federal public health governance. This timeline documents the erosion of institutional integrity, the consolidation of power, and a pattern of censorship and disinformation that has permeated core public health functions.
Drawing on open-source reporting, the entries below trace how longstanding public health systems have been dismantled or co-opted. InfoEpi Lab previously raised concerns about the national security implications of Kennedy’s leadership. His initial months in office have only substantiated those concerns. The agenda released by executive order foreshadowed many of these developments.
The documented actions fall into three main categories:
Centralization of Power: Elimination of oversight mechanisms, removal of experts, and concentration of decision-making authority within the Office of the Secretary.
Corruption of Science: Misrepresenting agency procedures and ethics, appointing and elevating unqualified and unethical figures, exploitation of tragedy, endorsement of unproven or dangerous treatments, and rejection of established evidence.
Censorship and Information Control: Dismantling transparency by making public comment optional, shutting down the FOIA response office, retraction of public data, suppression of forecasts, and reframing of health discourse to reflect ideological narratives.
Each entry below includes source links, official documents when relevant, and archived materials to preserve the public record.
Timeline
2024
November
2025
February
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave a series of vague or elusive answers to written questions from senators probing his vaccine views, refusing to walk back several previous controversial positions.
Cassidy, recounting conversations with Kennedy over the weekend and in the hours leading up to Tuesday’s vote, said he got a slew of commitments.
“He and I would have an unprecedentedly close relationship if he is confirmed,” Cassidy said, adding that the two will meet and speak “multiple times a month.” Kennedy also agreed to come before the health committee Cassidy chairs “on a quarterly basis” if requested.
The data, which appeared fleetingly online on Wednesday, confirmed transmission in two households. Scientists called on the agency to release the full report.
Kennedy plans to replace members who he perceives to have conflicts of interest, as part of a widespread effort to minimize what he’s criticized as undue industry influence over the nation’s health agencies. Kennedy has long argued that drugmakers have too much sway over the approval of their products.
The effort is likely to target the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which plays a key role in setting vaccine policy. Kennedy and his top aides are also scrutinizing a host of other outside panels, including those that advise the Food and Drug Administration. Source
The “Make America Healthy Again” announcement, championed by RFK Jr., claims to address major health crises but leans heavily on misleading implications, decontextualized claims, and conspiracy-tinged rhetoric. Although it spotlights genuine concerns, such as chronic disease and medication use, its framing guides the audience to see the same drivers as RFK Jr. has suggested.
The order repeats common claims that misrepresent facts about autism, chronic illness, and pharmaceuticals. The omission of critical context leaves the audience to connect conditions to unrelated events. Many of the approaches RFK Jr. and other “wellness” influencers appear to use overlap with methods used by private industries and state actors to influence the public.
A child who tested positive for measles died in West Texas, the state health department said, marking the first death in an outbreak that has sickened nearly 140 people. The Texas Department of State Health Services said a school-age child died after being hospitalized in Lubbock. The child wasn’t vaccinated, the state health department said. The child’s death marked the first measles-related death in the U.S. since 2015.
Overall, more than 130 cases have been reported in Texas and neighboring New Mexico. State officials said additional cases are likely to occur because measles is so contagious. “There have been four measles outbreaks this year in this country. Last year there were 16. So it’s not unusual,” Kennedy said on Wednesday. “We have measles outbreaks every year.” Texas hospital officials, however, said all children who had been admitted were unvaccinated and had serious respiratory problems, including some requiring intensive care, and that they do not keep patients solely for quarantine.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted a document Friday proposing to strip public participation from much of the business his department conducts. The move comes during a time of major upheaval across federal health agencies and as the public waits to see how Kennedy will enact his pledge of “radical transparency” at the department.
The statement, placed in the Federal Register, said HHS would rescind its longtime practice of giving members of the public a chance to comment on the agency’s plans. It is set to be formally published in the register on Monday, March 3.
March
Effective immediately, the Richardson Waiver is rescinded and is no longer the policy of the Department. In accordance with the APA, “matters relating to agency management or personnel or to public property, loans, grants, benefits, or contracts,” are exempt from the notice and comment procedures of 5 U.S.C. 553, except as otherwise required by law. Agencies and offices of the Department have discretion to apply notice and comment procedures to these matters but are not required to do so, except as otherwise required by law. Additionally, the good cause exception should be used in appropriate circumstances in accordance with the requirements of the APA. The Department will continue to follow notice and comment rulemaking procedures in all instances in which it is required to do so by the statutory text of the APA.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) terminated at least 33 research grants studying vaccine hesitancy and strategies to increase vaccine uptake, and scaled back 9 others on the topic, reported by Science.
A key Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee shared concerns about CDC director nominee Dave Weldon’s vaccine views with the White House before his nomination was pulled Thursday morning.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told reporters on Capitol Hill that she was so troubled about Weldon’s vaccines stance that she shared her concerns with the White House, and she was not surprised that his nomination had been pulled.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been one of the prominent voices on measles, making comments that public health experts say are not accurate.
In multiple interviews, Kennedy has claimed that vitamin A and cod liver oil are effective treatments for measles. He also said that poor diet contributes to severe cases of measles and that – while vaccines prevent illness – they also cause severe illnesses and even death.
Some public health experts told ABC News these statements are not rooted in scientific evidence and could be quite dangerous for the public.
“I think it’s really important to try to stay away from these ideas of fringe theories or ideas that have not been scientifically proven,” Kirsten Hokeness, director of the school of health and behavioral sciences at Bryant University, in Rhode Island, told ABC News.
The parents of a 6-year-old unvaccinated child who died from measles in Texas said they still would not recommend that others get the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine despite their loss.
The Children’s Health Defense recently posted an interview with the parents. It’s an organization known for spreading anti-vaccine misinformation and was once led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who now serves as the Health and Human Services secretary.
A CDC clone website is filled with false and misleading vaccine claims against a backdrop of false balance. An NGO led by the current HHS Secretary until December 2024 is hosting content for the CDC clone. The domain
realcdc[.]orgcurrently redirects to this CDC clone, which is staged onchdstaging[.]org.
