robert f kennedy jr

Dozens of CDC vaccination databases have been frozen under RFK Jr.

CDC, Data, Database, health, robert f kennedy jr, vaccination / Kris Guyer / January 27, 2026

“Damning”

Overall, a lack of updated data can make it more difficult, if not impossible, for federal and state health officials to identify and rapidly respond to emerging outbreaks. It can also prevent the identification of communities or demographics that could benefit most from targeted vaccination outreach.

In an accompanying editorial, Jeanne Marrazzo, CEO of the Infectious Disease Society of America and former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, stated the concern in starker terms, writing: “The evidence is damning: The administration’s anti-vaccine stance has interrupted the reliable flow of the data we need to keep Americans safe from preventable infections. The consequences will be dire.”

The study authors note that the unexplained pauses could be direct targeting of vaccine-related data collection by the administration—or they could be an indirect consequence of the tumult Kennedy and the Trump administration have inflicted on the CDC, including brutal budget and staff cuts. But Marrazzo argues that the exact mechanism doesn’t matter.

“Either causative pathway demonstrates a profound disregard for human life, scientific progress, and the dedication of the public health workforce that has provided a bulwark against the advance of emerging, and reemerging, infectious diseases,” she writes.

Marrazzo emphasizes that the lack of current data not only hampers outbreak response efforts but also helps the health secretary realize his vision for the CDC.

Kennedy, “who has stated baldly that the CDC failed to protect Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic, is now enacting a self-fulfilling prophecy. The CDC as it currently exists is no longer the stalwart, reliable source of public health data that for decades has set the global bar for rigorous public health practice.”

Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, sent Ars Technica a statement saying: “Changes to individual dashboards or update schedules reflect routine data quality and system management decisions, not political direction. Under this administration, public health data reporting is driven by scientific integrity, transparency, and accuracy.”

Dozens of CDC vaccination databases have been frozen under RFK Jr. Read More »

Doctors face-palm as RFK Jr.’s top vaccine advisor questions need for polio shot

ACIP, anti-vaccine, CDC, Kirk Milhoan, measles, polio, robert f kennedy jr, Science, vaccines / Tim Belzer / January 26, 2026

He then pondered out loud what would happen if people stopped getting vaccinated. “If we take away all of the herd immunity, then does that switch, does that teeter-totter switch in a different direction?” he asked.

Backlash

In a statement, AMA Trustee Sandra Adamson Fryhofer blasted the question. “This is not a theoretical debate—it is a dangerous step backward,” she said. “Vaccines have saved millions of lives and virtually eliminated devastating diseases like polio in the United States. There is no cure for polio. When vaccination rates fall, paralysis, lifelong disability, and death return. The science on this is settled.”

Fryhofer also took aim at Milhoan’s repeated argument that the focus of vaccination policy should move from population-level health to individual autonomy. Moving away from routine immunizations, which include discussions between clinicians and patients, “does not increase freedom—it increases suffering,” she said, adding that the weakening of recommendations “will cost lives.”

Overall, Milhoan’s comments only further erode the relevance of ACIP and federal vaccine policy among the medical community and states. According to a KFF policy brief, 27 states and Washington, DC, have already announced they will not follow current CDC vaccine recommendations, which Kennedy dramatically overhauled earlier this month without even consulting the ACIP. Instead, the majority of states are relying on previous recommendations or recommendations made within states or by medical organizations.

On Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics announced the 2026 update to its childhood and adolescent vaccine schedule, which it has held up as an alternative to the CDC’s schedule and has been widely embraced by pediatricians. In the announcement, AAP noted that 12 other medical organizations have endorsed the schedule, including the AMA, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society.

The AAP’s updated recommendations are largely the same as the schedule from last year, but it is significantly different from the CDC’s recommendations, which “depart from longstanding medical evidence and no longer offer the optimal way to prevent illnesses in children,” the AAP said.

“The AAP will continue to provide recommendations for immunizations that are rooted in science and are in the best interest of the health of infants, children and adolescents of this country,” AAP President Andrew Racine said in the announcement.

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Under anti-vaccine RFK Jr., CDC slashes childhood vaccine schedule

anti-vaccine, health, robert f kennedy jr, Science, vaccine / Paul Patrick / January 5, 2026

Under anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., federal health officials on Monday announced a sweeping and unprecedented overhaul of federal vaccine recommendations, abruptly paring down recommended immunizations for children from 17 to 11.

