President Donald Trump has grown frustrated with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccines, according to a late Monday Wall Street Journal report, because Kennedy has not gone further in cutting federal childhood vaccine recommendations or validating a claimed link between vaccines and autism.
The Journal, citing people familiar with Trump’s thinking, reported that the president has become focused on the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism. Trump wants an autism-related achievement to be part of his legacy and sees reductions in childhood vaccination as a path toward that goal, the Journal reported.
Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist who now runs the Department of Health and Human Services, has reportedly been surprised by Trump’s criticism. According to the Journal, Trump complained in May that Kennedy had “the yips,” and in June told him in the Oval Office that he was not doing enough.
Why is Trump frustrated with RFK Jr. over vaccines?
According to the Journal, Trump believes Kennedy has moved too slowly on the president’s preferred vaccine agenda. That includes cutting back federal recommendations for childhood immunizations and producing support for a vaccine-autism connection, a claim that has been repeatedly rejected by scientific evidence.
Public health and medical experts have taken the opposite view of Kennedy’s tenure. Ars Technica reported that Kennedy has already taken several steps that experts see as damaging to vaccination policy and public health.
Those moves include Kennedy’s restructuring of a key federal vaccine advisory committee and filling it with allies who share his skepticism toward vaccines, according to Ars Technica. That committee then dropped evidence-based recommendations for the hepatitis B vaccine dose given at birth and for the combined measles, mumps, rubella and varicella shot, known as MMRV, Ars reported.
Kennedy also reduced the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule to more closely resemble Denmark’s, a country with universal health care, according to Ars Technica. He directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop using prepaid advertising to promote seasonal flu shots during a severe flu season, according to the New York Times. Ars also reported that Kennedy edited a CDC webpage in a way that falsely linked vaccines and autism.
What has blocked Kennedy’s vaccine changes?
Some of Kennedy’s vaccine policy changes have run into the courts. Ars Technica reported that legal challenges have blocked changes involving the vaccine advisory committee and the childhood immunization schedule.
The fight is now partly political. A December poll cited by the Washington Post found Kennedy’s vaccine-cutting efforts broadly unpopular and politically risky. White House political advisers have urged Trump and Kennedy to reduce anti-vaccine messaging, according to Ars Technica, and Kennedy has recently avoided talking about vaccines in public appearances.
The Journal reported that Trump has not accepted that political advice and remains dissatisfied with Kennedy’s pace. The paper also reported speculation that Kennedy could be sidelined or replaced.
One internal shift has already occurred, according to the Journal: Chris Klomp, Kennedy’s Medicare chief, has been empowered to run HHS broadly on Kennedy’s behalf. The Journal also reported rumors that Mehmet Oz, who leads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, could be considered for the health secretary role after the midterm elections.
This story draws on original reporting from Ars Technica.
