HHS under Kennedy can’t be trusted anymore
RFK Jr.’s reckless decision on ACIP is exactly why he shouldn't have been confirmed.
By Jeff Nesbit
Given what’s happening in Los Angeles and in Congress (as the GOP rushes forward with its suicidal plan that will gut Medicaid, Medicare, and food assistance for seniors and children to cut taxes for the wealthy), it’s hard to imagine anyone or anything else making a dent in what has been an insane political news cycle this week.
But Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, managed to find a way. His decision to fire every single member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices—a move he solemnly promised during his Senate confirmation hearings that he would not do— made one thing abundantly clear:
Kennedy’s HHS cannot be trusted on anything. His moves on ACIP—the gold standard review committee the American people have relied on for decades for critical vaccine recommendations—crossed the Rubicon for scientific, medical, and public health groups that had been hoping, against all odds, that Kennedy would not inject his conspiracy theories into the bloodstream of big HHS decisions.
Those hopes are clearly gone. Thanks to Kennedy, HHS under his leadership can no longer be trusted on anything it says or does. The American people are on their own and will need to look to people outside the federal government for science-based guidance on important medical or health concerns.
“(This) is a direct betrayal of the promise he made to senators during his confirmation: to leave the committee ‘without changes’,” Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) wrote on X. “This purge is dangerous, and it will put lives at risk. RFK Jr. was never fit to lead our public health agencies—and this is just another reason why.”
Nadler and other Democrats in Congress are quietly considering whether it might be necessary to consider impeaching Kennedy if he is still Trump’s health secretary if they take back the House in 2026.
For good reason. Kennedy’s decision on ACIP was made without any scientific or medical basis. He apparently consulted with no experts. It’s a reckless, dangerous move that will directly harm people. Kennedy is either lying or simply wrong on every reason he claims for his move. Here are six of the most blatant falsehoods:
He said that the ACIP members he fired had conflicts of interest they didn’t disclose. That is factually incorrect. ACIP members are screened for conflicts of interest and cannot hold stocks or serve on advisory boards or bureaus affiliated with vaccine manufacturers.
Kennedy said 97% of the financial disclosure forms of the current ACIP members had omissions about financial conflicts of interest. This is a blatant misrepresentation of an Inspector General report from 15 years ago that said 97% of the forms had small or minor errors like incorrect dates, not omissions of financial conflicts.
He said he was “restoring” the public’s trust in vaccines by firing ACIP’s members. First, the public generally trusts vaccines, which have saved millions of lives. What he’s doing here is the opposite of “restoring” trust; he’s deliberately causing harm and trying to manufacture mistrust.
Kennedy has directly contradicted a promise he made to the Senate health committee chair, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), that he would not do this.
Kennedy has said that despite his prominent anti-vaccine views, he was committed to protecting the public health benefit of vaccinations. This move does not do that.
Kennedy said ACIP operates in secret. In fact, the exact opposite is true. ACIP’s meetings are public and are broadcast as they occur. The national media has relied on open ACIP discussion of peer-reviewed science for decades. Kennedy is either woefully misguided on this or lying.
What Kennedy has done on ACIP is unconscionable—and indefensible. As long as he remains HHS secretary, the American people cannot trust anything that comes from HHS. Those in the national media who’ve relied on ACIP over the years know precisely what Kennedy did.
“(Kennedy) didn’t present a single piece of scientific evidence to make the case against this board (ACIP). He’s killing this board based on his own conspiratorial beliefs. This intentionally puts Americans in harm’s way. This is one impeachment that could be bipartisan,” former NBC News’ Meet the Press host Chuck Todd wrote on X.
This goes beyond politics and conspiracies. Here’s what Kennedy has set in motion with his reckless, dangerous decision to fire every member of ACIP: No professional medical, scientific, or public health group can now trust anything that comes from HHS as long as Kennedy remains Trump’s health secretary. The first shoe dropped on Monday.
The professional pharmacists organization that evaluates the ACIP adult immunization schedule annually—the American Pharmacists Association (APhA)—announced Monday that it would not follow the recent guidance from CDC and HHS on COVID-19 vaccines for people who are pregnant. The reason? HHS’ guidance was not based on science.
“APhA's stance is that pregnancy is a high-risk condition; therefore, people who are pregnant should be recommended to receive the COVID-19 vaccine,” the group said. “(The) updates to the COVID-19 vaccine recommendations do not appear to be based on the scientific evidence provided over the past few years. Considering this recent change, APhA has decided to withhold endorsing the current ACIP Adult Immunization Schedule issued on May 28, 2025.”
This professional organization that has relied on ACIP for decades to help guide its recommendations on vaccines is choosing to ignore Kennedy’s politically motivated, non-scientific moves throughout HHS. It will not be the only one.
Kennedy, who has spent much of his adult professional life rambling publicly about conspiracy theories that aren’t grounded in science or established medical facts, is clearly hellbent on sowing mistrust in science, medicine, and public health throughout HHS with moves such as this. As long as he remains Trump’s HHS secretary, no one in America can trust what his department says.
Which, sadly, might be exactly what Kennedy hopes to engineer.
Jeff Nesbit was the assistant secretary of public health at HHS during the Biden administration.
"Kennedy has directly contradicted a promise he made to the Senate health committee chair, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), that he would not do this."
Seems like a good opportunity to organize a phone bank to ask Louisiana constituents to contact their Senator, who betrayed all of them by voting for Kennedy, despite the fact that Cassidy publicly acknowledge his lack of qualifications for the position. He should be held accountable,.
Cassidy and others should not have confirmed him. Period.