Overview: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s decision to withdraw recommendations for several childhood vaccines contradicts scientific guidance and, critics say, has deepened public mistrust. Polling shows trust in the CDC fell from 66% (Dec 2024) to 54% (Oct 2025), while confidence in vaccine benefits has declined across the political spectrum. During Kennedy’s tenure the U.S. has faced significant measles, whooping cough and flu outbreaks amid the sidelining of public health experts.
Why Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Must Be Removed to Restore Trust in Public Health
Earlier this month, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the U.S. will stop recommending several childhood vaccines — a decision that runs counter to the guidance of scientific and medical experts.
Leadership Without Public Health Credentials
Kennedy, an attorney and activist with a long history of promoting anti‑vaccine and conspiracy‑oriented views, lacks formal training or professional experience in public health, science or medicine. Despite this, he has positioned himself as the necessary agent to "restore trust" in public health, dismissing decades — even centuries — of scientific and medical progress and the expertise of career public health professionals.
Evidence of Declining Trust
Available data indicate that trust in federal public health institutions has fallen since Kennedy’s confirmation. According to the Axios‑Ipsos American Health Index poll, confidence in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) fell from 66% in December 2024 to 60% in June 2025 and further to 54% by October 2025. A University of Pennsylvania poll recorded similar declines in trust for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Polling from the Pew Research Center and the Kaiser Family Foundation also shows decreasing confidence in vaccines and in Kennedy’s performance.
Key data points: Pew found Republican belief that MMR benefits outweigh risks fell from 86% in 2023 to 78% by October 2025. A Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll reported only one in three Americans view Kennedy as a trustworthy source on vaccines and 59% disapprove of his job performance (October poll).
Consequences for Public Health
Since Kennedy assumed office, the United States has experienced an unusually severe series of outbreaks: the worst measles outbreak in more than 20 years, major whooping cough activity, and an intense influenza season. Alongside these events, the department has seen mass firings of public health experts, the replacement of vaccine advisory committee members with critics of established vaccination policy, and reductions in communicable‑disease surveillance capacity. Communications from the department and changes to the CDC website under Kennedy’s direction have been criticized by many professional medical organizations as departing from evidence‑based public health practice.
Why This Matters
Vaccination programs depend on public confidence in institutions that evaluate safety and efficacy. When leadership amplifies doubt about well‑established interventions, uptake can decline, outbreaks increase, and community protection weakens — particularly for infants, immunocompromised people, and others who rely on high vaccination coverage for protection.
A Clear Recommendation
The authors argue that Kennedy’s actions have not restored trust; they have eroded it. To begin repairing public confidence in health institutions and to reestablish evidence‑based public health practice, the authors conclude that Kennedy must be removed from office.
About the authors: Elizabeth Jacobs is an epidemiologist and professor emerita at the University of Arizona and a founding member of the advocacy group Defend Public Health. James Alwine is a virologist, professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania, a visiting professor at the University of Arizona, a fellow of the American Academy for Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the coordinating committee for Defend Public Health.
Help us improve.
