Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has launched a government-wide campaign to rewrite health policy and to undermine the work of public health institutions. Most recently, Kennedy has made massive changes to vaccine policy, removing decades-long requirements for childhood vaccinations against rotavirus, the flu, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, COVID-19 and bacterial meningitis, ending combination vaccinations for first dose shots against measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV). Under Kennedy’s leadership, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) have also begun to parrot pseudoscientific myths that vaccines may cause autism.
These changes put millions of lives at risk, sow confusion, doubt and fear among parents, and continue to undermine trust in public health. As a result, the nation’s leading medical and public health professional organizations have responded with a litany of statements condemning these decisions, as well as a lawsuit led by the American Academy for Pediatrics (AAP). In retaliation, the federal government has cut funding to the AAP, demonstrating that dissent is not only not permitted but that it will be punished.
On January 5 federal health officials reduced the number of vaccines recommended for children from 17 to 11. Andrew D. Racine, MD, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, called these changes “dangerous and unnecessary.” Physician and immunologist Helen Chu said the revisions “will endanger the health of children in the United States.”
In November 2025, the CDC’s website was edited to state that scientists “have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.” The American Academy of Neurology, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the AAP, and the American Medical Association (AMA) immediately released statements decrying the false claims linking vaccines and autism and the planned governmental spending to continue studying “potential links” between infant vaccinations and autism.
Vaccines do not cause autism
There is already a wealth of scientific research showing that there is no association between the two. Kennedy’s edits to the CDC rely on flawed and weak “evidence” to argue that further research is warranted. In comparison, scientists have conducted meta-analyses, which produce the highest level of scientific evidence, showing no association between vaccines and autism. It is scientifically impossible to prove non-causation. What scientists can show, though, and have shown is that a causal link between vaccines and autism does not exist. Ultimately, the changes to the CDC website sow confusion and distrust fuel ableist perceptions of and discrimination against autistic people.
Anti-vaxxers take control
In June 2025, Kennedy fired all members of the CDC Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP), claiming ACIP members will prioritize evidence-based medicine. Yet, anti-vaccine and vaccine-skeptical members were added to the committee, like Dr. Martin Kulldorff, who was fired from Harvard during the COVID-19 pandemic, and former IOF officer, Dr. Retsef Levi.
Since then, requirements for children to be vaccinated against rotavirus, the flu, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, COVID-19, and bacterial meningitis have been ended. These vaccinations have been downgraded to “individual-based decision-making.” Additionally, the development of future COVID-19 boosters will undergo even more stringent testing before potential approval for anyone under 65 or not deemed “high risk,” despite evidence that the vaccine significantly reduces the risk of hospitalization, severe infection, and death for people of all ages.
ACIP members also argue that the hepatitis B vaccine is not needed for children whose parents do not live with hepatitis B. The reality, though, is that at least 70% of people living with Hepatitis B are completely unaware of their diagnosis.
Earlier this year, ACIP ended recommendations for the combination vaccine for MMRV for children at 12-months old. There is a small risk of temporary, fever-induced seizures for children receiving their first dose of the combination vaccine. Because of this, most parents already give their children separate MMR and Varicella vaccines for the first dose and a combination vaccine for the second dose. Further, the Trump administration is urging the development and implementation of separate measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines, which is not needed and, if approved, would result in decreased vaccination.
In addition to children no longer being required to be vaccinated against the flu, flu vaccines containing the preservative Thimerosal have been discontinued. While Thimerosal contains mercury, there is little to no evidence of a risk associated with receiving vaccines containing Thimerosal. Anti-vaxxers, though, have claimed that Thimerosal is “linked” to autism among children due to the same flawed studies cited by Kennedy in the recent changes to the CDC website.
As with the combination MMRV vaccine, most individuals already receive flu vaccines free of Thimerosal or with reduced-quantities of Thimerosal, but these changes are meant to sow further confusion for parents–many of whom already worry whether they are doing everything they can for their child’s health.
