Sources used in this timeline are public and include The Wall Street Journal, Axios, Reuters, AP News, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Stat News. Every incident has been corroborated by multiple sources, except for the March 25th appointment of an antivaxxer to lead a federally funded study. The claim has not been denied, and the individual is listed as employed by HHS.
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 information control 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
February
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) yesterday terminated at least 33 research grants studying vaccine hesitancy and strategies to increase vaccine uptake and scaled back 9 others on the topic, Science reported, based on information from a person with direct knowledge and a review of the cancellation letter that researchers received.
The termination letter seen by Science said their awards “no longer effectuates agency priorities. It is the policy of NIH not to prioritize research activities that focus on gaining scientific knowledge on why individuals are hesitant to be vaccinated and/or explore ways to improve vaccine interest and commitment.”
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.
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}
}