Washington D.C. – As this week marks the one-year anniversary that the U.S. Senate narrowly confirmed anti-vax profiteer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Trump’s HHS Secretary, Protect Our Care released a new report today — “Year One of RFK Jr., Public Health Enemy #1” – spotlighting RFK Jr.’s worst policy failures to date that have endangered our public health in pursuit of a conspiracy-driven, anti-vax, anti-science agenda.
First reported by Politico Playbook, the report details how Kennedy has abused his power to dismantle public health infrastructure. Across HHS, the CDC, and the FDA, he and Trump have purged experts, stacked key posts and advisory bodies with anti-vax quacks, slashed critical research, cancelled life-saving clinical trials, and sabotaged basic tools like vaccines.gov, creating chaos inside agencies and confusion for families, clinicians, and states.
Brad Woodhouse, President, Protect Our Care: “In one year, RFK Jr. has made America sicker, let measles get a foothold in the U.S. again, undermined public trust in vaccines, promoted dangerous conspiracy theories, installed quacks in key positions and wreaked havoc on our nation’s public health infrastructure. The idea that this charlatan would make America healthy again is B.S. and it always was. During the battle over his confirmation we warned about what he would do and predicted accurately everything he’s done – and the Senators who buried their heads in the sand and accepted his lies at face value who are now expressing concern over his actions should bow their heads in shame”.
- Inside HHS, the strategy is chaos by design. Tens of thousands of staff targeted for layoffs, “fired‑then‑rehired” whiplash, a hollowed‑out NIH struggling to fill half its institute directorships, and a CDC that employees now describe as a “living hell” where scientists are surveilled, muzzled, and pushed out just as measles, whooping cough, and other preventable diseases are roaring back. At the FDA, grifters and anti‑vaxxers are now in top positions, chilling internal dissent and green‑lighting junk science about supposed vaccine harms. Meanwhile, Kennedy and Trump have torn down U.S. global health capacity, pulled out of WHO, and left state and local health departments scrambling after whiplash cuts and partial restorations of core grants. In the name of Make America Healthy Again (MAHA), they have canceled and censored research across NIH and NSF, shut down clinical trials mid‑stream, and targeted “DEI,” women’s health, LGBTQ+ care, fluoride, Tylenol, and even 5G wireless signals, systematically dismantling the science and programs that keep people healthy and alive.
- The centerpiece of RFK Jr.’s tenure is a full‑scale war on vaccines. Kennedy has fired and restacked key advisory committees with anti‑vaccine activists, slashed the childhood vaccine schedule, deleted the CDC’s clear statement that vaccines do not cause autism, sabotaged access to resources, and turned COVID-19 and flu guidance into a confusing, high‑risk “choose your own adventure” while preventable infections surge and our country’s measles elimination teeters on the brink. Kennedy’s first year in office saw the first measles deaths in this country in a decade and record levels of flu activity, while HHS sat on its hands and RFK Jr. traveled the country promoting bogus measles treatments rather than vaccination. At the same time, MAHA‑aligned groups are driving statehouse bills to gut school mandates, pushing unproven and possibly dangerous treatments, and exploiting Kennedy’s federal vaccine schedule changes to weaken state requirements, leaving pediatricians, families, public‑health officials, and mainstream medical groups scrambling to build workarounds to protect public health.
- RFK Jr.’s record is toxic. Polling shows cratering confidence in federal health leadership, Kennedy as one of the least popular figures in the cabinet, and large majorities continuing to side with routine childhood vaccination and vaccine research. RFK Jr.’s tenure is a vivid warning label on what happens when you hand over America’s public health infrastructure to an anti‑vaccine ideologue with no science or medical background: chaos, cuts, conspiracy theories, and more sickness and preventable deaths for American families.
- READ THE FULL REPORT
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