WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he’s on a mission to Make America Healthy Again, but doctors in Congress fear he’s going to end up making Americans sick.
The Health and Human Services secretary turned heads recently when he swam in Washington’s feces-contaminated Rock Creek, but that just impacted him and his family.
Now he’s fired all 17 members of the nation’s premier vaccine panel, physicians on Capitol Hill fear he’s steering America towards a public health crisis of his own making.
“The vaccine advisory board was the gold standard, and the rest of the world looked up at it,” Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA), a licensed physician, told Raw Story. “Like, this is a dangerous place that we’re in right now.”
And this is just the beginning of what experts predict is a rocky road ahead.
‘Vaccines save lives’
On June 9, even after promising Republican senators he wouldn’t touch the panel of experts, RFK Jr. took the unprecedented step of “retiring” all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) panel in one go.
ACIP is responsible for selecting which vaccinations are provided free via the Vaccines for Children Program, a directive established by Congress in 1993 to combat a measles outbreak.
The vaccine advisory panel operates under the umbrella of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). After cleaning house of the 17 holdovers from the Biden administration, on June 11, RFK Jr. named eight new appointees.
Shivers shot across the nation’s medical community — because four of the new appointees have histories with vaccine skepticism.
The loudest public uproar has been over the appointment of Dr. Robert Malone. He’s on record suggesting vaccines may cause spontaneous abortions — an unfounded claim rejected by the vast majority of public health experts.
With conspiracies colliding with patient care, congressional critics worry RFK Jr. wants to undermine public trust in vaccines.
“[He’s] sowing further distrust in a system that already is being attacked by folks who don’t believe in public health being the priority for the Health and Human Services secretary,” Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-OR), a licensed physician and pulmonologist, told Raw Story.
In more liberal enclaves across the nation, public health officials were already struggling to convince progressive skeptics to vaccinate themselves and their children. The public shift away from vaccines, according to Dexter, will directly impact public health.
“Oregon has a very high opt-out rate for vaccinations in schools. The higher proportions that opt out, the more risk that we will have epidemics in our communities,” Dexter said. “We know vaccines save lives, and we know that they need to be protected … [Kennedy] is undermining the health of our kids in our communities.”
Doctors rely heavily on CDC guidance, according to Rep. Herb Conaway Jr. (D-NJ), a licensed physician who fears the fallout of RFK Jr.’s dismantling of the expert vaccine panel.
“He doesn't really care whether or not a lot of people die,” Conaway told Raw Story. “The science-based evidence that says that vaccines are an important intervention, it's low cost, and it saves lives — that's what we're moving away from.”
The risk of an epidemic taking root amidst growing, post-COVID vaccine skepticism worries Conaway.
“We now have more deaths in this past year from measles than we’ve had in the past 25 years,” Conaway said, “Because of vaccine hesitancy that has been brought to bear by these skeptics, conspiracy theorists, anti-science people who are engaged in this activity for their own financial benefit, by and large.”
Others fear the dismantling of the expert panel will hurt vaccine supply.
“It will slow down the process of evaluating vaccines — looking at safety, looking at efficacy as new vaccines come on the market,” Rep. Bera, who previously helped manage a seven-hospital system in the Sacramento region, told Raw Story.
Such critics fear chaos is right around the corner unless President Donald Trump blunts some of RFK Jr.’s risky, non-traditional instincts. And they predict problems will start in courtrooms from coast to coast before trickling down to our local communities.
“If you raise the litigation risk, if you raise the cost of producing these vaccines through litigation, you're going to have less of them,” Conaway said. “And people are going to get sicker.”
Conaway accuses RFK Jr. of undermining America’s immunization infrastructure for personal gain.
“They're tearing that apart so … he can make more money through litigation that will be spurred in part by this,” Conaway said.
‘I don’t have a real short answer’
It’s a different story on the Republican side of the political divide. While a handful of GOP senators threatened to derail RFK Jr.’s nomination in February, he was ultimately confirmed by a partisan vote of 52-48.
Back then, all eyes were on Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), a licensed physician who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions — or HELP — Committee, especially after RFK Jr. secured his support with an array of promises.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) speaks on Capitol Hill. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura
"He has also committed that he would work within the current vaccine approval and safety monitoring system and not establish parallel systems," Cassidy said in a Senate floor speech ahead of voting on RFK Jr.’s confirmation.
"If confirmed, he will maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes."
These days, Cassidy’s not delivering speeches. Rather, he’s rushing through the Capitol, desperately trying to avoid the congressional press corps.
“I’m not making any comments on that except kind of a varied statement,” Cassidy said last week. “We’re getting information constantly, and so it just changes.”
He has company. In his official Senate biography, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY) claims to be “known by many as Wyoming's Doctor.” Last Thursday, the doctor wasn’t in.
“Do you have thoughts on what RFK Jr.’s doing with the vaccine advisory committee?” Raw Story asked.
“We just got back from the White House,” Barrasso replied before repeating himself as the doors closed on the Senators Only elevator. “Just got back from the White House.”
Same thing with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), an ophthalmologist by training.
“Sen. Paul, do you have thoughts on what RFK Jr. did with the vaccine board?” Raw Story asked.
“I do, but I don’t have a real short answer for you,” Paul said before taking his time answering questions about Trump’s recent attacks on him over the GOP spending bill.
It seemed Paul desperately wanted to discuss anything but the dismemberment of the vaccine panel.
