U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gestures as he leaves a press conference, after announcing new nutrition policies at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 8, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is 'endangering lives" with his "insanity," warns one analyst.
Mary Trump, President Donald Trump's niece, wrote in a new Substack essay that Kennedy's decision to maneuver around the opposition of America's leading scientists in an attempt to change the country's vaccine schedule could "cause countless preventable deaths for generations to come."
The rollback would have decreased the number of recommended vaccines from 17 to 11 and changed guidelines for vaccines that prevent diseases like Hepatitis B and influenza. Kennedy has defended the move as one that puts the U.S. in line with other developed countries like Denmark, although Trump sees it as just another way her uncle's regime is "dragging us backward."
"Let us be as clear as possible. This is insanity," Trump wrote.
"Kennedy is not a physician. He is not a virologist or an immunologist. He has no degree in any scientific discipline and cannot even claim the title of quack," she added. "He was previously an environmental attorney. He knows nothing about vaccines, immunology, or infectious disease. What he does have is a disturbing fixation on creating the conditions under which more American children will get sick, and some will die."
She added that the consequences of Kennedy's actions are already visible, with measles and influenza cases on the rise.
"This is part of the Trump regime’s much larger project—keeping all of us tired, demoralized, scared, poor, and sick," she wrote.