A fake website, meant to resemble a CDC webpage, was set up sometime this month and quickly taken offline, but not before diligent information manipulation researchers noticed several signs that it was likely connected to Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine organization founded by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a former Health and Human Services Secretary. The site falsely suggested a link between vaccines and autism, using “testimonial” videos made by CHD and long-debunked scientific disinformation. While the site has been taken down, the question remains: what, exactly, was the plan here?
The effort is likely to target the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which plays a key role in setting vaccine policy. Kennedy and his top aides are also scrutinizing a host of other outside panels, including those that advise the Food and Drug Administration.
A vaccine skeptic who has long promoted false claims about the connection between immunizations and autism has been tapped by the federal government to conduct a critical study of possible links between the two, according to current and former federal health officials.
The Department of Health and Human Services has hired David Geier to conduct the analysis, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Geier and his father, Mark Geier, have published papers claiming vaccines increase the risk of autism, a theory that has been studied for decades and scientifically debunked.
David Geier was disciplined by Maryland regulators more than a decade ago for practicing medicine without a license. He is listed as a data analyst in the HHS employee directory.
Doctors treating people hospitalized as part of a measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico have also found themselves facing another problem: vitamin A toxicity.
At Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, near the outbreak’s epicenter, several patients have been found to have abnormal liver function on routine lab tests, a probable sign that they’ve taken too much of the vitamin, according to Dr. Lara Johnson, pediatric hospitalist and chief medical officer for Covenant Health-Lubbock Service Area.
The Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine official has been pushed out, according to people familiar with the matter. Dr. Peter Marks, who played a key role in the first Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed to develop Covid-19 vaccines, stepped down Friday. He submitted his resignation after a Health and Human Services official earlier in the day gave him the choice to resign or be fired, people familiar with the matter said. “It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,” Marks wrote in a resignation letter referring to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s move to gut and reorganize the federal health department shocked many people tasked with making it happen, and left others fearful that everything from the safety of the nation’s drug supply to disease response could be at risk.
The disaster preparedness agency in the Department of Health and Human Services has just two days to prepare a plan to fold itself into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to an HHS official, granted anonymity for fear of retribution.
Leaders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered staff this week not to release their experts’ assessment that found the risk of catching measles is high in areas near outbreaks where vaccination rates are lagging, according to internal records reviewed by ProPublica.
In an aborted plan to roll out the news, the agency would have emphasized the importance of vaccinating people against the highly contagious and potentially deadly disease that has spread to 19 states, the records show.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s plan to reshape the federal health department has left its roughly 1,000 emergency response workers in limbo, and with a daunting order: Sort out how you break up — this weekend.
The George W. Bush-founded Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response is caught in the crosshairs of Kennedy’s mass restructuring. Established to respond to national disasters from Hurricane Katrina to infectious disease outbreaks, ASPR has worked for two decades as an independent division within HHS, collaborating across the health, defense, and homeland security departments. It includes the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which finances the development of new biomedical technology and played a crucial role during the Covid-19 pandemic.
BARDA will now be combined with a President Biden-founded agency under a new “Office of Healthy Futures,” according to two people familiar with discussions happening Friday. The decision cleaves the biomedical group from its emergency response agency, which will be shuffled into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says sweeping layoffs and restructuring in the department will bring order to a bureaucracy he claims is in “pandemonium.” But experts say the overhaul also likely gives him far greater control over dozens of federal health agencies.
April
Federal drug regulators have missed the deadline for making a key decision regarding a Covid-19 vaccine from Novavax, days after the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine chief was pushed out. The agency was set to give full approval to Novavax’s shot, but senior leaders at the agency are now sitting on the decision and have said the Novavax application needed more data and was unlikely to be approved soon, people familiar with the matter said.
Kennedy framed this as a response to growing public concern over vaccine safety. This institutional openness occurs despite repeated investigations dismissing such claims.
Source (minute 5:40)
The top vaccine regulator ousted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the health secretary’s team has sought nonexistent data to justify antivaccine narratives and pushed to water down regulation of unproven stem-cell treatments. “I can never give allegiance to anyone else other than to follow the science as we see it,” said Dr. Peter Marks, the Food and Drug Administration official.
“That does not mean that I can just roll over and take conspiracy theories and justify them.” Marks, who is leaving his FDA post on Saturday after he was offered the choice to resign or be fired, described Kennedy’s tenure to date as “very scary” in an interview with The Wall Street Journal Friday.
They were notified that their jobs have been cut as part of massive layoffs at federal health agencies. Also cut: the people helping to deal with an ongoing lead-exposure crisis in Milwaukee schools. So were the federal health officials who would respond in the case of a radiation emergency.
All of those positions were housed within the CDC’s Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice. With the possible exception of commissioned public health officers, every single employee, including the director, was placed on leave this week. According to an internal CDC document shared with STAT, the division was “to be eliminated in its entirety.”
Since then, there have been conflicting messages from the Trump administration about the fate of these public health workers. According to ABC, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. indicated that 20% of the programs that had been cut were gutted by mistake, and would be reinstated. He singled out the one that focuses on monitoring blood lead levels in children. But then ABC’s story was updated to include a different statement from the department that Kennedy leads: “The personnel for that current division, of how it exists now, are not being reinstated. The work will continue elsewhere at HHS. We are consolidating duplicate programs into one place.”
At a time when the world is down to a single drug that can reliably cure gonorrhea, the U.S. government has shuttered the country’s premier sexually transmitted diseases laboratory, leaving experts aghast and fearful about what lies ahead.
The STD lab at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — a leading player in global efforts to monitor for drug resistance in the bacteria that cause these diseases — was among the targets of major staff slashing at the CDC this past week.
Klausner was shocked by the CDC lab’s closure. “To me, this is like a blind man with a chainsaw has just gone through the system and arbitrarily cut things without any rationale,” he said in an interview.
A second child with measles in Texas has died amid an outbreak that’s sickened more than 480 people in the state since January.
Fifty-six of those who have gotten measles have been hospitalized as of Friday, the state’s Department of Health reported on its website. The exact cause of the latest death is still under investigation.
The move to keep FDA staff working to furnish government records related to its approval of covid vaccines came amid a purge of FOIA workers across federal health agencies, including the FDA, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HHS laid off the entire CDC office handling that agency’s FOIA requests and significantly cut staff at the NIH and FDA, according to eight current or former federal workers. Overall, as part of its plans to shrink the department by 20,000 people, HHS officials said 10,000 employees would be laid off, 3,500 of them from the FDA.
