Washington Post Interviews with almost 100 people reveal how Kennedy, as health secretary, has reshaped the vaccine and broader public health infrastructure in less than a year. On his way to being confirmed as the nation’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised lawmakers he would do nothing that “makes it difficult or discourages people from taking vaccines.”
Almost 100 days into the job, amid rising measles outbreaks and congressional scrutiny of his messaging on vaccines, Kennedy made clear behind the scenes that hewanted to reshapethe nation’s immunization system.
Kennedy, the founder of a prominent anti-vaccine group, presented several top federal health officials witha new vision.
“Bobby has asked for the following changes,” Kennedy’s deputy chief of staff for policy at the time, Hannah Anderson, wrote to the officials in a May 19 email later reviewed by The Washington Post.
Among his requestswas to replace the entire membership of an influential independent committee of experts that makes recommendations for how and when to vaccinate Americans. Kennedy alsoasked the panel to reconsider a long-standing recommendation that all newborns get a hepatitis B vaccine and revisit the use of multidose flu shotvials, which contain a mercury-based preservative.