By Ahmed Aboulenein
WASHINGTON, April 21 (Reuters) - U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told lawmakers on Tuesday that he was not under instructions from the White House to stop publicly bringing up vaccines or other controversial positions ahead of November's midterm elections.
Kennedy, appearing in his fourth Congressional hearing this week, again highlighted nutrition and food safety in his opening statement but omitted mention of his efforts to overhaul nationwide vaccination policy or his work
to identify the causes of autism.
"Yes or no. Did Susie Wiles, or anyone in the White House instruct you or suggest that you stop talking about your controversial vaccine skepticism," asked Representative Marc Veasey, referring to President Donald Trump's chief of staff. Kennedy's response was a curt "no."
Veasey, a Democrat from Texas, asked if Kennedy had seen a Trump administration internal memo referencing polling showing his anti-vaccine rhetoric was unpopular with voters. Kennedy said he had not.
Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters earlier this month that the White House recently urged health officials to redirect policy discussions toward more popular topics, as Trump and his Republican Party seek to shore up support for their slim majorities in Congress.
Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist, faced a setback last month, when a court ruling derailed key elements of his efforts to rewrite U.S. vaccine policy and revamp a CDC advisory panel on immunizations.
Separately, close Kennedy ally and White House food policy adviser Calley Means also denied on Tuesday that the secretary and his allies have been instructed to stop bringing up vaccines.
"I think that these are just ongoing conversations about where to prioritize on what's leading to a problem in American healthcare," Means said during an appearance at the Politico Health Care Summit in Washington. "We're not apologizing for what's happened on vaccines."
Kennedy also said on Tuesday that he had vetted Erica Schwartz's position on vaccines before she was nominated to run the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Kennedy, testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Health Subcommittee, said he had not spoken to Trump directly before the president nominated Schwartz.
Trump said on Thursday he would nominate Schwartz to be the next CDC director following multiple leadership shakeups at the health agency. She had served as deputy surgeon general during the COVID-19 pandemic in Trump's first administration.
Her nomination represents a far more traditional pick, as the White House seeks to focus on more popular issues such as lowering drug prices and food safety, rather than Kennedy's controversial vaccine policies, with control of Congress up for grabs in November.
Kennedy said on Tuesday that his agency had sent Schwartz's name up to the White House.
He also said he is reforming the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the advisory panel that decides access to free preventive healthcare that last met over a year ago. His Department of Health and Human Services will be putting a notification in the Federal Register this week soliciting new members of the task force, Kennedy said.
(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein; Additional reporting by Michael Erman and Chris Prentice in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
