Science? What’s That Got To Do With Health?

June 16th, 2025

Ian Cheng

In several sudden moves this week, health experts’ worst fears have become reality. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., better known as RFK Jr., the new head of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS,) has introduced radical change to US public health positions.

It all started with RFK removing the Center for Disease Control's (CDC) recommendation of the COVID vaccine to healthy kids and pregnant women. This would have meant that getting insurance companies to cover the cost of the vaccine would be much harder. The cost of being vaccinated can reach $200 without the subsidized cost that being insured gives. Furthermore, pharmacies would be less likely to have these vaccines in stock, making them inaccessible to the people who can afford them. Considering that 40.5 million doses, or 67.7% of the COVID vaccines from 2022-2023 were administered by CDC-approved pharmacies, this would be detrimental. Lots of young people still aren’t vaccinated against the virus that caused such a problematic global pandemic, as shown in the statistic that only than 7% of kids under 5 years of age are fully vaccinated. If the recommendation stayed rescinded, infectious disease could have spread further and that is not what the CDC and its parent agency, the HHS, is supposed to oversee as protectors of US public health.

Three days later, the CDC restored the recommendation. In response, RFK Jr. struck again and unilaterally “retired” all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP.) The group determines nearly every policy recommendation related to vaccines, especially which ones are approved and distributed. RFK Jr. shortened the selection process drastically. In the past, potential members needed to be nominated, go through the entire CDC, and then to the head of the HHS, a process that could take years. This new change, however, allowed him to handpick every single replacement, including two new members, Retsef Levi and Robert Malone, who believe that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines damage children’s organs and wound up in deaths. About 2.5 billion people have been administered with this treatment, and an estimated 20 million deaths have been prevented worldwide. RFK Jr. is notorious for his vaccine skepticism, and the new committee will only raise fears that he is trying to push an anti-vaccine agenda.

RFK Jr.’s document to justify his initial removal of the vaccine recommendation was titled the “COVID Recommendation FAQ,” which has been found to contain blatant lies. For example, one of its claims is that unborn babies, or fetuses, die more often during a pregnancy if the mother received the COVID vaccine before 20 weeks of pregnancy. In reality, the studies cited observe no relationship between the two outcomes. It is set in stone that the COVID-19 vaccine makes people safer against the viruses. For pregnant women, issues like preterm delivery (early childbirth) and even maternal death are prevented by being safe from the virus. With that, it's clear that RFK’s reliability and knowledge of health is questionable.

Through this mass firing, RFK Jr. was trying—quite ironically—to boost public trust in public health. It's true that vaccine hesitation has been rising in the United States. However, that's mostly because of two primary reasons, the first being that the health system has been increasingly politicized. More specifically, health care has been seen as a primarily Democratic issue, and Republicans are less likely to listen to recommendations made by members of their opposing party, including those related to getting vaccinated. Second, the spread of misinformation on social media has also been a problem. For example, RFK Jr.’s favorite, that vaccines cause autism, which has since been debunked by numerous studies, has been believed by people for years. Another claim is that COVID vaccines contain microchips for tracking, which is simply unreasonable and untrue. RFK Jr.’s move does not deal with the root of the problem. Potentially useful solutions like forcing social media companies to curb the spread of medical-related misinformation are not being looked at. Rather, his firing of the entire committee will only make more public health experts doubtful of his capability as head of the HHS.