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Since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services one year ago, he has defended his upending of federal health policy by saying the changes will restore trust in America\u2019s public health agencies.<\/p>\n
But as the longtime leader of the anti-vaccine movement scales back immunization guidance and dismisses scientists and advisers, he’s clashed with top medical groups who say he’s not following the science.<\/p>\n
The confrontation is deepening confusion among the public that had already surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Surveys show trust in the agencies Kennedy leads is falling, rather than rising, as the country’s health landscape undergoes dramatic change. <\/p>\n
Kennedy says he\u2019s aiming to boost transparency to empower Americans to make their own health choices. Doctors counter that the false and unverified information he’s promoting is causing major, perhaps irreversible, damage \u2014 and that if enough people forgo vaccination, it will cause a surge of illness and death.<\/p>\n
There was a time when people trusted health agencies regardless of party and the government reported \u201cthe best of what science knows at this point,\u201d said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Now, you cannot confidently go to federal websites and know that,” she said.<\/p>\n HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon argued that trust had suffered during the Biden<\/a> administration. \u201cKennedy\u2019s mandate is to restore transparency, scientific rigor, and accountability,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Trust<\/a> slid during the COVID pandemic <\/p>\n Historically, federal scientific and public health agencies enjoyed strong ratings in public opinion polls. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for decades scored above many other government agencies in Gallup surveys that asked whether they were doing a \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cexcellent\u201d job. <\/p>\n Two decades ago, more than 60% of Americans gave the CDC high marks, according to Gallup. But that number fell dramatically at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, amid agency mistakes and guidance that some people didn\u2019t like. <\/p>\n In 2020, the percentage of Americans who believed the CDC was doing at least a \u201cgood\u201d job fell to 40% and then leveled off for the next few years.<\/p>\n Alix Ellis, a hairstylist and mom in Madison, Georgia, used to fully trust the CDC and other health agencies but lost that confidence during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said some of the guidance didn’t make sense. At her salon, for example, stylists could work directly on someone\u2019s hair, but others in the room had to be several feet away.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not saying that we were lied to, but that is when I was like, OK, \u2018Why are we doing this?\u2019\u201d the 35-year-old said. <\/p>\n Kennedy helped create the trust problem, doctor says <\/p>\n Part of Kennedy\u2019s pitch as health secretary has been restoring Americans\u2019 trust in public health.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to tell them what we know, we\u2019re going to tell them what we don\u2019t know, and we\u2019re going to tell them what we\u2019re researching and how we\u2019re doing it,\u201d Kennedy told senators last September, while explaining how he intended to make the CDC\u2019s information reliable. \u201cIt\u2019s the only way to restore trust in the agency \u2014 by making it trustworthy.\u201d<\/p>\n Before entering politics, Kennedy was one of the loudest voices spreading false information about immunizations. Now, he\u2019s trying to fix a trust problem he helped create, said Dr. Rob Davidson, a Michigan emergency physician.<\/p>\n \u201cYou fed those people false information to create the distrust, and now you\u2019re sweeping into power and you\u2019re going to cure the distrust by promoting the same disinformation,\u201d said Davidson, who runs a doctor group called the Committee to Protect Health Care. \u201cIt\u2019s upside-down.\u201d<\/p>\n Kennedy has wielded the power of his office to take multiple steps that diverge from medical consensus.<\/p>\n Last May, he announced COVID-19 vaccines were no longer recommended for healthy children and pregnant women, a move doctors called concerning and confusing. <\/p>\n In November, he directed the CDC to abandon its position that vaccines do not cause autism, without supplying new evidence. And earlier this year, the CDC under his leadership reduced the number of vaccines recommended for every child, a decision medical groups said would undermine protections against a half-dozen diseases. <\/p>\n Kennedy also has overhauled his department through canceled grants and mass layoffs. Last summer, Kennedy fired his new CDC chief after less than a month over disagreements about vaccine policy.<\/p>\n