Health
Who Makes Vaccine Policy Decisions in RFK Jr.’s Health Department?
For decades, as an activist, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. resisted the scientific consensus that vaccines are safe and necessary to prevent serious disease. Now at the helm of the nation’s health department, he has begun to put his extreme views into practice, ousting veteran scientists and installing allies across the nation’s health agencies to enact major shifts in vaccine policy.
Some of Mr. Kennedy’s hires are activists who have worked for years alongside him. Others are scientists who say they broadly support vaccines but publicly criticized Covid shots or mandates during the pandemic. Many of these scientists have begun to question the safety or value of other shots, reflecting the views of Mr. Kennedy. The following account is based on previous statements made by these officials and on interviews with current and former health agency leaders.
F.D.A. chief medical and scientific officer
Critical of Covid boosters and shots for healthy kids
F.D.A. commissioner
Skeptical of certain vaccines
Dr. Vinay Prasad
Dr. Marty Makary
The agency’s new vaccine lead and chief medical officer, Dr. Vinay Prasad, has called himself an “extreme pro-vaccine person,” and Dr. Marty Makary, the agency’s commissioner, said last week that “we believe in vaccines.”
But the two officials, who sharply criticized vaccine mandates as academic researchers during the pandemic, have expressed doubts about the safety and necessity of Covid boosters for healthy children and adults. This summer, Dr. Prasad overrode some agency scientists who favored widespread access to Covid shots, narrowing the vaccine’s eligibility to those 65 and older and to younger people with underlying medical conditions.
Last week, Dr. Makary echoed the views of Mr. Kennedy when he publicly questioned the longstanding recommendation to give the hepatitis B vaccine at birth. That shot is credited with nearly eliminating the transmission of the disease from mother to infant.
Dr. Prasad replaced a veteran at the agency, Dr. Peter Marks, who resigned in March and said that Mr. Kennedy’s aggressive stance on vaccines posed a danger to the public.
In June, Mr. Kennedy fired all 17 members of a powerful C.D.C. expert panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Insurance companies and government programs like Medicaid are required to cover the vaccinations that the panel recommends.
Mr. Kennedy handpicked eight new members that month, half of whom had expressed skepticism of vaccines at some point. (One has since stepped down.) Others have little expertise in immunology or vaccines.
On Monday, Mr. Kennedy appointed five more members, just days before the group meets to review recommendations for multiple vaccines. Some of the newly selected members have been critical of Covid vaccines or vaccine mandates.
Dr. Robert Malone is a controversial figure. He performed early experiments using mRNA in the 1980s but gained notoriety during the pandemic for claiming that Covid vaccines were unsafe, contradicting volumes of studies.
Martin Kulldorff, a biostatistician, has been generally supportive of vaccines but opposed Covid vaccination for children and vaccine mandates. Vicky Pebsworth, a nurse with a doctorate in public health, serves on the board of the National Vaccine Information Center, a nonprofit that disseminates misinformation about the risks of vaccination.
Dr. Malone and Dr. Kulldorff have served as paid expert witnesses in legal cases against vaccine makers. Dr. Pebsworth claimed in a lawsuit that a survey of families of unvaccinated children supported a hypothesis that a rise in the number of recommended childhood vaccines explained an epidemic of chronic disease.
Another panel member, Retsef Levi, is a management and health analytics expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been critical of a variety of vaccines and has called for Covid vaccines to be pulled from the market.
Dr. Evelyn Griffin, an obstetrician and gynecologist, questioned the safety and effectiveness of Covid vaccines in a hearing in the Louisiana House of Representatives in 2021. Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist, questioned the safety and effectiveness of Covid vaccines at a 2024 event led by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia. Catherine M. Stein is an epidemiology professor who in 2022 called for an end to Covid vaccine mandates at universities.
Dr. Cody Meissner is a professor of pediatrics who opposed vaccine mandates and has questioned the ongoing need for Covid vaccines for children and pregnant women. He previously served on the advisory committee and is widely considered to be the most qualified member.
The others are not known to have spoken out against vaccines. They are Dr. Joseph R. Hibbeln, a nutritional neuroscientist; Dr. James Pagano, an emergency medicine physician; Hillary Blackburn, a pharmacist; and Dr. Raymond Pollak, a surgeon and transplant specialist.