Officials claimed the rationale for the change was to align US vaccine recommendations more closely with those of other high-income countries, namely Denmark, a small, far less diverse country of around 6 million people (smaller than the population of New York City) that has universal health care. The officials also claim the change is necessary to address the decline in public trust in vaccinations, which has been driven by anti-vaccine activists, including Kennedy.

“This decision protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health,” Kennedy said in a statement.

Health experts disagree. “Kennedy’s decision will harm and kill children, like all of his anti-vaccination decisions will,” virologist James Alwine, who works with the organization Defend Public Health, said in a statement.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, a vocal critic of Kennedy, blasted the changes, saying “to arbitrarily stop recommending numerous routine childhood immunizations is dangerous and unnecessary,” AAP President Andrew Racine said. “The United States is not Denmark,” he added.

Under the new federal recommendations, universally recommended immunizations are pared down to these 11 diseases: measles, mumps, rubella, polio, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, diphtheria, Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib), pneumococcal disease, human papillomavirus (HPV), and varicella (chickenpox).

Under anti-vaccine RFK Jr., CDC slashes childhood vaccine schedule Read More »

Without evidence, RFK Jr.’s vaccine panel tosses hep B vaccine recommendation

ACIP, anti-vaccine, CDC, health, hepatitis B, robert f kennedy jr / Rejus Almole / December 5, 2025

Retsef Levi, an operations management expert and ACIP member who expressed strong anti-vaccine views, said, “I think that the intention behind this [recommendation change is] that parents should carefully think about whether they want to take the risk of giving another vaccine to their child, and many of them might decide that they want to wait far more than two months, maybe years and maybe up to adulthood.”

In the discussion before the vote, Meissner described the motivation as “baseless skepticism.”

With a second vote, the panel created a new recommendation that parents and health care providers should consider testing a child’s antibody levels after each dose of the three-dose hepatitis B series. The recommendation suggests that if a baby’s antibody levels reach a certain threshold, they can forgo completing the series.

CDC subject matter experts, medical organizations, and members of the committee pointed out that there is no data to support this recommendation. Vaccine efficacy data is based on the entire three-dose series, and antibody levels are not sufficient to presume the same level of lifelong protection.

This vote “is kind of making things up,” Meissner said in frustration. “I mean, it’s like Never Never Land.”

There was no data or discussion on the administrative burden or clinical feasibility of testing the antibody levels of a baby after each dose.

The panel approved the recommendation on antibody testing in a vote of 6–4, with one abstention.

Medical experts were quick to condemn today’s votes. Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, a board member of the American Medical Association, said the vote is “reckless and undermines decades of public confidence in a proven, lifesaving vaccine.”

“Today’s action is not based on scientific evidence, disregards data supporting the effectiveness of the Hepatitis B vaccine, and creates confusion for parents about how best to protect their newborns,” Fryhofer said in a statement.

Without evidence, RFK Jr.’s vaccine panel tosses hep B vaccine recommendation Read More »

CDC vaccine panel realizes again it has no idea what it’s doing, delays big vote

anti-vaccine, CDC, health, robert f kennedy jr / Paul Patrick / December 4, 2025

Today’s meeting was chaotic and included garbage anti-vaccine presentations.

Dr. Robert Malone speaks during a meeting of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) at CDC Headquarters on December 4, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. Credit: Getty | Elijah Nouvelage

The panel of federal vaccine advisors hand-selected by anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has once again punted on whether to strip recommendations for hepatitis B vaccinations for newborns—a move it tried to make in September before realizing it didn’t know what it was doing. The decision to delay the vote today came abruptly this afternoon when the panel realized it still does not understand the topic or what it was voting on.

Prior to today’s 6–3 vote to delay a decision, there was a swirl of confusion over the wording of what a new recommendation would be. Panel members had gotten three different versions of the proposed recommendation in the 72 hours prior to the meeting, one panelist said. And the meeting’s data presentations this morning offered no clarity on the subject—they were delivered entirely by anti-vaccine activists who have no subject matter expertise and who made a dizzying amount of false and absurd claims.

“Completely inappropriate”

Overall, the meeting was disorganized and farcical. Kennedy’s panel has abandoned the evidence-based framework for setting vaccine policy in favor of airing unvetted presentations with misrepresentations, conspiracy theories, and cherry-picked studies. At times, there were tense exchanges, chaos, confusion, and misunderstandings.

