Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was arguably an odd choice for the post of Secretary of Health and Human Services. He long been a vaccine skeptic and has views on food additives and environmental toxins far outside the mainstream. Indeed, it was recently revealed by the Wall Street Journal that President Trump’s September 22nd news conference tying the OTC drug Tylenol with autism was mostly Kennedy’s doing. In pursuit of his unconventional views, earlier this year Kennedy fired all 17 of the (unpaid, volunteer) members of the FDA’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). In August 2025 Kennedy fired the new U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director when they clashed over vaccine policy. Earlier in the Summer, Kennedy was also rumored to consider firing all the volunteer members of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Suffice it to say Kennedy has many detractors and is not well liked or respected by the public health community. Thus, it should come as no surprise then that the public health community is moving to set up their own recommendations outside of HHS.
The public health community is a notoriously liberal bunch. The mission of public health is more collectivist than individualistic. Their job is to prevent and treat diseases and conditions affecting population health, so they naturally support population-based medical interventions like vaccination, preventive services and behavioral change that many people consider a personal choice. The state and academic public health community used to operate mostly in lockstep with the federal public health community but the former two are now working to develop their own recommendations and procedures. The following is from the WSJ:
A growing contingent of doctors and policymakers say they have grown wary of federal health guidance since longtime vaccine skeptic Kennedy became Health and Human Services Secretary—and they are forming a parallel public-health universe outside the U.S. government.
Professional medical societies are releasing guidelines that depart from the government’s stance. Governors and state health officials are changing rules to ensure access to vaccines within their borders.
Vaccine skeptics have been around for decades and largely existed outside the mainstream of the public health community. Now the government public healthy agency is a proponent of vaccine skepticism. Federal health officials are also taking a much more individualist position on public health and vaccines.
Last week the new ACIP team—including several members appointed just a few days earlier—dialed back the government’s strong recommendation of the Covid vaccine, advising instead “individual decision-making” with a physician, nurse or pharmacist. The advisers also removed the government’s recommendation of a combined vaccine for measles, mumps, rubella and varicella, or chickenpox, for children under the age of 4, instead recommending the varicella shot be given separately.
One complaint of critics of the prior stance on childhood vaccines was that multiple vaccines were given simultaneously, shocking the immune system rather than administering vaccines one at a time. Individual vaccinations are undoubtedly more easily tolerated but that goes against the policy of give them all while you can.
Various organizations, including state health departments, are working to create their own recommendations now that they do not believe Health and Human Services is relying on the consensus standards the public health community spent decades building. Insurance companies often rely on federal ACIP recommendations, but some insurers are also supporting the prior recommendations for vaccinations they will cover. What is likely to occur is pro-vaccine Americans will continue to get vaccines, while those who were skeptical will use the new standard as an excuse to forgo vaccination. In the middle there will likely be more free riders, who are motivated to forgo vaccines out of convenience.
WSJ: The Doctors Building a Public-Health Universe Outside the Government
You can thank past COVID policy for much of the present vaccine skepticism, including that which made it possible for Kennedy to even be considered for his current position. Much of that skepticism is surely unjustified, but not all of it.