Nikhel Sus, deputy chief counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a legal advocacy group, said, “It’s very concerning that an agency would be prioritizing requests for political reasons.” For years, Kennedy has peddled falsehoods about vaccines — including that “no vaccine” is “safe and effective,” and that “there are other studies out there” showing a connection between vaccines and autism, a link that has repeatedly been debunked.
“That is not what FOIA is meant to do,” Sus said. CREW this month sued the CDC for firing its entire FOIA office.
The layoffs gutted the workforce that process FOIA requests across FDA centers overseeing vaccines, drugs, tobacco, medical devices, and food, current and former employees said. During the 2024 fiscal year — October 2023 through September 2024 — the FDA provided at least some records in response to more than 12,000 requests, according to HHS’ annual FOIA report.
The firings have been inconsistent across offices. Within the FDA division that regulates vaccines, public records staffers who proactively release certain documents, such as information about approved products, were fired, three of the workers said. But in the FDA’s drug division, they were not, two workers said.
At least some who handle FOIA litigation in the FDA offices regulating vaccines and drugs kept their jobs, according to four workers.
During his first news conference as Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on April 16 ticked off things he thinks kids with autism will never do, including paying taxes, holding a job, and going on a date. Kennedy’s comments go against science and reality.
May
The 216 pediatric deaths reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eclipse the 207 reported last year. It’s the most since the 2009-2010 H1N1 global flu pandemic.
It’s a startlingly high number, given that the flu season is still going on. The final pediatric death tally for the 2023-2024 flu season wasn’t counted until autumn.
“This number that we have now is almost certainly an undercount, and one that — when the season is declared over, and they compile all the data — it’s almost certain to go up,” said Dr. Sean O’Leary, of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
There are likely several contributors to this season’s severity, but a big one is that fewer children are getting flu shots, added O’Leary, a University of Colorado pediatric infectious diseases specialist.
The Trump administration halted a Denver study on vaccine trust in a historically Black community before results were analyzed, raising concerns about silencing marginalized voices in public health research. This occurred amid a severe flu season with high pediatric deaths and rising outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, highlighting the urgency of effective vaccine communication.
The Trump administration’s unprecedented $500 million grant for a broadly protective flu shot has confounded vaccine and pandemic preparedness experts, who said the project was in early stages, relied on old technology, and was just one of more than 200 such efforts.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shifted the money from a pandemic preparedness fund to a vaccine development program led by two scientists whom the administration recently named to senior positions at the National Institutes of Health.
While some experts were pleased that Kennedy had supported any vaccine project, they said the May 1 announcement contravened sound scientific policy, appeared arbitrary, and raised the kinds of questions about conflicts of interest that have dogged many of President Donald Trump’s actions.
Focusing vast resources on a single vaccine candidate “is a little like going to the Kentucky Derby and putting all your money on one horse,” said William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University professor and past president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. “In science we normally put money on a number of different horses because we can’t be entirely sure who’s going to win.”
Others were mystified by the decision, since the candidate vaccine uses technology that was largely abandoned in the 1970s and eschews techniques developed in recent decades through funding from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Defense Department.
“This is not a next-generation vaccine,” said Rick Bright, who led HHS’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, in the first Trump administration. “It’s so last-generation, or first-generation, it’s mind-blowing.”
The MAHA report serves as a vignette of techniques used to mislead the public by exploiting the credibility and language of science. A closer look reveals not only bias but outright fabrication.
The report claims to cite over 500 scientific sources. That sounds impressive—until you try to verify them.
At least seven of the studies don’t exist. Not misquoted. Not misrepresented. Fabricated and cited as if they were published in major journals.
With fake titles, fake DOIs, and fake authors, it looks a lot like what we have come to know as AI hallucination.
The new HHS guidance disregards a robust body of evidence and contradicts formal recommendations from major specialty organizations in obstetrics, pediatrics, and infectious diseases. It bypasses the recently removed requirement for public comment, disregards the evidence-based review process typically upheld by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and provides no credible justification for such a reversal.
ACOG strongly opposes HHS’s guidance, calling it “extremely disappointing.”
AAP rejects claims that healthy children don’t need the vaccine, pointing to CDC data showing 41% of hospitalized children had no underlying conditions.
ISDA stressed that pregnancy is a known risk factor for severe outcomes (e.g., preeclampsia, organ damage, preterm birth). It also criticized the unilateral decision, which will affect millions of Americans who are at a higher risk for complications but will no longer meet HHS vaccination criteria.
The Make Our Children Healthy Again (MAHA) Assessment, a May 2025 publication from the Presidential MAHA Commission, presents an alarming view of child health in the United States. Despite its government imprimatur, the MAHA Assessment is not an original scientific product. It closely mirrors earlier publications from Children’s Health Defense (CHD).
The 2023 report, Chronic Health Conditions Among Children, from CHD and the 2024 Vaccine Curriculum, together form a template with which you could write much of the 2025 MAHA Assessment. The tone and format have been changed to one that sounds more like legitimate policy.
June
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed healthy pregnant women do not need COVID-19 boosters, contradicting CDC guidance that classifies pregnant women as high-risk and recommends vaccination due to increased risks of severe illness and complications. His announcement to remove COVID vaccines from the CDC immunization schedule for healthy pregnant women bypassed established scientific review processes, raising concerns about public health policy undermining evidence-based recommendations. Experts emphasize that pregnancy suppresses the immune system, increasing vulnerability to severe COVID-19 outcomes, supporting continued vaccination.
The FDA launched its AI assistant Elsa to expedite clinical protocol reviews and reduce scientific review times, but staff responses have been mixed due to Elsa’s outdated knowledge (current only through April 2024) and occasional inaccuracies. While some users find it helpful for quickly accessing and verifying information, concerns remain about reliance on the tool given its errors and the need for human oversight. Elsa’s deployment reflects a shift toward integrating AI in public health regulatory processes.
Despite RFK Jr.’s promises to prioritize Native American health care, significant federal health program cuts have led to reduced funding, staffing shortages, and poor communication in tribal health services. These changes exacerbate existing health disparities and undermine access to care, raising concerns about the administration’s understanding of the broader impacts beyond the Indian Health Service.
