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centers for disease control and prevention
RFK Jr.’s Guide to Making America Sick Again
Building on his longstanding anti-vaxxing crusade, Kennedy has followed a multi-step program that will worsen the next outbreak.
Jun 15, 2025
Someone should have told Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that President Donald Trump’s mishandling of the last pandemic probably cost him the presidency in 2020.
Building on his longstanding anti-vaxxing crusade, Kennedy has followed a three-step program that will worsen the next outbreak.
Step 1: Reduce vaccine availability. Three weeks ago, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—one of Kennedy’s HHS agencies—announced that for healthy Americans under 65, Covid-19 vaccines will not be approved until they pass large scale and time-consuming clinical trials. That is a daunting obstacle.
Kennedy said that the firings were necessary to restore public trust in vaccines. They do the opposite.
Step 2: Reduce vaccine eligibility. The following week, Kennedy announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would no longer recommend the Covid-19 vaccine for children and pregnant women. Within days, the CDC had to walk it back somewhat, stating that whether to vaccinate a child should be the product of “shared decision-making” involving parents and physicians. But pregnant women remain in the limbo world of “no recommendation.” In any event, the negative impact on overall public health will be enormous.
Step 3: Eliminate vaccine expertise. On June 9, Kennedy fired the entire CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)—all 17 of them. This committee of outside experts reviews the most recent data on all vaccines to assess safety, efficacy, and clinical need. It develops a recommended guidance schedule for all vaccines, including seasonal flu shots and Covid-19 boosters. Physicians rely on that guidance in counseling patients, and insurance companies and government programs use it to determine the vaccines they will cover. Committee members received their termination notices via email sent two hours after Kennedy announced their firing in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.
With Kennedy’s selection of his first eight replacements on June 11, we’re getting a sense of the disaster that will accompany Step 4.
Action Based on Lies
Kennedy’s stated justifications for terminating every member of the vaccine advisory committee are a combination of lies, half-truths, and misinformation.
Fact: Committee members are screened for major conflicts of interest. They cannot hold stock or serve on advisory boards or bureaus affiliated with vaccine manufacturers. If members have a conflict of interest, they disclose it and recuse themselves from related votes.
Lie: But Kennedy asserted falsely that most members of the committee had received substantial funding from pharmaceutical companies. “The committee has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine,” he said falsely.
Fact: Individual working groups may meet in private, but committee meetings and members’ materials are public. Over several days of meetings, they review safety and effectiveness data, debate policy, hear from experts, and entertain public comment.
Lie: Kennedy asserted falsely that the committee worked secretly “behind closed doors.”
Misinformation/half-truth: According to The New York Times, “Kennedy claimed that 97% of financial disclosure forms from committee members had omissions. But the statistic came from an inspector general’s report in 2009, which found that 97% of the forms had errors, such as missing dates or information in the wrong section, not significant financial conflicts.”
Kennedy said that the firings were necessary to restore public trust in vaccines. They do the opposite. Thanks in large measure to Kennedy’s years of anti-vaxxing leadership, support for vaccinating children is eroding. Now he can stack the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee—the key medical and scientific body responsible for determining which vaccines protect and promote public health.
Seen Enough Yet, Sen. Cassidy?
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), the physician who reluctantly provided the key vote that resulted in Kennedy’s Senate confirmation, sees the mess. He was instrumental in creating it. Cassidy could have killed Kennedy’s nomination and thought seriously about doing so.
But like almost all Republicans in the Senate, his spine failed him. Before voting on Kennedy’s nomination, Sen. Cassidy took the Senate floor to explain his decision. He said that Kennedy had assured him that, if confirmed, he would “maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes.”
Reacting to Kennedy’s mass firings, Sen. Cassidy posted on X:
“Of course, now the fear is that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion…”
Two days later, Sen. Cassidy’s fears came to life.
On June 11, Kennedy named eight replacements. Among them are anti-vaccine activists, conspiracy theorists, vaccine misinformation promoters, a co-author of and a signatory to the pandemic-era Great Barrington Declaration that recommended widespread exposure to Covid-19 as strategy for dealing with the outbreak (instead of widespread vaccination), and individuals who lack the expertise required for the board’s task. One new member testified as an expert witness in a case against Merck over its Gardasil vaccine (for HPV)—mass tort litigation that Kennedy played a key role in organizing.