Still, the discussion was watched closely by the medical and health community, which expects that the panel—composed of Kennedy allies who espouse anti-vaccine views—will strip the recommendation for a hepatitis B vaccine birth dose. Decisions by the committee, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have historically set national vaccine policy. Health insurance programs are required to cover, at no cost, vaccinations recommended by the ACIP. So rescinding a recommendation means Americans could lose coverage.

Medical and public health experts consider the birth-dose vaccination to be critical for protecting all infants from contracting the highly infectious virus that, when acquired early in life from their mother or anyone else, almost always causes chronic infections that lead to liver disease, cancer, and early death. There is no data suggesting harms from the newborn dose, nor any safety data suggesting that delaying the first dose by a month or two, as ACIP is considering, would be safer or better in any way. But studies do indicate that such a delay would lead to more hepatitis B infections in babies

These points were hard to find in today’s presentations. Abandoning standard protocol, the meeting did not include any presentations or data reviews led by CDC scientists or subject matter experts. Kennedy has also barred medical and health expert liaisons—such as the American Medical Association, the Infectious Disease Society of America, and the American Academy of Pediatrics—from participating in the ACIP working groups, which compile data and set language for proposed vaccine recommendations.

Anti-vaccine presentations

Instead, today, ACIP heard only from anti-vaccine activists. The first was Cynthia Nevison, a climate researcher and anti-vaccine activist with ties to Children’s Health Defense, Kennedy’s anti-vaccine organization. She was also a board member of an advocacy group called Safe Minds, which promotes a false link between autism and vaccines, specifically the mercury-containing vaccine preservative thimerosal, which was removed from routine childhood vaccines in the early 2000s. (Safe Minds stands for Sensible Action For Ending Mercury-Induced Neurological Disorders.) According to her academic research profile at the University of Colorado Boulder, her expertise is in “global biogeochemical cycles of carbon and nitrogen and their impact on atmospheric trace gases.”

Far from that topic, Nevison gave a presentation downplaying the transmission of hepatitis B and the benefits of vaccines. She falsely claimed that the dramatic decline in hepatitis B infections that followed vaccination efforts was not actually due to the vaccination efforts—despite irrefutable evidence that it was. And she followed that up with her own unvetted modeling claiming that CDC scientists overestimate the risk of transmission. She ended by presenting a few studies showing declines in blood antibody levels after initial vaccination, which she claimed suggests that the hepatitis B vaccine does not offer lifelong protection, an incorrect takeaway based on her lack of expertise.

The author of one of the studies just happened to be present at today’s meeting. Pediatrician Amy Middleman, who is an ACIP liaison representing the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM) and a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, was the first author on a key study Nevison referenced. Middleman was quick to point out that Nevison had completely misunderstood the study, which actually showed that cell-based immune protection from the vaccine offers robust lifelong protection, even after initial antibody levels decline (called an anamnestic response).

“This is where a really experienced understanding of immunization comes into play,” Middleman said. “The entire point of our study is that for most vaccines, the anamnestic response is really their superpower. So this study showed that memory cells exist such that when they see something that looks like the hepatitis B disease, they actually attack. The presence of a robust and anamnestic response, regardless of circulating antibody years later, shows true protection.”

The next presentation was from Mark Blaxill, an anti-vaccine activist installed at the CDC in September. Blaxill gave a presentation on hepatitis B vaccine safety, despite having no background in medicine or science. He previously worked as an executive for a technology investment firm and, like Nevison, also worked for Safe Minds, where he was vice president. Blaxill has written books and many articles falsely claiming that vaccines cause a variety of harms in children. In 2004, when an Institute of Medicine analysis concluded that there were no convincing links between vaccines and autism, Blaxill publicly protested the result.

In his presentation, he attacked the quality of safety data in past hepatitis B studies. Though he stopped short of suggesting any specific harms from the vaccine, he aired unsubstantiated possibilities popular with anti-vaccine activists. He also noted a study finding that some babies had fatigue and irritability after vaccination, which he bizarrely suggested was a sign of encephalitis (inflammation of the brain).

Real-time feedback

Cody Meissner, a pediatrician and voting member of ACIP who is the most qualified and experienced member of the panel, quickly called out the suggestion as ridiculous. “That is absolutely not encephalitis,” Meissner said with frustration in his voice. “That’s not a statement that a physician would make. [Those symptoms] are not related to encephalitis, and you can’t say that.”