Pediatric infectious disease expert Dr. Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos resigned on Tuesday as co-leader of a U.S. CDC working group that advises outside experts on COVID-19 vaccines and is leaving the agency, two sources familiar with the move told Reuters. Panagiotakopoulos said in an email to work group colleagues that her decision to step down was based on the belief she is “no longer able to help the most vulnerable members” of the U.S. population.
NIH scientists published the Bethesda Declaration expressing concern over deep cuts in public health research and policies they believe undermine the NIH mission and harm public health. The declaration challenges leadership decisions that may waste resources and negatively impact health outcomes.
On Monday, I took a major step towards restoring public trust in vaccines by reconstituting the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP). I retired the 17 current members of the committee. I’m now repopulating ACIP with the eight new members who will attend ACIP’s.
- @SecKennedy on X
This board has no epidemiologists (unless we consider Kulldorff, but he is really a biostatistician), only one infectious disease physician, no immunologist, no one experienced in implementing vaccine policy, an ob-gyn whose expertise relates to cancer prevention in adult women and several people who have expertise which seems to have little or no direct relevance to vaccines, including:
- A nutritional neuroscientist
- A professor of operations management
- An ER physician with no discernible research experience
The one trait that is well represented here is opposition to vaccines at some level.
A document the Department of Health and Human Services sent to lawmakers to support Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to change U.S. policy on covid vaccines cites scientific studies that are unpublished or under dispute and mischaracterizes others.
One health expert called the document “willful medical disinformation” about the safety of covid vaccines for children and pregnant women.
“It is so far out of left field that I find it insulting to our members of Congress that they would actually give them something like this. Congress members are relying on these agencies to provide them with valid information, and it’s just not there,” said Mark Turrentine, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine.
Hundreds of workers at the National Institutes of Health — the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world — are openly protesting the Trump administration’s policies regarding the agency, saying the upheaval and harm being done to the institution is so great that they felt they had no choice.
A letter sent June 9 to agency director Jay Bhattacharya, signed by more than 300 current or former workers — including more than a quarter who signed their names publicly — is an extraordinary rebuke of the Trump administration’s actions against the NIH this year. And that is no small list. They include terminating hundreds of grants funding scientific and biomedical research across the country, firing more than 1,000 employees, tanking funding for young scientists, and moving to end billions in funds to partner research institutions overseas, a move current and former NIH workers say will harm work to combat rare cancers and infectious diseases, among other research.
“If you had a child would you vaccinate that child for measles?” Rep. Marc Pocan (D-Wisc.) asked Kennedy.
Kennedy hesitated before saying “probably,” then adding that his opinion is “irrelevant” and stressing that he doesn’t want it to seem like he is advising people on how to protect their children against measles — despite the vaccine’s proven effectiveness, as well as the fact that he is literally the nation’s chief health official.
“I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me,” Kennedy said.
“That’s kind of your jurisdiction, because the CDC does give advice,” Pocan replied.
June’s ACIP draft agenda narrowed focus to COVID-19/RSV/influenza with many “TBD” entries, partial EtR frameworks, and immediate comment periods—contrasting February/April agendas’ broader scope, named presenters, full EtR, and deliberative comment windows.
On X, Kennedy posted misleading claims about thimerosal—exaggerating risks, misapplying safety standards, and fear-mongering rather than citing gold-standard science.
Sen. Cassidy criticized new ACIP appointees for lacking microbiology, epidemiology, or immunology expertise and urged delaying the meeting until a fully qualified panel is seated as required by law.
“Although the appointees to ACIP have scientific credentials, many do not have significant experience studying microbiology, epidemiology or immunology. In particular, some lack experience studying new technologies such as mRNA vaccines, and may even have a preconceived bias against them. Robust and transparent scientific discussion is important, so long as it is rooted in evidence and understanding. Wednesday’s meeting should not proceed with a relatively small panel, and no CDC Director in place to approve the panel’s recommendations. The meeting should be delayed until the panel is fully staffed with more robust and balanced representation—as required by law—including those with more direct relevant expertise. Otherwise, ACIP’s recommendations could be viewed with skepticism, which will work against the success of this Administration’s efforts.”
We found that a 2006 Children’s Health Defense (CHD) article and the 2025 ACIP presentation share extensive textual overlap. The CDC slides don’t just echo CHD’s claims—they replicate them, word for word in some cases, along with many of the same citations.
Fiona Havers, a former top CDC vaccine expert, resigned in protest following the firing of members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
July
Proposed funding cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the fiscal year 2026 federal budget will lead to significant negative health impacts for millions of Americans, a coalition of former federal health officials said. These proposed funding cuts are not related to the “big, beautiful bill” that is making its way through Congress. The press conference was organized by CDC Alumni and Friends and Fired But Fighting, an informal network of public health advocates. The latter has created a website that lays out the proposed budget cuts to the CDC.
The former officials spoke out during a press conference on Wednesday noting that the proposed budget would slash CDC’s budget by more than half (54%), taking it from $9.3 billion to $4.2 billion.
Adults as young as 50 may now qualify for an RSV vaccine if they have certain health conditions, according to a quiet update from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This marks a change from the CDC’s previous recommendation, which only offered the shot to people 60 and older who were at high risk, the Associated Press reported. Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, is usually mild but can cause severe illness in infants, older adults and people with certain health problems. It affects the nose, throat and lungs.
Earlier this year, a group of vaccine experts on the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to expand RSV vaccination to high-risk adults starting at age 50. However, that recommendation was not executed after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 members of the panel in June. He replaced them with seven new members, some of whom have questioned vaccine effectiveness.
The reconstituted panel has not discussed RSV vaccination again and has already caused concern among doctors by questioning proven science around flu vaccines and childhood immunizations, the AP said. Despite this, a page on the CDC’s website updated last week says Kennedy approved the original panel’s RSV recommendation on June 25.
The site now states that vaccinating high-risk adults 50 and older is an “official recommendation of the CDC,” the AP added. The change has not yet appeared on the agency’s main adult immunization schedule. The CDC already recommends the RSV shot for all adults 75 and older and for people 60 and older who have health conditions that increase their risk of severe RSV. It also recommends the shot during pregnancy to protect newborns.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has ended its emergency response to the H5N1 bird flu and said Monday it will streamline future updates on the virus with routine reports on seasonal influenza. The big picture: A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said the response was “deactivated to transition back to regular program activity” last Wednesday due to animal infections with the H5N1 strain declining and no human cases being reported since February. CDC data shows 70 bird flu cases were reported in the U.S., but there are no known person-to-person exposures in the U.S. right now, eliminating the need for the virus’ emergency declaration.