The C.D.C. director has the power to accept or reject the immunization committee’s recommendations. The current acting director is Mr. Kennedy’s deputy at the Department of Health and Human Services, Jim O’Neill, a former biotechnology executive. The previous director, Susan Monarez, said she was forced out because she would not agree to accept the newly re-formed committee’s recommendations.
A special adviser to the C.D.C. director, Stuart Burns, is a critical player driving the health secretary’s agenda at the agency. Mr. Burns has been quietly working to remake the immunization committee and its agenda.
Mr. Burns is not a scientist but he worked for decades as a staff member for Republican congressmen known for their vaccine skepticism. One is Dr. Dave Weldon, a former representative from Florida who was also Mr. Kennedy’s original choice for C.D.C. director. The White House withdrew Dr. Weldon’s nomination just hours before his confirmation hearing because some Senate Republicans were concerned about his stance on vaccines.
Mr. Burns works closely with three other Kennedy hires who serve H.H.S. but also work closely with the C.D.C. Dr. Reyn Archer is a former Texas health commissioner who has questioned the safety and value of the Covid vaccine on social media. He serves as a liaison between the health secretary’s office and the C.D.C., and has been helping Mr. Burns to develop and guide the immunization committee.
David Geier is a steadfast figure in the anti-vaccine movement who has spent more than 20 years trying to establish a link between vaccines and autism, despite scientific consensus that there is none. Mr. Geier, who is listed as a senior data analyst in the H.H.S. directory, was given access to federal data on post-vaccination side effects and is using it to continue his studies on autism.
Lyn Redwood is a nurse practitioner and the former head of Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group founded by Mr. Kennedy. Since the early 2000s, Ms. Redwood has criticized the use of mercury as a preservative in vaccines. She has said she believes the ingredient is linked to her son’s autism.
Now listed as an expert at H.H.S., Ms. Redwood gave a presentation in June to the immunization committee, a role usually reserved for C.D.C. scientists. She said that the mercury preservative in vaccines, known as thimerosal, was toxic to children, even though dozens of studies have shown it is harmless in this form. The panel later voted to stop recommending the already limited number of flu vaccines that contained the preservative.
Principal deputy director of the N.I.H.
Skeptical of certain vaccines
N.I.H. director
Critical of Covid vaccine mandates
Dr. Matthew Memoli
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya
Dr. Matthew Memoli is a veteran infectious disease scientist at the National Institutes of Health who now serves as its principal deputy director. As a senior researcher under Dr. Anthony Fauci during the pandemic, Dr. Memoli opposed Covid vaccine mandates and declined to get a shot himself.
Since becoming a leader of the research agency, Dr. Memoli has downplayed the value of vaccines for certain respiratory diseases, according to the whistle-blower complaints of two prominent scientists.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the N.I.H director, sharply criticized vaccine mandates as an academic researcher during the pandemic. He co-wrote an anti-lockdown treatise in 2020 with Dr. Kulldorff, one of Mr. Kennedy’s selections for the C.D.C. immunization committee.
During his confirmation hearing in March, Dr. Bhattacharya reiterated his support for childhood vaccinations for diseases like measles. He also said he was “convinced” vaccines did not cause autism, even as he urged more research on the question, which scientists say has long been settled.
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As GLP-1 weight-loss medications gain traction, the peptide market is experiencing a surge in interest.
A variety of peptides — commonly marketed for weight loss, muscle building, injury recovery and other uses — have emerged as largely unregulated drugs sold through both licensed compounding pharmacies and unverified vendors.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is set to evaluate whether to loosen regulations on several peptides during a meeting this summer.
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Peptides are short chains of amino acids — the building blocks of proteins — that play key roles in biological functions, according to the National Institutes of Health. Peptide drugs are lab-made versions of natural molecules in the body that are designed to mimic or influence biological signals to treat disease, experts say.
GLP-1s are “incredibly effective at what they do when it comes to changing body composition, benefiting metabolic health, cardiovascular health [and] neurologic health,” the expert said. (iStock)
Though the peptide market has been described as the “Wild West,” demand remains strong, potentially challenging pharmaceutical giants that dominate the GLP-1 market.
Dr. Alex Tatem, an Indiana-based board-certified urologist with expertise in men’s health and peptides, discussed how “life-changing” GLP-1s kicked off the rise of peptides.