As in previous meetings, Jason Goldman, the ACIP liaison representing the American College of Physicians, gave the most biting response to the meeting overall, saying:

Once again, this committee fails to use the evidence to recommend framework and shows absolutely no understanding of the process or the gravity of the moment of the recommendations that you make. We need to look at all the evidence and data and not cherry-pick them… This meeting is completely inappropriate for an administration that wants to avoid fraud, waste, and abuse. You are wasting taxpayer dollars by not having scientific, rigorous discussion on issues that truly matter. The best thing you can do is adjourn the meeting and discuss vaccine issues that actually need to be taken up… As physicians, your ethical obligation is primum non nocere, first do no harm, and you are failing in that by promoting this anti-vaccine agenda without the data and evidence necessary to make those informed decisions.

The panel will reconvene tomorrow for an all-day meeting in which the members will consider a vote on the hepatitis B vaccine for a third time. The meeting will also host other anti-vaccine presentations attacking the childhood vaccine schedule in its entirety.

Beth is Ars Technica’s Senior Health Reporter. Beth has a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and attended the Science Communication program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She specializes in covering infectious diseases, public health, and microbes.

CDC vaccine panel realizes again it has no idea what it’s doing, delays big vote Read More »

Meet CDC’s new lead vaccine advisor who thinks shots cause heart disease

ACIP, anti-vaccine, CDC, fda, health, Kirk Milhoan, myocarditis, robert f kennedy jr, vinay prasad / Paul Patrick / December 2, 2025

Milhoan has a history of touting unproven COVID cures while disparaging vaccines.

Kirk Milhoan, James Pagano, and Robert Malone are seen during a meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on September 18, 2025 in Chamblee, Georgia. Credit: Getty | Elijah Nouvelage

When the federal vaccine committee hand-picked by anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. meets again this week, it will have yet another new chairperson to lead its ongoing work of dismantling the evidence-based vaccine recommendations set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On Monday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that the chairperson who has been in place since June—when Kennedy fired all 17 expert advisors on the committee and replaced them with questionably qualified allies—is moving to a senior role in the department. Biostatistician Martin Kulldorff will now be the chief science officer for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), HHS said. As such, he’s stepping down from the vaccine committee, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

Kulldorff gained prominence amid the COVID-19 pandemic, criticizing public health responses to the crisis, particularly lockdowns and COVID-19 vaccines. He was a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration that advocated for letting the deadly virus spread unchecked through the population, which was called unethical by health experts.

As ACIP chair, Kulldorff frequently made false and misleading statements about vaccine safety and efficacy that were in line with Kennedy’s views and statements. While Kulldorff presided over the committee, it made a series of decisions that were sharply denounced by scientific and medical groups as being based on ideology rather than evidence. Those include voting for the removal of the vaccine preservative thimerosal from some flu vaccines, despite well-established data indicating it is safe, with no evidence of harms. The committee also added restrictions to a combination measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (chickenpox) MMRV vaccine and made an unprecedented effort to prevent Americans from getting COVID-19 vaccines, though the moves were largely ineffective.

In his new role, Kulldorff will be working with ASPE to provide analyses on health policy options, coordinate research efforts, and provide policy advice.

“It’s an honor to join the team of distinguished scientists that Secretary Kennedy has assembled,” Kulldorff said in a press release announcing his new role. “I look forward to contributing to the science-based public health policies that will Make America Healthy Again.”

The new chair, Kirk Milhoan

With Kulldorff moving on, ACIP will now be chaired by Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric oncologist with a track record for spreading COVID-19 misinformation and anti-vaccine views. In August 2021, the Hawaii Medical Board filed a complaint against Milhoan after he appeared on a panel promoting ineffective COVID-19 treatments, downplaying the severity of the disease, and spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, according to the Maui News. The complaint was dropped in April 2022 after state regulators said they had insufficient evidence to prove a violation of statutes regarding the practice of medicine.

While Milhoan claimed at the time that he is “pro-vaccine,” his statement, affiliations, and prescribing practices suggest otherwise. Milhoan is a member of the Independent Medical Alliance (formerly the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance), a group of dubious health care providers set up amid the pandemic to promote the use of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and the de-worming drug ivermectin to treat COVID-19. Both drugs have shown to be ineffective and potentially harmful when used to treat or prevent COVID-19. The IMA also emphasizes vaccine injuries while pushing vitamins and other unproven treatments.