The agency will continue to monitor the situation and report data on the number of people monitored and tested for bird flu monthly. Detections in animals will no longer be reported on the CDC’s website, but can be found on the USDA’s website. State of play: There has only been one fatality from H5N1 in the U.S. since the CDC H5N1 Bird Flu Response was activated in April last year, which was reported earlier this year in Louisiana.
The highest concentration of cases on the West Coast in California and Washington, according to CDC data. The most affected states have either ended or are winding down their responses. The HHS spokesperson said in their email statement that although the current public health risk from H5N1 bird flu is low, the CDC will continue to monitor the situation and scale up activities as needed.
Six major medical groups, and a pregnant physician, are suing health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over changes he made to Covid-19 vaccine recommendations that they say were unlawful and undermine public trust in health care. The suit argues that a May 19 directive signed by Kennedy, which said that the Covid-19 vaccine would no longer be recommended for healthy children and pregnant people, violates decades of policy governing how vaccines are reviewed, approved, and recommended in the U.S.
“The Secretary cited no emergency, let alone change in circumstances, to justify the directive … [the directive] is contrary to the wealth of data and peer-reviewed studies that demonstrate the safety and efficacy of Covid vaccines for children and pregnant women,” reads the suit, led by the American Academy of Pediatrics and filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Other plaintiffs are the American College of Physicians, American Public Health Association, Infectious Diseases Society of America, Massachusetts Public Health Alliance, Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and the pregnant physician. The latter plaintiff, an unnamed woman who works in a Massachusetts hospital, says the policy change has created barriers to getting a Covid-19 vaccine, despite her exposure to illness at work, and has left her worried “for the health and safety of her unborn child,” per the suit.
The U.S. has reported 1,288 measles cases this year — the highest number in 33 years, according to the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The last time the U.S. saw more measles cases was in 1992, eight years before the disease was declared eliminated in the country. “We’re seeing a lot more measles transmission than we are used to,” says Caitlin Rivers. She’s the director of the Center for Outbreak Response Innovation at Johns Hopkins University, which has its own measles dashboard.
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) voted to advance Susan Monarez’s nomination as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday. The panel voted along party lines 12-11. Monarez is the first CDC director nominee to require a Senate confirmation after Congress passed a law requiring it in 2022.
The number of measles cases has reached the highest level in the United States since the virus was declared eliminated in 2000. This is truly a cause for serious alarm. The unnecessary suffering, the broadening risk to many Americans, and the burden the disease is placing on our health care system are all the more distressing because measles is preventable. In fact, measles was declared eliminated because of successful vaccination efforts. We are committed to working collaboratively to address the clear and present danger that public hesitancy toward vaccines now presents.
Public health officials should be supported in unambiguously communicating that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine is extremely safe and effective, and we urge our professional colleagues to share evidence-based information on the safety and efficacy of vaccines within their communities. We support the recommendations for routine vaccination in children to prevent further spread of the virus. Below is a list of National Academies resources to inform these efforts.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) called on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to immediately declare a public health emergency for measles, blaming the senior Trump administration official for failing to respond to the rapid resurgence of the disease. Schumer accused Kennedy in a bluntly worded letter Friday of walking “our country into the nation’s largest measles outbreak in 33 years, leading cases to hit a record high a full 25 years after this country eliminated the disease.”
Schumer said what began as a localized outbreak in Texas has now “exploded” into a nationwide health crisis with nearly 1,300 Americans across 38 states reported to have become infected. “To prevent this historic record high spread from reaching further and to save lives, you should immediately declare a Public Health Emergency for measles,” Schumer wrote. The Democratic leader expressed his “deep concern” about Kennedy’s “response — or lack thereof — to the rapid resurgence of measles across the United States.”
“Under your tutelage as secretary, you have undermined vaccines, gutted public health funding, and dismantled core federal protections meant to keep Americans safe,” he wrote. Schumer cited the mass layoffs of federal health care employees, including infectious disease scientists, the “careless and devastating” freezing of grants and Kennedy’s overhaul of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Kennedy last month removed all 17 members from the advisory committee that guides vaccine policy and recommendations for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“As a painful but pertinent reminder, you’ve laid off disease experts, canceled National Institutes of Health (NIH) research into vaccine hesitancy, fired scientists from the nation’s top immunization panel, and stripped over $11 billion in federal public health grants — including $550 million from Texas during the peak of its outbreak,” he wrote. He said that resulted in 50 vaccine clinics closing and 21 public health workers losing their jobs in Dallas County alone. Schumer noted that while measles is a highly contagious virus, it’s also preventable and was declared eliminated in the Untied States in 2000 after years of a nationwide campaign to give children two doses of the measles vaccine.
The FDA will hold a panel discussion Thursday on hormone therapy for menopausal women, a pet issue for Commissioner Marty Makary that’s separately garnered attention in the states and on social media.
The agency’s X post announcing the event billed it as a forum to “discuss treatments, education, and comprehensive care beyond symptom management.” In a video posted Monday afternoon, Makary said the meeting would “address the evidence and medical dogma in this field.”
Thousands of health workers lost their jobs this week after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for the Trump administration to move forward with major staffing cuts. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) finalized 10,000 layoffs across federal health agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), The New York Times reported. The layoffs followed a March announcement by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who called for a major department overhaul. The affected workers included staff responsible for travel logistics, communication, medical research contracts and other related tasks.
“Thank you for your service to the American people,” said an email sent to workers as they were removed from the payroll. Some employees who received layoff notices April 1 first learned they were let go when their building access badges stopped working. But many people still remained officially on the payroll until 5 p.m. Monday, when the high court allowed the administration to move forward, even as legal challenges continue, The Times said. While the administration called many of the jobs “redundant,” critics liken the cuts to having doctors but no support staff in a hospital.
“What I have seen is some of the very best people, people who have alternatives, who have choices, have decided they just don’t want to stay in this limbo land,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health who was former President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 response coordinator. Jha warned that the ongoing staffing cuts could cause more employees to leave.
