Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, in office since 2025, and was previously an environmental lawyer and a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. Entries naming him record departmental decisions on public health guidance, personnel and advisory appointments, and the administration of federal health programmes. His entries are spread more widely across abuse categories than most actors here, covering appointments, agency capacity and public health information.
2026 Events (9)
Politico revealed Kennedy and Hegseth had installed vaccine-skeptic Army doctor at HHS to probe vaccine deaths, a theory Pentagon data contradicted
Politico reported on September 3, 2026 that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had installed Army physician Col. Theresa Long inside HHS in Washington, D.C. as Kennedy's previously undisclosed "senior medical military adviser," tasked with investigating whether COVID-19 vaccines caused the deaths of 2,544 service members. Long, a long-standing vaccine skeptic, testified in an August 14, 2026 deposition that she is pursuing the claim even though a 2026 Pentagon report found no vaccine-linked deaths and only a short-term, non-sustained rise in heart-inflammation cases after vaccination. Kennedy has repeatedly called the vaccines "the most deadly vaccines in history," a characterization public health experts say is false.
VP Vance and HHS Secretary Kennedy referred ~225 hospitals to DOJ, HHS IG over gender-affirming care billing
On August 13, 2026, Vice President JD Vance sent a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sent a separate letter to HHS Inspector General Thomas March Bell, each referring hospitals, clinics, and pharmacy benefit managers for investigation of allegedly fraudulent insurance billing codes tied to pediatric gender-affirming care. The referrals followed release of an HHS-commissioned report, "Wolves in White Coats," which identified roughly 225 hospitals and health systems with pediatric gender programs and named specific organizations — including Boston Children's Hospital, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Rady Children's Hospital, NYU Langone Hospitals, and several Planned Parenthood affiliates — in an appended referral list. As of this recording, DOJ has not confirmed opening a formal investigation.
HHS revised CDC autism-and-vaccines webpage to introduce vaccine-autism uncertainty, replacing evidence-based guidance, to secure a Senate vote
On July 22, 2026, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services revised the CDC's autism-and-vaccines webpage, replacing previous language — including a November 2025 addition stating vaccines do not cause autism "is not an evidence-based claim" — with text that said "Scientists have not identified the root causes of autism" and that HHS would continue research. The change removed the CDC's longtime evidence-based position that vaccines do not cause autism without replacing it with scientifically accurate language. The revision was made at the direction of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and publicly cited by Sen. Bill Cassidy as the "sign of good faith" that secured his vote to advance CDC director nominee Dr. Erica Schwartz through the Senate HELP Committee.
Trump administration deferred over $1 billion in Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota, citing fraud
On July 21, 2026, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced it was deferring $867.5 million in Medicaid payments to California and $199 million to Minnesota pending a fraud review, with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz citing suspicions of Medicaid fraud but providing no documented evidentiary basis for the specific withholdings. Both states are Democratic-led, and the action follows a pattern of the administration using federal funding as leverage against states with administrations politically opposed to the president.
HHS postponed USPSTF meeting for fourth time since July 2025 amid plan to dismiss all 16 members
On July 6, 2026, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Immediate Office confirmed it had postponed the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force meeting scheduled for July 10, 2026, giving the panel no reason or rescheduled date -- the fourth such postponement since July 2025. The delay follows Wall Street Journal reporting that Kennedy plans to dismiss all 16 sitting USPSTF members, mirroring his 2025 dismissal of all 17 members of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
HHS canceled Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program grants, redirected $67M to 'parental rights' and 'body literacy' competitions
The Department of Health and Human Services canceled most active grants under the congressionally funded Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program on June 24, 2026, and simultaneously published $71.7 million in new grant competitions requiring content aligned with "parental rights" and "body literacy" and explicitly excluding programs that "promote or advance gender ideology." An HHS official confirmed the reclaimed TPPP funds would be redirected to the new competitions. A federal court had previously vacated similar HHS guidance stripping gender-identity content from existing TPPP grantees; HHS achieved the same result by terminating and recompeting the grants.
KFF Health News reporting revealed HHS under Kennedy sought federal access to most Americans' identifiable medical records
Reporting published June 4, 2026 by KFF Health News revealed that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is seeking federal government access to the identifiable medical records of most Americans to research a rejected link between vaccines and autism. HHS officials met repeatedly with state health-information-exchange leaders about obtaining detailed patient records, backing a proposal for the department to receive data covering 90% of the population by 2028. An HHS spokesperson declined to say how many states are participating, what data is collected, or how patient privacy would be protected.
CMS published Medicaid work-requirement rule with surprise medical-frailty certification mandate, blindsiding states
On June 3, 2026, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published an interim final rule in the Federal Register implementing the Medicaid community engagement requirement under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, including a medical-frailty certification provision — requiring healthcare-worker certification rather than self-attestation for individuals with serious health conditions — that state officials said had never been raised in prior federal-state consultations. A Center on Budget and Policy Priorities official reported that CMS staff attributed the provision to the White House. On June 29, officials from 25 states and Washington, D.C. sued HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, alleging the medical-frailty provision exceeds the statute's authorization.
