By Ahmed Aboulenein
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. is accelerating efforts to remake the nation's vaccine policies, pushing past the objections of government scientists and lawmakers, as well as mounting calls for his removal.
In a matter of weeks, Kennedy has restricted eligibility for COVID-19 shots, prompted the ouster of the country's top public health official, amplified federal support for states' vaccine exemptions, dismantled the process for reviewing vaccine recommendations,
and expanded a national vaccine advisory board with experts who share his opposition to COVID shots.
"Kennedy is moving at breakneck speed," said Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown professor of global health law. "He's consolidating his power and stamping his personal agenda on vaccine policy. He knows that if he slowed down, he'd hit roadblocks."
The most consequential change so far may come within days. On Thursday and Friday, the vaccine advisory board is due to vote on potential changes to the immunizations recommended for U.S. children.
"Based on what I observed during my tenure, there is a real risk that recommendations could be made restricting access to vaccines for children and others in need, without rigorous scientific review," said Susan Monarez, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who was forced out of the job in late August.
"With no permanent CDC director in place, those recommendations could be adopted," Monarez told a Senate hearing on Wednesday. Kennedy appointed his Deputy Secretary Jim O'Neill as interim CDC chief after Monarez was fired.
Kennedy has long promoted the view, contrary to scientific evidence, that many vaccines routinely administered to children cause grave harm. Public health experts say his work as a public figure has contributed to declining immunization rates and exposed a growing number of youth to preventable diseases like measles.
Major U.S. medical societies representing tens of thousands of physicians, including the American College of Physicians and the American Public Health Association, say Kennedy should be fired. Democrats in Congress, over 1,000 current and former employees of his department, and two of his own family members have also called for his removal.
President Donald Trump has stood firm in supporting Kennedy, even while warning against discouraging people from using the "vaccines that work."
"By the time the president might act, most of the damage will be done," Gostin said.
The Department of Health and Human Services says Kennedy's actions aim to restore public trust in government health agencies that promoted deeply unpopular measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, including mask-wearing requirements and school closures.
"We are reforming broken institutions, restoring gold-standard science as the foundation of public health, and empowering Americans with honest information and real choice," said HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon.
VACCINE SKEPTICS EMBOLDENED
Kennedy's supporters span conservatives and liberals who believe in his pledge to "Make America Healthy Again." Many agree with his view that the government must tackle surging rates of obesity, diabetes and other chronic conditions through greater scrutiny of the food industry. His rapid-fire moves on vaccines are the most controversial and have emboldened like-minded skeptics.
Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, said earlier this month the state will end all vaccine mandates, including school-entry requirements. Anti-vaccine organizations such as Children's Health Defense, which Kennedy chaired from 2013-2023, sued Kennedy and HHS to push the revival of a childhood vaccine safety task force. Kennedy revived the task force in August.
Demetre Daskalakis, a senior vaccine official at the CDC who quit immediately after Monarez was fired, said that Kennedy appeared to ramp up his policy changes soon after a shooting at the agency's Atlanta headquarters in early August. Investigators found written documents in the gunman's home in which he expressed discontent with the COVID-19 vaccine.
"Really soon after the shooting, I felt that there was an acceleration of the work to really create undue influence on the science at CDC, where I really don't think that I could stand behind its quality or its veracity and its freedom from ideology," Daskalakis said in an interview.
The vaccine board, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, will vote on recommendations for two shots administered to children - a combined measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella vaccine and a hepatitis B vaccine - as well as new versions of the COVID vaccine. Even small changes in the panel's guidance can have ripple effects on schools, employers and insurers nationwide.
"What we're seeing now is almost like the flip side of COVID," said Jennifer Kates, senior vice president at health policy nonprofit KFF. "Then, the government mobilized to make vaccines rapidly available at record speed. Now, we're seeing a major change in the opposite direction; scrutinizing vaccine information and reducing access across the country."
(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington; Additional reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Lisa Shumaker)