In 2024, Milhoan appeared on a panel set up by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to discuss alleged injuries from COVID-19 vaccines alongside other prominent anti-vaccine and COVID-19 misinformation voices. In his opening statement, Milhoan suggested that COVID-19 vaccines were causing severe cardiovascular disease and death in people aged 15 to 44—an unsubstantiated claim he frequently echoes. In his bio for the IMA, he touts that he offers treatment for “vaccine-related cardiovascular toxicity due to the spike protein.”

CDC data has found that boys and young men, aged 12 to 24, have a heightened risk of myocarditis (inflammation of the heart) after COVID-19 vaccination. However, the cases are rare, relatively mild, and almost always resolve, according to CDC data. In a COVID-19 safety data presentation in June, CDC staff scientists reported that its vast vaccine safety monitoring systems indicated that in males 12–24, there are 27 myocarditis cases per million doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered (roughly one case in 37,000 doses). In cases identified during 2021, 83 percent recovered within three months, with more than 90 percent recovering within the year. The monitoring data found no instances of cardiac transplant or death from COVID-19 vaccination.

While anti-vaccine activists have seized on this minor risk from vaccination, health experts note that the risk of myocarditis and other inflammatory conditions from a COVID-19 infection is significantly greater than the risk from vaccination. Exact estimates vary, but one CDC study in 2021 found that people with COVID-19 infections had a 16-fold higher risk of myocarditis than people without the infection. Specifically, the study estimated that there were 150 myocarditis cases among 100,000 COVID-19-infected patients versus just nine myocarditis cases among 100,000 people without COVID-19 infections and who were also unvaccinated. Similar to what’s seen with vaccination, the study found that young males were most at risk of myocarditis.

Kennedy’s allies attack on COVID-19 shots

Kennedy and his allies, like Milhoan, have consistently inflated the risk of myocarditis from COVID-19 vaccination, with some claiming without evidence that they have caused sudden cardiac arrest and deaths in young males, though studies have found no such link. In 2022, Milhoan and fellow ACIP member and conspiracy theorist Robert Malone were featured in a viral social media post suggesting that 50 percent of college athletes in the Big Ten athletic conference had myocarditis linked to COVID-19 vaccines, which could lead to deaths if they played. But the two were referencing a JAMA Cardiology study that examined subclinical myocarditis in Big Ten athletes after COVID-19 infection—not vaccination. In fact, researchers confirmed for an AFP fact check that none of the athletes in the study were vaccinated. And the rate of subclinical myocarditis in the group was 2.3 percent, not 50 percent.

Milhoan’s misinformation about the cardiovascular harms from COVID-19 vaccines seems particularly pertinent to the direction of Kennedy’s anti-vaccine allies. On Friday, Vinay Prasad, the Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine regulator, sent a memo to staff claiming without evidence that COVID-19 vaccines have killed 10 children. The memo provides little information about the extraordinary claim, but it hints that the deaths were linked to myocarditis and found among reports submitted between 2021 and 2024 to the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).

VAERS is a system by which anyone, including members of the public, can report anything they think could be linked to vaccines. The reports are considered a type of early warning system, but the vast majority of the reports submitted are not actually related to vaccines. Further, CDC scientists have thoroughly evaluated VAERS reports and ruled out deaths attributed to COVID-19 vaccines. Prasad’s memo—which experts have speculated was designed to be leaked to produce alarming headlines about child deaths—claimed that before Trump administration officials with anti-vaccine views began sifting through the data, these deaths were “ignored” by FDA and CDC scientists. Prasad also claimed that there could be many more deaths that have gone unreported, despite the fact that healthcare providers have been legally required to report any deaths that occurred after COVID-19 vaccination, regardless of cause.

This week’s ACIP meeting

In this week’s scheduled ACIP meeting on Thursday and Friday, COVID-19 vaccines don’t appear on the draft agenda. Instead, ACIP is expected to vote to remove a recommendation for a birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine. That dose protects newborns from contracting the highly infectious virus from their mothers during birth or from other family or acquaintances shortly after birth. About half of the people infected with hepatitis B are not aware of their infections, and testing of mothers before birth is imperfect. That can leave newborns particularly vulnerable, as infections that start at or shortly after birth almost always develop into chronic infections that can lead to liver disease, liver transplant, and cancer. In a previous ACIP meeting, CDC staff scientists presented data showing that there are no significant harms of birth doses and there is no evidence that delaying the immunization offers any benefit.