Steps 5, 6,…
Kennedy included 4 of the 8 new members in the dedication of his 2021 book, The Real Anthony Fauci. Dr. Theodore Dalrymple, a physician and scientist who reviewed it for the Claremont Review of Books, observed, “When I looked up at random five of the medical papers Kennedy cites, I found that he had misrepresented all of them… He asserts things that are simply not true.”
Kennedy is at it again. Announcing his selections on X, he wrote, “The slate includes highly credentialed scientists, leading public-health experts, and some of America’s most accomplished physicians.”
Do you agree, Sen. Cassidy?
Kennedy’s vaccine advisory committee meets on June 25-27. We should all fear the outcome.
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As Subvariant Spreads, CDC Maintains Child Vaccine Guidance Despite RFK Announcement
Experts said the new guidance would likely prevent insurers from refusing to cover the vaccines, but some said mixed messages from the Trump administration could still lead to confusion.
May 30, 2025
Amid reports of a new Covid-19 subvariant spreading in several U.S. states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday said updated guidance on receiving vaccines against the coronavirus that contradicted a controversial recent announcement from the nation's top health official.
The CDC's schedule for vaccines for children aged 6 months to 17 years retained the Covid-19 shot, advising parents and doctors to engage in "shared clinical decision-making" when determining if a child should be vaccinated—meaning children can receive the shots if their parents and physicians agree.
That guidance contradicts a statement from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. earlier this week. Kennedy claimed Tuesday that there was a "lack of any clinical data to support the repeat booster strategy in children" for Covid vaccines as he announced, alongside National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Martin Makary, that the shots would no longer be recommended for pregnant women or healthy children.
"Where the parent presents with a desire for their child to be vaccinated, children six months and older may receive Covid-19 vaccination, informed by the clinical judgment of a healthcare provider and personal preference and circumstances," the new guidelines read.
"At least how some clinicians perceive it is, 'You guys are the experts, and if you don't know what the right thing to do is, how are we supposed to have that conversation in a 10-minute office visit?'"
Kennedy's announcement earlier this week alarmed public health experts, as did an earlier statement that the vaccines would only be made available to people over age 65 and those with certain medical conditions.
Kennedy, who baselessly called the Covid-19 vaccine "the deadliest ever made" in 2021—when the shots were estimated to have saved 140,000 lives—said at the time that new clinical trials would be needed to see if the vaccines continued to provide protection to people under 65.
Sean O'Leary, the chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics' infectious disease committee, said the CDC's new guidance could still cause confusion among parents and doctors, compared to an across-the-board recommendation like those that exist for other childhood vaccines.
"At least how some clinicians perceive it is, 'You guys are the experts, and if you don't know what the right thing to do is, how are we supposed to have that conversation in a 10-minute office visit?'" O'Leary told The Washington Post.
But the new guidance could stop insurance companies from refusing to cover the shots, as experts were worried they might after Kennedy's earlier statements, and will preserve the shots' availability for about 38 million low-income children who rely on the Vaccines for Children program.
The out-of-pocket cost for a Covid vaccine at a CVS pharmacy—where some patients could opt to go if their doctors don't want to administer the vaccine—is $198.99.
Experts remained concerned on Friday about the CDC's approach to Covid vaccines for pregnant women; the agency said there is officially "no guidance" for people who are pregnant.
Public health experts have warned that research shows pregnant women's risk of death and hospitalization is heightened if they have a Covid infection, and that the illness raises the risk of stillbirth.
The CDC's new guidance—and Kennedy's push to pivot away from Covid vaccines for the general population—come as a new, highly transmissible Covid subvariant has been detected in states including California, Rhode Island, New York, and Washington.
The subvariant, NB.1.8.1, was first detected in January and has been spreading in Europe and Asia since then, with the World Health Organization saying there has been a "concurrent increase in cases and hospitalizations in some countries where NB.1.8.1 is widespread."
Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, an infectious disease expert at Stanford University, told The Los Angeles Times that NB.1.8.1 does not cause more severe illness, "but it is more transmissible, at least from what we’re seeing around the world and also from lab experiments."