“They don’t want to be in an organization that’s under such upheaval,” he said. In total, HHS plans to cut about 20,000 jobs this year. That includes earlier layoffs, early retirements and buyouts. The department is also shrinking its number of divisions from 28 to 15, The Times said. While officials pointed to the department’s $1.8 trillion budget as a reason for the cuts, experts said payroll represented less than 1% of that amount. Most of the money funds programs like Medicare and Medicaid.
On June 16, a federal judge in Boston ruled that the National Institutes of Health’s termination of hundreds of research grants was illegal and ordered the funds reinstated. In his ruling, U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young called the terminations “arbitrary and capricious.”
A small handful of the roughly 200 federal grants to Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health that have been terminated in recent months could be affected by the ruling. It is not clear whether or when payments on those grants might resume.
USAID funding over two decades significantly reduced mortality in low- and middle-income countries, including a 15% drop in all-cause mortality and major declines in deaths from HIV/AIDS, malaria, and neglected tropical diseases. However, recent steep funding cuts in 2025 threaten to reverse these gains, potentially causing over 14 million additional deaths by 2030, raising serious public health concerns if funding is not restored.
An FDA panel expressed doubts about the safety of SSRIs during pregnancy and discussed adding a black box warning for fetal risks, despite extensive research showing low risk compared to untreated maternal depression. Experts warn this could worsen maternal mental health outcomes, as untreated depression poses serious risks including preterm birth, preeclampsia, and suicide. The panel’s focus on potential SSRI risks without addressing benefits or current neuroscience may lead to reduced antidepressant use and increased harm to mothers and infants.
Current and former members of the FDA told CNN about issues with the Elsa generative AI tool unveiled by the federal agency last month. Three employees said that in practice, Elsa has hallucinated nonexistent studies or misrepresented real research.
“Anything that you don’t have time to double-check is unreliable,” one source told the publication.
“It hallucinates confidently.” Which isn’t exactly ideal for a tool that’s supposed to be speeding up the clinical review process and aiding with making efficient, informed decisions to benefit patients. Leadership at the FDA appeared unfazed by the potential problems posed by Elsa.
“I have not heard those specific concerns,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary told CNN. He also emphasized that using Elsa and participating in the training to use it are currently voluntary at the agency.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told Engadget that “the information provided by FDA to CNN was mischaracterized and taken out of context.”
The spokesperson also claimed that CNN led its story with “disgruntled former employees and sources who have never even used the current version of Elsa.”
The agency claims to have guardrails and guidance for how its employees can use the tool, but its statement doesn’t address that Elsa, like any AI platform, can and will deliver incorrect or incomplete information at times.
The CDC’s flagship journal MMWR is experiencing a major publishing slowdown due to extensive internal review processes and resource constraints exacerbated by funding cuts to state and local public health departments. This slowdown has led to reduced dissemination and impact of public health findings.
The AMA expressed deep concern over reports that the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary plans to remove all members of the USPSTF, emphasizing the task force’s critical role in providing evidence-based preventive health recommendations that influence nationwide insurance coverage. The AMA urged retention of current members to maintain continuity in preventive service guidelines, warning that disruption could impact access to essential screenings and preventive care without cost sharing. This raises potential concerns about interruptions in evidence-based public health policy and patient access to preventive services.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. repeated false claims about vaccine safety and efficacy, including that aluminum in vaccines causes food allergies, at a meeting with governors in Colorado Springs. He also suggested that diabetes can be cured through diet and criticized the US healthcare system, advocating for a shift to a public database for independent scientists to study health data.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced plans to overhaul the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), criticizing it for failing to fairly and quickly compensate vaccine-injured individuals and pledging to expand eligibility for claims. This proposed change raises concerns due to Kennedy’s history of promoting debunked vaccine-autism links and anti-vaccine positions, which could impact public trust and vaccine policy.
Vinay Prasad, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s chief medical and science officer, has left the health regulator, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, said on Tuesday, confirming an earlier news report. “Dr. Prasad did not want to be a distraction to the great work of the FDA in the Trump administration and has decided to return to California and spend more time with his family,” an HHS spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
In recent months, U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary has amplified unfounded concerns about the safety of seed oils, a subset of vegetable oils used in infant formula. There isn’t evidence these fat sources are harmful to infants. “Generally, they’re believed to be pro-inflammatory,” Makary said of seed oils on June 4 in an interview on “Fox & Friends,” echoing claims that wellness influencers have spread about seed oils, despite a lack of evidence they are harmful when included in people’s diets, as we’ve written before.
“We don’t want babies with general body inflammation. Forty percent of our nation’s kids have a chronic condition. Many of those are tied to inflammation and insulin resistance,” he said.
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) wants to abolish the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. He may have been partly influenced by claims from health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that the program is broken. That’s simply not true. Eliminating it would harm not just people with valid claims of being harmed by vaccines but also the rest of us, by making vaccines less available. The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program is a no-fault compensation program for people who say that a childhood vaccine hurt them in some way. They need to present their claims to this federal administrative program before they can sue in regular courts. In several ways, it’s better for the claimants than going directly to court.
Vaccination rates for several diseases including measles, diphtheria and polio decreased among U.S. kindergartners in the 2024-25 school year from the year before, according to federal data posted on Thursday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the new figures at a time when the country faces a growing measles outbreak, with confirmed cases this month reaching the highest level since the disease was declared eliminated from the country in 2000.
August
Under Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s leadership, the CDC has quietly reported a continued decline in kindergarten MMR vaccination rates, reaching a 33-year low in coverage and coinciding with a surge in measles outbreaks. Public health policy has shifted as nonmedical vaccine exemptions have risen to an all-time high, influenced by anti-vaccine rhetoric from the health secretary, while the CDC has reduced transparency by skipping its usual detailed vaccination coverage reports.
The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) has decided to stop accepting federal funding due to recent federal policy changes that conflict with its program goals and evidence-based care guidelines. This move reflects concerns over shifts in public health policy under the current administration, including changes to COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for pregnant individuals and restrictions on contraceptive access, which the best evidence suggests is detrimental to maternal health outcomes.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is blocking funding for a swath of public-health programs run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources. These include youth violence prevention programs, research on preventing gun injuries and deaths and efforts targeting diabetes, chronic kidney disease and tobacco use, according to the report.