The committee is also taking on the childhood vaccine schedule as a whole, though the agenda on this topic is not yet clear. In his memo, Prasad attacked the common practice of providing multiple vaccinations at once, hinting that it could be a way in which the committee will try to dismantle current childhood vaccination recommendations. On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that the committee will examine whether the childhood vaccine schedule as a whole is causing allergies and autoimmune diseases, something Kennedy and his anti-vaccine organization have long floated despite evidence refuting a link.

Under clear attack are aluminum salt adjuvants, which are used in many vaccines to help spur protective immune responses. Aluminum salts have been used safely in vaccines for more than 70 years. The FDA notes that the most common source of aluminum exposure is from food and water, not vaccines.

Meet CDC’s new lead vaccine advisor who thinks shots cause heart disease Read More »

As shutdown ends, dubious CDC panel gets back to dismantling vaccine schedule

ACIP, american academy of pediatrics, anti-vaccine, CDC, health, hepatitis B, kennedy, robert f kennedy jr, vaccines / Tim Belzer / November 14, 2025

Nevertheless, Kennedy’s ACIP members planned to push the first dose back a month. A vote was prepared to recommend not giving a birth dose unless there was “individual based decision-making.” While at first the panel seemed poised to vote in favor of the change, the plan collapsed with basic questioning.

Voting ACIP member Joseph Hibbeln, a psychiatrist, noted: “I’m unclear if we’ve been presented with any safety or data comparing before one month to after one month,” he said. They had not.

“And,” Hibbeln continued, “I’m wondering why one month was selected as our time point and if there are data to help to inform us if there’s greater risk of adverse effects before one month or after one month at all.”

There is no data suggesting that such a move would be more or less safe.

The discussion quickly spiraled from there with an eventual vote of 11-1 to table voting on the vaccine recommendation. According to the Federal Register notice, ACIP will try to take up the topic again. They could revive the vote or attack some other aspect of vaccine recommendations.

Pediatricians fight back

Health experts have blasted Kennedy’s lineup and their attacks on childhood vaccines, including the hepatitis B vaccination schedule. The current schedule “remains the best protection against serious health problems like liver disease and cancer,” the American Academy of Pediatrics emphasized to Ars.

With ACIP’s standing tarnished under Kennedy, AAP has put forth its own evidence-based vaccine schedule for pediatricians to trust. They’ve also been a prominent opponent among medical organizations to Kennedy’s efforts. For instance, in a revised federal lawsuit, the AAP along with other medical organizations is seeking to overturn all decisions made by Kennedy’s ACIP and replace the entire panel with actual experts.

Kennedy’s appointees “lack the credentials and experience required of their role,” and all their votes should be declared “null and void,” the organization said.

AAP President Susan Kressly said that pediatricians are already seeing the effects of having an anti-vaccine activist as the US health secretary, namely “fear, decreased vaccine confidence, and barriers for families to access vaccines.”

“The nation’s children are already paying the price in avoidable illnesses and hospitalizations,” Kressly said. “We urge federal leaders to restore the science-based deliberative process that has made the United States a global leader in public health. Urgent action is needed.”

As shutdown ends, dubious CDC panel gets back to dismantling vaccine schedule Read More »

If things in America weren’t stupid enough, Texas is suing Tylenol maker

autism, health, paxton, Policy, robert f kennedy jr, texas, Trump, tylenol / Kris Guyer / October 28, 2025

While the underlying cause or causes of autism spectrum disorder remain elusive and appear likely to be a complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors, President Trump and his anti-vaccine health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—neither of whom have any scientific or medical background whatsoever—have decided to pin the blame on Tylenol, a common pain reliever and fever reducer that has no proven link to autism.

And now, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the maker of Tylenol, Kenvue and Johnson & Johnson, who previously sold Tylenol, claiming that they have been “deceptively marketing Tylenol” knowing that it “leads to a significantly increased risk of autism and other disorders.”

To back that claim, Paxton relies on the “considerable body of evidence… recently highlighted by the Trump Administration.”

Of course, there is no “considerable” evidence for this claim, only tenuous associations and conflicting studies. Trump and Kennedy’s justification for blaming Tylenol was revealed in a rambling, incoherent press conference last month, in which Trump spoke of a “rumor” about Tylenol and his “opinion” on the matter. Still, he firmly warned against its use, saying well over a dozen times: “don’t take Tylenol.”