Meanwhile, Kennedy's push to reduce the availability of vaccines is "kind of chilling," Dr. Peter Chin-Hong of the University of California, San Francisco, told the Times. "It's out of step with the system we've learned to trust and follow... Most people would agree that kids should be targeted for flu vaccines. It seems kind of weird to have Covid as an outlier in that respect."
O'Leary said in a statement that despite the Trump administration's recent statements, scientific data about the vaccines is clear.
"Pregnant women, infants, and young children are at higher risk of hospitalization from Covid," he said, "and the safety of the Covid vaccine has been widely demonstrated."
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RFK Says US Will No Longer Recommend Covid Shot for Healthy Children and Pregnant People
"With Covid still circulating, pregnant women and their babies who are born too young to be vaccinated are going to be at risk for Covid and for the severe complications," said one doctor.
May 27, 2025
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Tuesday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will cease recommending the Covid-19 vaccine for "healthy children and healthy pregnant women."
As of Tuesday, Covid vaccines for those two groups are no longer a part of the CDC recommended immunization schedule, said Kennedy in a video posted to X. In the video, Kennedy stood between National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Martin Makary.
"We're now one step closer to realizing President [Donald] Trump's promise to make America healthy again," said Kennedy, who has a history of disparaging vaccines and once falsely called the Covid jab the "deadliest vaccine ever made."
"Last year, the Biden administration urged healthy children to get yet another Covid shot, despite the lack of any clinical data to support the repeat booster strategy in children," said Kennedy.
Bhattacharya added: "That ends today. It's common sense and it's good science."
Until the announcement, the CDC had recommended everyone 6 months old and older, including pregnant people, get the vaccine.
According to The Washington Post, the move sidestepped traditional protocol. After a vaccine has the green light from the FDA, it goes to a CDC panel called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for consideration. That panel then holds hearings to determine who should receive the vaccine, how frequently they should receive it, and when, per the Post. The panel sends it recommendation to the CDC director, who can decide to sign off on it, at which point it becomes official policy.
Information that is still currently on the CDC's website states that pregnant people are at heightened risk if they contract Covid-19.
"If you are pregnant or were recently pregnant, you are more likely to get very sick from Covid-19, compared to those who are not pregnant. Additionally, if you have Covid-19 during pregnancy, you are at increased risk of complications that can affect your pregnancy and your baby from serious illness from Covid-19," the webpage states.
Dr. Denise Jamieson, an adviser to the CDC on vaccines who also serves on the immunization committee of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, also told the New York Times on Tuesday that pregnant people are at heightened risk of becoming severely sickened with Covid.
"With Covid still circulating, pregnant women and their babies who are born too young to be vaccinated are going to be at risk for Covid and for the severe complications," Jamieson told the outlet.
Today RFK and co. removed the COVID vaccine from the CDC's recommended immunization schedule for children and pregnant people. This is junk science. COVID puts children and pregnant people at higher risk for ER visits and hospitalizations, and Long COVID can cause chronic health issues for anyone.
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— Dr. Lucky Tran (@luckytran.com) May 27, 2025 at 12:06 PM
The Times' coverage pointed out that the video did not make it clear whether the vaccine will be offered to children who have never had it before, or whether the states will still be allowed recommend Covid shots.
When it comes to children, Dr. Sean O'Leary, a vaccine expert for the American Academy of Pediatrics, recently told the Times that the hospitalization risk for children who are 6 months old and younger is about the same as the risks faced by people who are ages 65-74, and there is also increased risk of hospitalization for kids up to the age of 2.
Writing on Bluesky, New York Times health journalist Maggie Astor on Tuesday called the move "a huge step" that is "at odds with science showing significant risks for young children and pregnant women—and that directly contradicts the FDA's own publication from last week listing pregnancy as a high-risk condition that would qualify people for this fall's Covid vaccine."
Last week, the FDA announced a plan to restrict access of Covid-19 vaccines. Vinay Prasad, head of the agency's vaccine division, and Makary, the commissioner, wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine that the vaccine "booster" doses that have been available for the last several years to anyone aged 6 months and older carry "uncertain" benefits for much of the population. The officials said they anticipate the next round of shots will be available only for adults over 65 and those with certain medical conditions.
In the article in the New England Journal of Medicine, pregnancy is listed as a risk factor that would make them eligible to receive a vaccine under the new plan.
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