A new presidential commission will scrutinize the childhood vaccine schedule as a potential cause of the country’s chronic disease epidemic, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told HHS staff during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday.
“Nothing is going to be off limits,” Kennedy added of his push to “Make America Healthy Again,” according to a video viewed by The Hill.
President Trump launched a new MAHA commission last week with an executive order and put Kennedy at its helm. The commission was tasked with developing a strategy around children’s health within the next six months.
Kennedy urged his new staff to drop any preconceived notions of who he is, but also said he wouldn’t stop asking “difficult questions” that have led to “a lot of unpopular conclusions.”
“Some of the possible factors we will investigate were formally taboo or insufficiently scrutinized. childhood vaccine schedule, electromagnetic radiation, glyphosate, other pesticides, ultra-processed foods, artificial food allergies, SSRI [anti-depressants] and other psychiatric drugs, PFAS, PFOA, microplastics, nothing is going to be off limits,” Kennedy told staff Tuesday.
During his confirmation hearing, Kennedy tried to distance himself from his past statements and positions as a vaccine skeptic. But he also refused to disavow his efforts to promote a thoroughly debunked link between vaccines and autism, despite pleas from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.).
Kennedy said he would admit he was wrong if “shown the data.” But even when Cassidy did just that, Kennedy cited additional studies — of dubious merit — that favored his conclusion, leading Cassidy to note that Kennedy was always asking for more, never accepting the mountains of evidence that already exist.
Cassidy ended up voting to confirm Kennedy after he said he received assurances from Kennedy about not undermining vaccine safety efforts.
During his speech Tuesday, Kennedy seemed to repeat his promise about admitting error if he sees data that proves him wrong.
“I promise to listen to all the stakeholders … including the ones, especially the ones with whom I’ve disagreed in the past. I promise to keep an open mind,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy’s remarks come as federal agencies are reeling from the Trump administration’s mass firings of HHS staff, including from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration.
Kennedy has previously attacked those agencies as corrupt and under the influence of corporate special interests.
He did not directly address the firings in his remarks.
“On a basic level, I trust the idealism of most of the people who work at HHS. I also understand the corrosive power of money as it infiltrates and captures institutions like ours,” Kennedy said.
He vowed HHS’s work would be carried out with “radical transparency” and said he will crack down on perceived industry influence and conflicts of interest.
“Both science and democracy flourish from the free and unimpeded flow of information,” Kennedy said. “We will remove conflicts of interest in the committees and research partners whenever possible … we will shut the revolving door to reestablish public trust.”