“Don’t take Tylenol. There’s no downside. Don’t take it. You’ll be uncomfortable. It won’t be as easy maybe, but don’t take it if you’re pregnant. Don’t take Tylenol and don’t give it to the baby after the baby is born,” he said.

“Scientifically unfounded”

As Ars has reported previously, there are some studies that have found an association between use of Tylenol (aka acetaminophen or paracetamol) and a higher risk of autism. But, many of the studies finding such an association have significant flaws. Other studies have found no link. That includes a highly regarded Swedish study that compared autism risk among siblings with different acetaminophen exposures during pregnancy, but otherwise similar genetic and environmental risks. Acetaminophen didn’t make a difference, suggesting other genetic and/or environmental factors might explain any associations. Further, even if there is a real association (aka a correlation) between acetaminophen use and autism risk, that does not mean the pain reliever is the cause of autism.

If things in America weren’t stupid enough, Texas is suing Tylenol maker Read More »

An NIH director joins MAHA, gets replaced by JD Vance’s close friend

cancer, cellphones, fluoride, health, NIEHS, NIH, NTP, robert f kennedy jr, Science, trump administration / Paul Patrick / October 23, 2025

The director of a federal health institute that has arguably produced two of the most controversial government studies in recent years has accepted a new federal role to advance the goals of the Make America Healthy Again movement. Meanwhile, the person replacing him as director is a close friend of Vice President JD Vance and was installed in a process that experts describe as completely outside standard hiring practices.

The series of events—revealed in an email to staff last week from the National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya—is only exacerbating the spiraling fears that science is being deeply corrupted by politics under the Trump administration.

Richard Woychik, a molecular geneticist, is the outgoing director of the NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), which is located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. He has been director since 2020 and was recently appointed to a second five-year term, according to Science magazine. Woychik was hired at the institute in 2010, when he joined as deputy director, and was appointed acting director in 2019.

As the director of NIEHS, Woychik was also the director of the National Toxicology Program (NTP). This is an interagency program that has produced two highly controversial scientific reports during Woychik’s time in NIEHS’s upper leadership. One, initially released in 2016, claimed that cellphone radiation causes cancer based on findings from rats, though only male rats. The final reports were published in 2018. Another controversial study, finalized this year, suggested that high levels of fluoride lower the IQ of children. Both the cellphone radiation and fluoride studies have been roundly criticized for flaws in their methodology and analysis, and the scientific community has largely dismissed them.

However, the studies align with—and bolster—the conspiracy theories and misinformation spread by the MAHA movement, which is led by ardent anti-vaccine activist and current US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. As health secretary, Kennedy has pledged to remove fluoride from municipal water, which, over decades, has proven safe and highly effective at preventing tooth decay in children. He has also, at various times, suggested 5G cell phone radiation causes cancer, a variety of other health conditions, changes to DNA, and is used as mass surveillance.

An NIH director joins MAHA, gets replaced by JD Vance’s close friend Read More »

Layoffs, a “coding error,” chaos: Trump admin ravages the health dept.

CDC, health, health department, HHS, layoffs, robert f kennedy jr, Trump / Paul Patrick / October 13, 2025

Federal health agencies are reeling from mass layoffs on Friday that appear to have particularly devastated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, despite some terminations being rescinded on Saturday.

Numbers are still sketchy, but reports from Friday indicate that more than 4,000 federal workers overall were initially targeted for layoffs. The Trump administration linked the firings to the ongoing government shutdown, which legal experts have suggested is illegal. Unions representing federal workers have already filed a lawsuit challenging the move.

Of the reported 4,000 terminations, about 1,100 to 1,200 were among employees in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS is a massive department that houses critical federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, among others. Before Trump’s second term, the HHS workforce was about 82,000, but that was slashed to about 62,000 earlier this year amid initial cuts and efforts to push civil servants out.

While it’s unclear where all the new cuts occurred, reports from anonymous and external sources describe a major gutting of the CDC, an agency that has already been severely wounded, losing significant numbers this year. Its former leaders have accused the Trump administration of censoring its scientific work. It suffered a dramatic ousting of its Senate-confirmed director in August. And it was the target of a gunman weeks earlier, who shot over 500 rounds at its employees, killing a local police officer.

