If Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is confirmed as HHS secretary, could he ban vaccines?

Madison Czopek
| PolitiFact.com

When President-elect Donald Trump said he would nominate one of the nation’s most prominent anti-vaccine movement leaders to head the Department of Health and Human Services, some social media users warned Americans to update their vaccinations.

“IMPORTANT – vaccines MAY now be BANNED by Trump and RFK Jr for some part of this winter, but we hope such a ban will be stopped by an injunction in court,” one person said. 15 November Topic post. “GET VACCINATED NOW, just in case.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeated false and misleading claims about science and public health for two decades. Failed conspiracy theory campaign earns him PolitiFact’s 2023 award Lie of the Year. Democratic President John Kennedy’s nephew and former presidential candidate Sen. Kennedy, the son of Robert Kennedy Sr., DY, had previously run as an independent. suspension He supported his campaign in August and supported Trump.

scientists They expressed their alarm. On Trump’s decision to listen to Kennedy. There are 13 agencies hosted in This department, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health.

Scholars were not alone in voicing concerns about what Kennedy might do as secretary of Health and Human Services.

“Serious question: Can he ban vaccines?” a Threads user he asked 14 November. “For example, if I want to get a Covid and flu vaccine next year, is it possible that they will not be available?”

The outlook is dark, in part because we’re not sure what Kennedy will do. On November 6, before Trump officially appointed him to the seat, Kennedy gave a speech: NBC News Reporter: “If vaccines are useful to someone, I will not take them away.”

Vaccine law and policy experts told PolitiFact that Kennedy cannot unilaterally ban vaccines and that any effort to ban vaccines would likely face a legal challenge. But they said Kennedy could still reduce his accessibility to Americans. And part of his power depends on whether the Trump administration can get support from other lawmakers and public health leaders, some of whom Trump may also appoint.

Wendy Parmet, a Northeastern University law professor and director of the law school’s Center for Health Policy and Law, said Kennedy cannot ban vaccines “on a fiat basis” or with a single order or executive order.

But he said it “could begin a process for the FDA to review the safety of vaccines and take action to revoke or impose restrictions on some vaccine approvals.” “But this will take time and will undoubtedly be challenged in court.”

Parmet said there are limits to the Health and Human Services secretary’s level of control over vaccines. But he said if confirmed, Kennedy would “control the people who control the institutions that have so much power over vaccines.”

Parmet said Kennedy could prompt those people to take action to limit vaccine access by revoking licenses for the vaccines or directing the CDC to change vaccine messaging and recommendations, which could impact insurance coverage and medical practices.

Still, he said, “there is no authority to ban vaccines as a group nationwide.” “He’ll need an act of Congress to do that.”

Dorit Reiss, an expert on vaccine law and policy at the University of California School of Law in San Francisco, told PolitiFact: federal regulations Dictate how approved vaccines will be removed from the market.

“You need to meet the procedural requirements and show that the dismissal was not arbitrary and capricious,” he said. “And the main actor in this is the FDA commissioner, not the secretary, and we don’t know who that will be or whether the person will be ‘sympathetic to the idea yet.’

According to the regulations, the FDA commissioner, who will be appointed by Trump, can initiate the license revocation process if approved. The commissioner finds “the licensed product is not safe and effective for all intended uses.”

Kennedy’s refrain for years was: vaccines are unsafe. In July 2023, he said A podcaster said some vaccines “probably prevent more problems than they cause,” but Kennedy argued in the same breath: “You know, there is no vaccine that is safe and effective.”

After the FDA commissioner notified the manufacturer of the agency’s plan to revoke the vaccine’s license, hold a hearing and provide the manufacturer”logical“It’s time to comply with everything the government wants.

“Manufacturers can sue if they disagree,” Reiss said. “If there is not sufficient justification, they can win against the annulment decision in court.”

Experts say Kennedy could make vaccines less accessible

Reiss said it is easier to halt approval of new vaccines than to revoke access to existing vaccines, but that requires an FDA commissioner who is open to the idea.

He added that as secretary, Kennedy could, for example, revoke emergency use authorizations for Covid-19 vaccines for children, which could lead to children under 12 losing access to those vaccines.

Kennedy could also nominate or dismiss members of federal advisory committees. Advisory Committee on Vaccination PracticesWhich recommends vaccination Reviewed and adopted by the CDC. Reiss said he could fill the committee with people who hold anti-vaccine beliefs and rescind those people’s vaccine recommendations.

Parmet said the vaccine recommendations the CDC has adopted identify vaccines that are “covered at no charge” under the Affordable Care Act and vaccines available under the Vaccines for Children program, which provides vaccines to Medicaid-enrolled and uninsured children.

Kennedy could undermine grant programs that support state and local vaccination programs, like CDC’s Section 317 Vaccination Programa reference Article 317 of the Public Health Services Act. The program aims to ensure that children and adults are vaccinated by providing federal grant money to state and local public health agencies to support vaccine purchases and operating costs. 317 Coalition the website said.

Pennsylvania Department of Health says The program “plays a critical role in achieving national vaccination coverage targets and reducing disease.” Oklahoma State Department of Health explained The program is seen as a “valuable national resource” that provides routine immunizations to uninsured people and responds to vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks.

Even without changes to official vaccine recommendations, “informal changes” in CDC recommendations could change parents’ willingness to vaccinate their children, influence states’ vaccine recommendations and affect the practices of some pediatricians, Parmet said.

“In other words, the CDC could discourage or reduce vaccine uptake by changing the wording on its website,” he said.

Efforts to ban vaccines will face legal challenges and industry backlash

If Kennedy’s agency tried to enact a nationwide ban without any congressional action, the effort would likely face successful legal challenges, Parmet said.

It’s unclear whether a vaccine ban will win the support of Congress, but anti-vaccine lawmakers are gains in statehouses In recent years across the country legislate Legislation that eliminates vaccination requirements for homeschooled children or preemptively prohibits schools from requiring their students to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

Kennedy may also require the FDA to reconsider vaccine safety and move to revoke or restrict certain vaccine approvals. But Parmet said these actions “will take time and will undoubtedly be challenged in court.”

Reiss said existing laws and regulations could restrict Kennedy.

“As long as it doesn’t change, it can’t violate clear legal provisions, and it has to contend with other agency heads, like the people in charge of the CDC and the FDA,” he said.

Trump will name the Health and Human Services secretary and FDA commissioner, as well as appointing commissioners of the CDC and National Institutes of Health. All these roles will be needed in 2025 Senate confirmationand the Senate will have a Republican majority in January.

Reiss said Kennedy “certainly could try to persuade these people, and there is some interdependence, they need the secretary to pass the rules and appoint people to advisory committees.” “But the president has the power to remove them, not the secretary.”

Pharmaceutical companies are also likely to resist efforts to ban vaccines by lobbying and suing the government, Reiss said.

PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.