Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Thursday that the President Donald Trump administration supports efforts to scale back vaccine mandates and scrutinize vaccine safety, adding that the movement has “a strong and steadfast friend at the White House.”
Greater Vaccine Choice
In a speech at Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine organization he co-founded and led from 2015 to 2023, Kennedy said Trump has directed his department to strengthen vaccine safety research, expand vaccine options for families and preserve individual choice without federal mandates.
"President Trump will not allow the government to treat parents who question vaccine orthodoxies as lepers," Kennedy said, adding that Trump has "continued to press this work forward and demand answers."
He added that the administration has not restricted Americans’ access to vaccines but is instead investigating vaccine safety.
Trump Overhauls Childhood Vaccine Recommendations
The comments come after Trump signed an executive order in August, narrowing the list of vaccines recommended for all children to 11 from 18.
The order placed other vaccines into categories covering high-risk groups or shared clinical decision-making and directed HHS to review the timing and sequencing of childhood vaccinations.
Trump also called for the combined measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine to eventually be offered as three separate shots.
Kennedy said the administration had reduced the number of diseases universally recommended for routine childhood vaccination from 17 to 11 and moved other vaccines toward individual, risk-based decision-making.
‘I Didn’t Come to Washington to Protect Institutions’
There has been a "dearth of science for 30 years" needed to determine vaccine risks, Kennedy said, calling the failure to conduct those studies "regulatory malpractice."
“I didn’t come to Washington to protect institutions from uncomfortable questions. I came to make those institutions answer those questions, and I intend to stay in this fight as long as I am able,” Kennedy added.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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