The AMA and seven other medical organizations condemned the removal of their volunteer liaisons from ACIP work groups, criticizing the administration’s claim of addressing conflicts of interest as undermining transparency and public trust in vaccine recommendations. This policy change excludes experienced medical experts from reviewing vaccine data, which the groups warn could jeopardize public health and confidence in immunization programs. The AMA also expressed concern over the dismissal of all 17 ACIP members, highlighting risks to the integrity of vaccine policy development.
Since February 2025, HRSA has experienced a loss of about a quarter of its workforce, including key staff managing grants for vital health programs nationwide. This significant reduction threatens the administration and funding of essential public health services such as HIV/AIDS treatment, maternal and child care, rural health initiatives, and workforce training, increasing strain on hospitals and healthcare costs.
U.S. health officials have excluded major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, from vaccine recommendation panels, removing their experts from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices workgroups.
HHS is ending its mRNA vaccine development under BARDA, canceling or scaling back 22 projects worth nearly $500 million. The agency claimed to be shifting to an older technology that it described as a safer, broader vaccine platform. Experts disagree and express concern that the old technologies may cause more vaccine reactions and provide less robust immunity.
Rick Bright on X: “BARDA invested in mRNA technology precisely because it could deliver safe, scalable vaccines in record time, a capability proven during COVID. By dismantling that platform, we’re crippling our front-line defense, just ahead of unknown biological threats.”
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced canceling $500 million in mRNA vaccine development contracts, citing concerns about their effectiveness against respiratory viruses and virus mutation. This policy shift prioritizes alternative vaccine technologies but contradicts established scientific consensus on mRNA vaccine safety and efficacy. Former Surgeon General Jerome Adams warned that this decision could lead to increased public health risks and cost lives.
ACA Marketplace premiums are projected to increase by a median of 18% in 2026, driven primarily by rising healthcare costs, including high-priced drugs, labor, and inflation, as well as the potential expiration of enhanced premium tax credits. The loss of these tax credits could cause out-of-pocket costs to rise by over 75%, likely leading healthier enrollees to drop coverage and further increasing premiums. These changes raise concerns about affordability and access to coverage for ACA enrollees.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. quietly endorsed the ACIP recommendation for annual flu vaccination for all individuals aged 6 months and older for the 2025-2026 season, formalizing it as CDC policy despite the absence of a CDC director at the time. This endorsement contrasts with his earlier public stance on removing thimerosal from flu vaccines. Potential concerns include the lack of public communication around the endorsement and the timing amid leadership transitions at the CDC.
Although mRNA vaccines saved millions of lives during the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. incorrectly argued they are ineffective to justify the Department of Health and Human Service’s recent decision to cancel $500 million in government-funded research projects to develop new vaccines using the technology.
The longtime vaccine critic said in an X video posted Tuesday evening that mRNA vaccines do not adequately prevent upper respiratory infections such as COVID-19 and the flu, advocating instead for the development vaccines that use other processes.
COVID-19 is the only virus for which real-world data on mRNA vaccine effectiveness is currently available, as mRNA vaccines for other diseases, including the flu, are still under development. The two scientists whose discoveries enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 won a Nobel Prize in 2023 for their work.
Kennedy’s claim ignores how mRNA vaccines work, according to experts. They prevent against severe infection and death, but cannot completely prevent an infection from occurring in the first place. Plus, years of research supports the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines that use mRNA technology.
Federal immigration authorities detained a woman seeking medical care at the National Institutes of Health’s flagship research hospital, according to an internal document and an NIH official briefed on the situation.
The woman, an existing patient, drew scrutiny at a security station to enter the campus of the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, when she handed over a state driver’s license that failed to meet new federal security ID standards.
That prompted NIH officials to check for warrants and discover she had an order for removal. They then called U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The woman was to receive care through the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, according to the official and the document. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
On August 8, 2025, Patrick Joseph White, a 30-year-old from Kennesaw, Georgia, opened fire on multiple buildings of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. He fired approximately 40 rounds, targeting the institution at the center of pervasive vaccine misinformation. Before the attack, White had become fixated on the belief that the COVID‑19 vaccine was the source of his personal health problems and suicidal thoughts. His father had previously alerted authorities to White’s suicidal ideation.
RFK Jr., through his anti-vaccine group, funded the anti-vaccine film Plandemic, one of the biggest drivers of false vaccine claims in the years following its release.
August 10, 2025 - CDC Shooting: Union Wants Trump Officials To Condemn Vaccine Disinformation
A shooting at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, killed a police officer and was linked to the suspect’s claim that the COVID vaccine caused his health issues. The American Federation of Government Employees union is calling for the CDC and HHS to condemn vaccine disinformation, citing its potential to incite violence against scientists and undermine public trust in public health information.
A federal judge ordered the US Department of Health and Human Services to stop sharing Medicaid data, including home addresses and Social Security numbers, with deportation officials due to privacy concerns. The order affects 20 states and is in place until the health department provides a clear justification for the data sharing.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has reinstated a task force to oversee childhood vaccine safety, aiming to develop and promote vaccines with fewer adverse reactions and improve adverse reaction reporting. The task force will work with existing agencies to make recommendations and send a report to Congress within 2 years. The move has raised concerns that it may undermine confidence in routine childhood vaccines by duplicating existing systems for political purposes.
The US Department of Health and Human Services is halting 22 mRNA vaccine development projects, ending nearly $500 million in investments, potentially hindering the country’s ability to quickly respond to future health threats. This decision reverses years of investment in mRNA technology, which enabled rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccine.
RFK Jr. has canceled research on mRNA vaccines, including a potential universal cancer vaccine, due to his vaccine skepticism, putting US leadership in mRNA research at risk and potentially ceding a strategic public health advantage to countries like China. This decision has been criticized by experts, including former BARDA head Rick Bright, who likened mRNA research to a “missile defense system for biology.”