As terminations went out Friday, reports indicated that the terminations hit staff who produce the CDC’s esteemed journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, employees responding to the measles outbreaks in the US, others responding to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, workers in the Global Health Center, and disease detectives in the Epidemic Intelligence Service.

Layoffs, a “coding error,” chaos: Trump admin ravages the health dept. Read More »

RFK Jr. drags feet on COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, delaying shots for kids

ACIP, CDC, COVID-19 vaccines, health, robert f kennedy jr, vaccines / Mike M. / October 2, 2025

Previously, the FDA narrowed the shots’ labels to include only people age 65 and older, and those 6 months and older at higher risk. But the ACIP recommended that all people age 6 months and older could get the shot based on shared decision-making with a health care provider. Although the shared decision-making adds a new requirement for getting the vaccine, that decision-making does not require a prescription and can be done not only with doctors, but also with nurses and pharmacists. Most people in the US get their seasonal COVID-19 vaccines at their local pharmacy.

Ars Technica reached out to the HHS on Thursday about whether there was a determination on the COVID-19 vaccine recommendations and, if not, when that is expected to happen and why there is a delay. The HHS responded, confirming that no determination had been made yet, but did not answer any of the other questions and did not provide a comment for the record.

In past years, ACIP recommendations and CDC sign-offs have happened earlier in the year to provide adequate time for a rollout. In 2024, ACIP voted on COVID-19 vaccinations in June, for instance, and then-CDC Director Mandy Cohen signed off that day. Now that we’re into October, it remains unclear when or even if the CDC will sign off on the recommendation and then, if the recommendation is adopted by the CDC, how much longer after that it would take for states to roll out the vaccines to children in the VFC program.

“Children who depend on this program, including children with chronic conditions, are still waiting unprotected. The delay in adopting COVID-19 vaccine recommendations puts their health at risk, reduces access and choice for families, and puts a strain on providers who want to deliver the best care for their youngest patients,” Susan Kansagra, the chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, said in a statement to Stat.

For now, children and adults with private insurance have access to the shots without the final sign-off, and health insurance companies have said that they will continue to maintain coverage for the vaccines without the final federal approval.

RFK Jr. drags feet on COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, delaying shots for kids Read More »

Anti-vaccine groups melt down over reports RFK Jr. to link autism to Tylenol

anti-vaccine, autism, children's health defense, health, robert f kennedy jr, tylenol, vaccines / Mike M. / September 22, 2025

Results of this study indicate that the association between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental disorders is a noncausal association. Birthing parents with higher acetaminophen use differed in many aspects from those with lower use or no use. Results suggested that there was not one single “smoking gun” confounder, but rather that multiple birthing parents’ health and sociodemographic characteristics each explained at least part of the apparent association. The null results of the sibling control analyses indicate that shared familial confounders were involved, but do not identify the specific confounding factors.

Critical factors

Another factor to consider is that untreated fevers, and/or prolonged fevers during pregnancy—reasons to take Tylenol in the first place—are linked to increased risks of autism. And, as the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine pointed out earlier this month, untreated fever and pain during pregnancy carry other significant risks for both the mother and the pregnancy.

“Untreated fever, particularly in the first trimester, increases the risk of miscarriage, birth defects, and premature birth, and untreated pain can lead to maternal depression, anxiety, and high blood pressure,” SMFM noted.

With no clear evidence supporting a link between acetaminophen and autism, doctors highlight another fold in the issue: Acetaminophen is considered the safest pain reliever/fever-reducer during pregnancy. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications (also called NSAIDS), such as ibuprofen (Advil) and aspirin, can cause reduced blood flow, heart problems, and kidney problems in a fetus.

After The Wall Street Journal’s report of Kennedy’s plans, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) reiterated its guidance for acetaminophen during pregnancy, writing on social media:

Acetaminophen remains a safe, trusted option for pain relief during pregnancy. Despite recent unfounded claims, there’s no clear evidence linking prudent use to issues with fetal development. ACOG’s guidance remains the same. When pain relief is needed during pregnancy, acetaminophen should be used in moderation, and after consulting your doctor.

Christopher Zahn, ACOG’s chief of clinical practice, put it more plainly, saying: “Pregnant patients should not be frightened away from the many benefits of acetaminophen, which is safe and one of the few options pregnant people have for pain relief.”

Anti-vaccine groups melt down over reports RFK Jr. to link autism to Tylenol Read More »