“These were all medications that were designed to help people live well and live as healthy as possible.”
“They are incredibly effective at what they do when it comes to changing body composition, benefiting metabolic health, cardiovascular health [and] neurologic health,” he said. “These are truly miracle compounds, and as a result we’ve seen an explosion of interest – not just on the pharmaceutical side or the doctor’s side, but from the general public.”
According to Tatem, the challenge is that nearly all commercial GLP-1 products are administered in a single-dose weekly pen, which works for the “overwhelmingly majority” of patients, but not for everyone.
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“There are patients I can prescribe tirzepatide to and they can do OK with a once-a-week [dose], but they end up developing nausea with that initial injection – and then by the end of the week, they’re hungry again.”
Because some patients respond better to smaller, more frequent doses — an option not offered by commercial drugs — compounding, or the customization of medications, has grown in popularity, Tatem said.
Several GLP-1 weight loss medications have been approved by the FDA with positive results from consumers. (iStock)
“We’ve had compounding pharmacies that have now developed compounded versions of semaglutide and tirzepatide that allow that sort of dosing flexibility,” he said.
“The reason compounders had to do this was because there was so much demand for GLP-1s that there was actually a national shortage.”
Current legislation allows compounders to step in during widespread national shortages, according to Tatem, prompting the industry to invest millions of dollars into developing and manufacturing these drugs.
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Once commercial pharmaceutical companies could catch back up, compounders continued making these medications in smaller batches for custom doses, allowing for more patient accessibility.
“That creates a huge clash between commercial pharmaceutical companies and compounders, because commercial pharmaceutical companies view that as an infringement of their property,” Tatem noted.
The expert noted a “huge clash” between pharmaceutical companies and compounding pharmacies in peptide production. (iStock)
Tatem raised concerns about the FDA’s regulation of compounding pharmacies, warning that it could limit patients’ access to customized medications.
“That is a real concern for clinicians like me who really care more about patient access, making sure we can get the right medication to the right patients at the right time,” he said.
RFK JR. BACKS EASIER PEPTIDE ACCESS FOR WELLNESS AS DOCTORS RAISE RED FLAGS
Some peptides have been widely administered for more than a decade without major health complications like toxicity or cancer, according to Tatem.
“These are compounds that haven’t gone through the full FDA approval process that you would normally see for a commercial drug, [yet] we didn’t see anything adverse,” he said.
The FDA plans to consider loosening restrictions on several peptides during a summer 2026 meeting. (Issam Ahmed/AFP)
In September 2023, the FDA “quietly” tightened regulation of 19 peptides, making them illegal to manufacture and cutting off patient access.
“They seemed to be working and seemed to be efficacious for patients, and all of a sudden they were banned, which inadvertently ended up contributing to this surge in interest,” Tatem said. “We kind of saw the same thing happen with peptides that we saw with prohibition.”
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While the rising popularity of GLP-1 drugs has fueled growing public and regulatory interest in peptides, most of the so-called “trendy” peptides still are not available by prescription, according to Tatem.
They may help with injury recovery, skin rejuvenation, sleep improvements and boosting of natural growth hormones, he said.
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“These were all medications that were designed to help people live well and live as healthy as possible,” the doctor told Fox News Digital. “And in reality, that was also their downfall in the American healthcare system, because if you are going to get a drug approved and to market, it has to treat a disease state.”
“These were all medications that were designed to help people live well and live as healthy as possible,” Tatem told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
Tatem confirmed that he’s seen a shift in patients confronting more than just baseline ailments, seeking advice on how to feel their best through new modes like testosterone therapy.
“The desire to function at our highest level is something that we all feel,” he said.
While nothing replaces the fundamentals — getting eight hours of sleep, eating a high-protein diet and maintaining a fitness routine that blends resistance training and cardio — Tatem said individualized treatments such as peptides may help support those healthy habits.
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“If you end up pulling a tendon or pulling a hamstring, and you’re just now starting to get some momentum in the gym, that’s really where peptides start to step in,” he added.
Experts advise consumers to avoid gray-market products, to work only with qualified physicians and reputable pharmacies, and to treat peptides as part of a broader health plan — not a shortcut or risk-free supplement.