The US CDC appointed Retsef Levi, a vaccine critic, to lead its COVID-19 immunization workgroup, which reviews vaccine safety and effectiveness. Levi has expressed concerns about mRNA vaccines, including potential harm to children. This appointment may raise concerns about the committee’s objectivity and potential impact on public health policy.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Pediatrics diverged from the CDC’s vaccine recommendations, advising routine COVID-19 shots for healthy children and pregnant women. The CDC now recommends “shared clinical decision-making” for children under 2 years old, while the AAP recommends vaccination for this age group. This divergence is part of a broader trend of public health organizations questioning the CDC’s vaccine guidance due to recent changes in the agency’s vaccine review process.
“CDC hasn’t reached out to us locally,” Katherine Wells, the public health director in Lubbock, Texas, wrote in a Feb. 5 email exchange with a colleague two weeks after children with measles were hospitalized in Lubbock. “My staff feels like we are out here all alone,” she added.
A child would die before CDC scientists contacted Wells.
RFK Jr. claims to see mitochondrial challenges in children’s faces, but experts dispute this as not scientifically possible.
RFK Jr. suggests that the rise in school shootings in the US may be linked to the country’s high rate of antidepressant medication use, specifically SSRIs, which he believes may contribute to violent behavior.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. falsely claimed on Fox News that the CDC lists abortion as one of the top 10 advances in medical science, citing the agency’s website. This statement is a distortion of the CDC’s actual content.
US kindergarten vaccination coverage declined to 92% for DTaP and 93% for MMR vaccine, with 138,000 students exempt from at least one vaccine, mostly for non-medical reasons. This increase in exemptions is a concern as it puts students and peers at risk, particularly with the rising number of measles cases in 2025.
September
A top FDA official, Vinay Prasad, demanded the removal of YouTube videos featuring himself criticizing COVID vaccines, leading to the deletion of a channel containing 350 videos of public health officials, including Prasad, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Jay Bhattacharya. The channel’s creator, Jonathan Howard, aimed to preserve and document public health officials’ statements during the pandemic, including those that downplayed vaccine risks and COVID-19 severity.
YouTube deleted the entire channel citing copyright infringement.
We have each had the honor and privilege of serving as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, either in a permanent or an acting capacity, dating back to 1977. Collectively, we spent more than 100 years working at the C.D.C., the world’s pre-eminent public health agency. We served under multiple Republican and Democratic administrations — every president from Jimmy Carter to Donald Trump — alongside thousands of dedicated staff members who shared our commitment to saving lives and improving health.
What the health and human services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has done to the C.D.C. and to our nation’s public health system over the past several months — culminating in his decision to fire Susan Monarez as C.D.C. director days ago — is unlike anything we had ever seen at the agency and unlike anything our country had ever experienced.
Mr. Kennedy has fired thousands of federal health workers and severely weakened programs designed to protect Americans from cancer, heart attacks, strokes, lead poisoning, injury, violence and more. Amid the largest measles outbreak in the United States in a generation, he’s focused on unproven treatments while downplaying vaccines. He canceled investments in promising medical research that will leave us ill prepared for future health emergencies. He replaced experts on federal health advisory committees with unqualified individuals who share his dangerous and unscientific views. He announced the end of U.S. support for global vaccination programs that protect millions of children and keep Americans safe, citing flawed research and making inaccurate statements. And he championed federal legislation that will cause millions of people with health insurance through Medicaid to lose their coverage. Firing Dr. Monarez — which led to the resignations of top C.D.C. officials — adds considerable fuel to this raging fire.
We are worried about the wide-ranging impact that all these decisions will have on America’s health security. Residents of rural communities and people with disabilities will have even more limited access to health care. Families with low incomes who rely most heavily on community health clinics and support from state and local health departments will have fewer resources available to them. Children risk losing access to lifesaving vaccines because of the cost.
This is unacceptable, and it should alarm every American, regardless of political l leanings.
Paul Offit, a pediatrician and vaccine safety expert, was removed from the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee after his term as a special government employee expired. The reason for his removal is unclear, and it is not known if his status will be renewed.
Florida plans to eliminate childhood vaccine mandates, a move that reverses decades of public health policy and could increase the risk of infectious disease outbreaks among schoolchildren. This decision is a significant departure from established research showing vaccines to be safe and effective in preventing the spread of diseases.
A joint statement from 24 national medical, scientific, and public health organizations calls for the resignation of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. due to concerns that his policies undermine science and public health, putting Americans at risk of foodborne illness, reduced diagnostic testing, and decreased ability to track and respond to infectious diseases.
Kerry Kennedy and her nephew Joseph P. Kennedy III called for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to resign as HHS Secretary, citing concerns that his leadership is putting lives at risk due to the “decimation” of critical health institutions.
Vinay Prasad has regained his role as FDA Chief Medical Officer, overseeing vaccine, gene therapy, and blood product regulation. He will advise the FDA Commissioner on emerging medical and scientific issues.
The US CDC plans to award a contract to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to investigate the link between vaccines and autism, despite existing scientific evidence showing no association. The contract’s lead researcher has previously published studies suggesting potential links between autism and various factors, including heavy metals and maternal health. The CDC’s own website maintains that vaccines do not cause autism.
The FDA reportedly plans to link COVID-19 vaccines to 25 minor deaths, causing Moderna shares to drop 7.4% to their lowest level since March 2020.
US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is rapidly changing US vaccine policies, restricting COVID-19 shot eligibility, expanding vaccine exemptions, and potentially limiting access to vaccines for children. This has raised concerns among public health experts, who fear that recommendations may be made without rigorous scientific review, potentially leading to increased preventable diseases.
RFK Jr.-Backed Panel Advises Against MMRV Combo Vaccine for Young Children
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s handpicked slate of vaccine advisers voted to no longer recommend a combined shot for measles, mumps, rubella and varicella for children under age 4.
US vaccine advisers, led by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., recommended COVID-19 shots be administered through shared decision-making with a healthcare provider, not requiring a broad recommendation. This change maintains access to COVID vaccines through health insurance, but may lower immunization rates due to potential doubts raised about vaccine safety.
Citation
@article{infoepi_lab2025,
author = {{InfoEpi Lab}},
publisher = {Information Epidemiology Lab},
title = {HHS {Under} {RFK} {Jr.:} {Centralization,} {Corruption,} and
{Censorship}},
journal = {InfoEpi Lab},
date = {2025-04-06},
url = {https://infoepi.org/posts/2025/04/decline-of-hhs-rfk-jr-censorship-subversion.html},
langid = {en}
}