On April 16, 2026, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before Congress for the first time since last fall. In a sharp departure from years of anti-vaccine advocacy, he offered a qualified embrace of the measles vaccine. On the same day, President Trump named a new director of the CDC whose views on vaccination are more conventional than Kennedy’s.
The hearing was the first of what will be seven across Capitol Hill. Kennedy’s first stop was the House Ways & Means Committee, followed by the House Appropriations Committee. At both, he faced questions about vaccine policy, HHS staffing cuts, and his overhaul of the health department’s structure.
The Pivot
Kennedy’s embrace of the measles vaccine — a shot that has been safely administered to hundreds of millions of people and has effectively eliminated a disease that once killed thousands of Americans annually — is notable precisely because it shouldn’t be notable at all. Before becoming HHS secretary, Kennedy spent years as a personal injury attorney and the leader of Children’s Health Defense, a prominent anti-vaccine group, arguing that vaccines are more dangerous than publicly known and that children should get fewer of them.
The shift in tone may be strategic. The White House has signaled it wants to tamp down vaccine rhetoric ahead of the midterms. Kennedy’s public comments have become a political liability for vulnerable Republican candidates.
What He’s Actually Doing
While Kennedy says supportive things about one vaccine, he is systematically dismantling the infrastructure that delivers all of them:
• Kennedy fired all 17 original ACIP members and replaced them with 7 new ones — including a psychiatrist and professors of operations management
• A federal judge ruled the reconstitution “unlawful” in March and froze the new members
• Kennedy responded by rewriting the ACIP charter to broaden membership criteria to include “toxicology,” “pediatric neurodevelopment,” and “recovery from serious vaccine injuries”
• New non-voting liaison members include Physicians for Informed Consent, the Independent Medical Alliance, and the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons — all groups that exaggerate vaccine harms
• The charter now directs the committee to study “cumulative effects” of childhood vaccines, aluminum in vaccines, and “novel vaccine platforms such as mRNA”
• Changes were urged by Aaron Siri, a vaccine injury lawyer who is also Kennedy’s personal attorney
Kennedy also announced at the hearing that he is reforming the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force — the panel that determines which preventive screenings, procedures, and medications insurance companies must cover at no cost. He accused the panel of being “lackadaisical and negligent for 20 years” and said he would appoint new members with “a clear mission,” which he did not elaborate on.
“The new charter seems to try to codify the RFK vision of ACIP as a committee focused on risk only and not balance of risk and benefit.” — Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, former CDC immunization director
The Record So Far
In August 2025, HHS canceled nearly $500 million in federal funding for mRNA research. In January 2026, Kennedy directed the CDC to update the childhood immunization schedule to more closely resemble Denmark’s slimmer schedule, dropping several vaccines. That change was paused by a federal judge in March. Kennedy’s HHS has also reversed staffing cuts to the World Trade Center Health Program after outcry from New York lawmakers.
The new CDC director may bring a more conventional perspective. But the structural changes — a rewritten ACIP charter, anti-vaccine groups embedded as official advisors, a gutted research pipeline, and a secretary who spent decades arguing vaccines cause more harm than good — are already in place. One good hearing doesn’t undo a year of institutional demolition.
Sources
- KFF Health News: Kennedy hearings April 16; measles vaccine shift; new CDC director named; Preventive Services Task Force reform; “lackadaisical and negligent” quote; 9/11 Health Program staffing reversal. April 17, 2026.
- Politico: ACIP charter rewrite; broadened membership criteria; Aaron Siri petition; anti-vaccine group additions; judge’s “unlawful” ruling; $500M mRNA funding cancellation; Denmark schedule comparison. April 9, 2026.
- CNN / KEYT: ACIP charter details; “cumulative effects” and aluminum directives; non-voting liaison additions (Physicians for Informed Consent, AAPS); Daskalakis “risk only” quote; Kennedy fired all 17 original members. April 9, 2026.
- New York Times / UNMC: Federal Register charter renewal; “White House wants to tamp down vaccine talk before midterms”; response to Aaron Siri petition; Children’s Health Defense background. April 8, 2026.