Semaglutide (GLP-1) weight-loss drug Wegovy, made by pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, is designed to treat type 2 diabetes, but is widely known for its effect on weight loss. Picture date: Wednesday, October 16, 2024. (James Manning/PA Images via Getty Images)
In a statement shared with Fox News Digital, a Novo Nordisk spokesperson said the drugmaker is committed to working with regulators, law enforcement and “other key stakeholders” to ensure “affordable access to safe, effective and FDA-approved GLP-1 obesity medication like Wegovy and to protect patients from unapproved and untested knockoff drugs.”
“The desire to function at our highest level is something that we all feel.”
“Novo Nordisk supports FDA’s recent thorough scientific analysis and conclusion that there is no medical basis or clinical need for the continued mass compounding of unapproved semaglutide and liraglutide drugs,” they went on.
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“The agency’s decision reaffirms that compounding is meant to be a rare and limited exception to FDA’s gold-standard drug approval framework that ensures that medicines in the U.S. are safe and effective.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the FDA and Eli Lilly for comment.
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During a recent episode of her podcast, Gwyneth Paltrow spoke with neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman about retatrutide, a new advancement in GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) therapies.
In recent years, GLP-1 receptor agonists have become a major focus in discussions around biohacking, longevity and wellness – but they’re not without a multitude of side effects.
Huberman noted that while first-generation weight-loss drugs curbed users’ appetites, they frequently plunged them into massive, rapid caloric deficits.
‘NEXT OZEMPIC’ AIMS TO DELIVER 30% WEIGHT LOSS WITH FEWER SIDE EFFECTS
Without aggressive resistance training, a high percentage of that lost weight came directly from lean muscle. “People would lose a ton of weight, but they would also lose muscle mass,” Huberman told Paltrow.
In clinical trials, retatrutide is administered as a once-weekly subcutaneous injection. (iStock)
That is where retatrutide comes in, he said. Unlike older single- or dual-action medications, retatrutide is a triple agonist.
That means it activates the body’s receptors for glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP), glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and glucagon – three hormones involved in regulating blood sugar, appetite and metabolism.
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“Retatrutide is a more mild agonist of GLP-1,” said Huberman. “It also increases glucagon and … GIP. So, it hits three different pathways, each a bit more subtly.”
In clinical trials, retatrutide is administered as a once-weekly subcutaneous injection.
Without aggressive resistance training, a high percentage of lost weight can come directly from lean muscle mass, said Andrew Huberman. (iStock)
Because of its balanced, multi-receptor approach, Huberman said the drug has a “lower side effect profile” while still allowing people to lose up to a third of their body weight “across a year or so.”
NEW OZEMPIC-ALTERNATIVE DIABETES PILL BURNS FAT WITHOUT MUSCLE LOSS, STUDY SUGGESTS
Most importantly for fitness and longevity advocates, the doctor pointed out that retatrutide seems to have “some muscle sparing effect.”
Because the drug is still moving through official pipelines, a massive gray market of compounding pharmacies and online peptide suppliers has cropped up to meet the growing demand.
Retatrutide is an investigational molecule that is legally available only to participants in Lilly’s clinical trials, according to Lilly’s website, and the company is currently “evaluating its safety and efficacy” in these clinical studies. (iStock)
Huberman issued a strict warning regarding these unregulated online sources, noting that these options “can say 99% purity, but that 1% means there could be some LPS,” referring to lipopolysaccharides, a type of bacterial toxin.
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“LPS will cause inflammation,” he cautioned. “One injection isn’t gonna do it, but multiple injections over time, I could see where that could become problematic.”
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Paltrow echoed the safety concerns, comparing the current “wild-west” peptide craze to the landscape of supplements in the 90s, “where there’s really no third-party testing and it’s kind of word of mouth.”
“Multiple injections over time, I could see where that could become problematic.”
Both agreed that anyone exploring these therapies should avoid unverified online sources and prioritize working with a medical doctor.
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Retatrutide is an investigational molecule that is legally available only to participants in Lilly’s clinical trials, according to the manufacturer’s website. The company is currently “evaluating its safety and efficacy.”
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The drug has not been reviewed or approved by any regulatory agency, and no one should consider taking anything claiming to be retatrutide outside of a Lilly-sponsored clinical trial, experts advise.
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