Millions of lives hang in the balance
These changes by ACIP remove requirements for private health insurance companies to cover the no longer recommended vaccinations. While private insurers committed to covering the COVID-19 vaccine through 2026, it is likely they may decide to no longer do so beyond then, resulting in individuals seeking vaccination paying hundreds out of pocket.
In addition to the reduced access, these changes to vaccine recommendations have resulted in widespread confusion, worry, and doubt among parents and families across the country. This confusion and worry result in increased distrust of public health institutions. Overturning and discrediting decades of scientific research and medical recommendations and the ongoing fearmongering regarding vaccines and autism only increase the already existing lack of trust people have in medical and public health organizations.
The decisions Kennedy and ACIP have made will put millions of lives at risk. Childhood vaccination rates have already been decreasing over the past several years due to growing distrust in public health. As of the 2024 school year MMR, polio, and Diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTaP) vaccination coverage has dropped beneath the 95% vaccination threshold needed to prevent transmission. As a result, cases of measles–once declared eliminated in the US–whooping cough, and tetanus are on the rise. At the current rate of vaccination, hundreds of thousands of individuals may become infected with measles over the next two decades. Growing vaccine confusion and distrust in public health, though, may result in even lower rates of vaccination over coming years, threatening millions with infection, hospitalization, and even death if measles becomes once again commonplace, as well as the re-emergence of polio.
Kennedy’s retaliation against dissent
In response to the rewriting of the CDC website, the upending of vaccine recommendations, and the overhaul of ACIP, Kennedy has faced backlash from numerous medical organizations. The American Academy of Family Physicians, the AAP, the AMA, the American College of Physicians (ACP), the American Public Health Association (APHA), and more have responded with concern and outrage at Kennedy’s decision to fire previous members of ACIP.
The AAP is currently leading a lawsuit challenging Kennedy’s attempts to disrupt decades of medical evidence and recommendations. Other professional organizations, including the APHA and the ACP have joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs. An additional twenty leading medical and public health organizations have submitted court briefs supporting the AAP and even more have publicly expressed support for the suit. AAP has also released its own immunization schedule based on previous recommendations.
Kennedy may continue attempts to dismantle and discredit public health across the nation, but the medical establishment has displayed widespread dissent among experts, professional organizations, Republican and Democratic lawmakers, and former CDC directors.
In response, Kennedy has retaliated against the AAP by cancelling over $18 million in grants for programs focused on infant, child, and adolescent healthcare, including mental health, sudden infant death, and more. AAP programs no longer receiving grant funding include programs aimed at the early identification of autism, a government priority. Responses to the Guardian stated that AAP’s attention to racial disparities in care and use of the term “pregnant people” rather than “pregnant women” are further reasons they cancelled the funding. Regardless of the baseless justifications, it is clear Kennedy is willing to weaponize public health funding to deter and punish dissent.
Kennedy’s false solutions
The “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) Institute, the recently developed think tank that serves as the intellectual arm of the “MAHA movement,”and its co-presidents claim that Kennedy and MAHA aim to “work with the people,” using demagogic language to make it seem that the decisions they are making are in the public’s best interest. In reality, what Kennedy is doing is eroding trust in public health, dismantling federal public health institutions, and promoting disinformation, already resulting in deaths and hospitalization from rising measles cases.
There is no reason, in the richest nation in the world, that anyone should not have access to needed vaccinations. The US already ranks 45th in the world for COVID-19 vaccination and 12th for MMR vaccination, and only one-third of all adults have even received a Hepatitis B vaccine. Kennedy’s ongoing crusade against vaccines and public health will only diminish vaccination rates and further threaten the lives of working class people across the nation. The answer to the capitalist-run health care system is not to sow confusion and discredit medical experts. If we truly want to make America healthy, we need to fight for a system in which people are valued more than the profit.
Photo: Robert Kennedy Jr. at left. Liberation News collage.
