KFF Health News reporting revealed HHS under Kennedy sought federal access to most Americans' identifiable medical records

On June 4, 2026, KFF Health News reported 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 as part of an effort to investigate a link between vaccines and autism — a connection the medical establishment has studied for decades and rejects. According to the reporting, federal officials met several times over the past year with leaders of state-run health information exchanges, the systems that let hospitals and clinics share detailed, patient-identifiable records such as doctors' notes, prescription histories, and diagnoses, and asked how those records could be used for vaccine research.

Kennedy told KFF Health News that medical records are key to investigating the causes of autism and chronic disease, saying "we now have databases together that we can actually do the studies on." State exchange leaders had pitched HHS on a new surveillance system that, under the proposal, would give the department data covering roughly 90% of the population's medical records by 2028. Millions of dollars in grant money flowed to a Nebraska nonprofit that assisted the effort. Some state officials declined to participate — Maryland's exchange said sharing records for that purpose would require a cascade of approvals it did not have — while others, including Indiana, said they were still weighing the request.

HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard did not answer questions about how many states are participating, what data the agency is collecting, how much the initiative costs, how it protects patient privacy, or who would have access, saying only that HHS was "strengthening public health surveillance." The abuse recorded here is the government's pursuit of population-scale access to identifiable personal health records without disclosed legal authority or privacy safeguards, directed toward a scientifically rejected inquiry.