Trump signed order directing CDC to align child vaccine schedule with Kennedy-backed study
On May 29, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to align federal childhood vaccine recommendations with a January 2026 HHS scientific assessment favored by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The assessment recommends narrowing routine childhood vaccination to 11 diseases, moving several others to case-by-case "shared decision-making" between doctors and parents.
2025 Events (8)
HHS proposed barring Medicare and Medicaid funding from hospitals providing gender-affirming care to minors
On December 19, 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and its Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services published proposed rules that would bar Medicare and Medicaid funding from hospitals providing gender-affirming care to patients under 18, using hospitals' conditions of participation to put their entire federal reimbursement eligibility at risk. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. issued a declaration asserting a federal standard of care for transgender youth. The proposals drew more than 30,000 public comments, including opposition from the American Medical Association and the Children's Hospital Association.
HHS's Office of Head Start instructed a grantee to strip nearly 200 words, including 'disability' and 'tribal,' from funding applications
On November 19, 2025, HHS's Office of Head Start sent a Wisconsin Head Start program director two emails instructing her to remove specific words from a funding application and then providing a list of nearly 200 words and phrases "to limit or avoid," including "disability," "women," "Black," "Native American," and "tribal." The list surfaced publicly in December 2025 through a declaration filed in an ongoing multi-state lawsuit against HHS and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and several of the banned terms describe categories the Head Start Act itself requires programs to serve and report on, including disability status and Tribal consultation. A federal judge temporarily blocked the practice on January 7, 2026.
RFK Jr.-appointed ACIP panel voted 8-3 to delay routine MMRV childhood vaccine, first change to immunization schedule
On September 18, 2025, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices — its entire prior membership of 17 independent scientific experts having been dismissed and replaced by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — voted 8-3 to delay routine administration of the MMRV combination vaccine (measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella) from the standard 12–15 months to age 4. It was the first change to the childhood immunization schedule under Kennedy's HHS and the first ACIP meeting of his hand-picked panel, which observers and STAT News described as "rocky" amid procedural irregularities, complaints about insufficient review time, and a postponed hepatitis B vote.
HHS de-recognized union contracts at CDC, FDA, and other agencies, stripping collective bargaining rights
The Department of Health and Human Services moved on August 22, 2025, to de-recognize all collective bargaining agreements covering workers at the CDC, FDA, and other HHS divisions, stripping thousands of federal public health employees of union rights. The action implemented a Trump labor-management executive order, making HHS the latest agency in a rolling campaign that had already reached the VA on August 6 and the EPA on August 8. The American Federation of Government Employees condemned the action as an illegal decertification of unions.
Five federal agencies simultaneously stripped immigrant access to life-safety benefit programs, revoking 24 years of DOJ guidance
On July 10-11, 2025, five federal departments — Justice, Health and Human Services, Education, Agriculture, and Labor — simultaneously issued notices rescinding decades-old guidance that had protected immigrant access to federal benefit programs under the "necessary to protect life or safety" exception in the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. The DOJ withdrew its 2001 Attorney General interpretation identifying which programs qualified, effective August 15, 2025; HHS rescinded a 1998 policy keeping Head Start, community health clinics, and Title X accessible; the Department of Education revoked its 1997 guidance covering adult education and postsecondary programs. Multiple states sued immediately.
Kennedy froze U.S. contributions to Gavi vaccine alliance, withholding $600 million in appropriated funds
On June 25, 2025, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the United States would halt financial support for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, until the organization "re-earned the public trust" over its vaccine-safety practices, and the State Department, under Secretary Marco Rubio, deferred to his objections and did not disburse funding. By April 2026 the freeze had blocked $600 million Congress had specifically appropriated for fiscal years 2025 and 2026, prompting bipartisan Senate pressure before the administration announced on July 29, 2026 that it would release the full amount.
HHS Secretary Kennedy dismissed all 17 ACIP members and replaced them with political selections
On June 9, 2025, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed all 17 sitting members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices via a press release and a simultaneous Wall Street Journal op-ed, characterizing them as conflicted and as last-minute Biden appointees. ACIP is the independent federal advisory body whose vaccine recommendations are adopted by the CDC and followed by pediatricians and public health agencies nationwide. Kennedy announced eight replacement members on June 11, 2025; the replacement panel, described by observers as less credentialed than its predecessor, voted 8-3 at its inaugural September 2025 meeting to delay routine administration of the MMRV childhood vaccine — the first change to the immunization schedule under Kennedy's HHS.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Senate his 2019 Samoa trip was unrelated to vaccines; colleague emails described it as a vaccine mission
During his January 29, 2025 Senate confirmation hearings for HHS Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified that his 2019 trip to Samoa "had nothing to do with vaccines." FOIA-released State Department emails, reported in June 2026, show that his then-colleague Dr. Michael Graven—chief information officer of Kennedy's anti-vaccine nonprofit Children's Health Defense—explicitly described the trip as a "mission" to study vaccine discontinuance outcomes and stated that Kennedy personally asked him to join. Two Democratic senators and a House member had previously stated that earlier documentary evidence showed Kennedy lied to the Senate.