Washington D.C. – Over the last several weeks, in the face of internal and external polling showing the Trump-RFK Jr. anti-vax agenda is profoundly politically toxic, White House insiders have aggressively pushed a media narrative that Trump health secretary and prolific anti-vaxxer RFK Jr. – the driving force behind Trump policies aiming to discourage vaccinations and baselessly impugn their safety – has been “reined in.” While Kennedy himself denied this during recent Congressional testimony, that narrative officially collapsed late last night when RFK Jr.’s HHS formally appealed a federal court ruling from March that blocked the centerpiece of the administration’s anti-vax agenda.
It appears that the administration is seeking to lift a preliminary injunction against the RFK Jr. CDC’s dangerous and “likely illegal” move in January to slash recommended vaccines for American children from 17 down to 11, eliminating guidance for life-saving shots including against influenza, Rotavirus, Hepatitis A and B. The hugely unpopular policy shift ignited revolt from 30 states including DC that have since “announced that they are no longer going to follow CDC’s recommendations for some or all childhood vaccines.”
HHS is also trying to undo the federal court’s freeze on Kennedy’s “distinctly unqualified” and mostly anti-vax picks for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and all of the committee’s decisions, including its dangerous vote to stop recommending the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns. Just this week, studies published in JAMA Pediatrics found that the RFK Jr. CDC’s “decision to drop the long-standing recommendation that newborns receive a hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth will likely lead to hundreds of additional infections among children, along with more cases of liver cancer, deaths and millions in added health care costs.”
“RFK Jr.’s appeal seeking to restore the centerpiece of Trump’s unwanted, health cost-exploding, and deadly anti-vax agenda is proof positive their scheme is here to stay, the health of American children be damned,” said Kayla Hancock, Director of Protect Our Care’s Public Health Project. “These are the actions of a health secretary emboldened – not muzzled — by a President who could care less about public health, only in scoring political points with science-denying influencers and grifters. Trump and RFK Jr.’s choice to pursue, not drop, their downgrade of the child vaccine schedule will tragically sow further confusion and unfounded fear about vaccine safety at a time of declining vaccination rates and a rise in preventable diseases like measles and whooping cough.”
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