In a turbulent year, US health policy is transforming under RFK Jr.’s leadership.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the turbulent first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, some of the most polarizing changes have occurred within the Department of Health and Human Services, where Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has openly rejected the medical establishment as he turns the ideas of his “Make America Healthy Again” movement into public policy.

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Since taking office in February, the health secretary has overseen a radical reshaping of the agencies he oversees, including cutting thousands of jobs and freezing or eliminating billions of dollars for scientific research. As part of his campaign against chronic disease, he redrawn the government’s position on topics such as seed oils, fluoride and Tylenol. He has also repeatedly used his power to promote discredited ideas about vaccines.

The administration’s quick turnaround has drawn praise from MAHA supporters who say they have long viewed the Department of Health and Human Services as corrupt and untrustworthy and have been waiting for such disruption. Both Democrats and Republicans have praised some of the agency’s actions, including efforts to encourage healthy eating and exercise, and deals to lower prices for expensive drugs.

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But many of the sweeping changes Kennedy led at the department are raising serious concerns among doctors and public health experts.

“At least in the near or medium future, the United States will be faltering and hollowed out of its scientific leadership,” said Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University public health law professor who was removed from the NIH advisory board earlier this year with a letter saying he was no longer needed. “I think it will be very difficult to reverse all the damage.”

Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew Nixon denied any threat to the agency’s scientific expertise and praised its work.

“In 2025, the Department confronts long-standing public health challenges with transparency, courage, and gold-standard science,” Nixon said in a statement. “DHHS will carry this momentum into 2026 to strengthen accountability, put patients first, and protect public health.”
The reform comes alongside broader uncertainties in the nation’s health system, including Medicaid cuts passed by Congress this year and the end of Affordable Care Act subsidies that put insurance coverage for millions of Americans at risk.

Here’s a closer look at Kennedy’s first year leading the nation’s health agency:

Kennedy’s vaccine views ripple across the department

After many years spent publicly attacking vaccines, during his confirmation Kennedy sought to reassure senators that he would not take a wrecking ball to vaccine science. But less than a year later, his health department has repeatedly pushed the limits of those commitments.
In May, Kennedy announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would no longer recommend COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women — a move that was immediately questioned by public health experts, who saw no new data to justify the change.

In June, Kennedy dismissed the entire 17-member CDC Vaccine Advisory Committee, and later appointed several of his own replacements, including several vaccine skeptics.

This group has made decisions that have shocked medical professionals, including refusing to recommend COVID-19 vaccinations for anyone, adding new restrictions on combination vaccinations against chickenpox and measles, mumps and rubella, and rescinding the longstanding recommendation that all children receive the hepatitis B vaccine at birth.

Kennedy in November also personally directed the CDC to abandon its position that vaccines do not cause autism, without presenting any new evidence to support the change. While he left the old language on the website to fulfill a promise he made to Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, he added a disclaimer saying it remained because of the agreement.

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Researchers and public health advocates strongly rebut the updated website, noting that scientists have thoroughly explored the issue in rigorous research spanning decades, all of which point to the same conclusion that vaccines do not cause autism.

Kennedy has promised a wide-ranging effort to study environmental factors that likely contribute to autism, and at an Oval Office event with Trump in September he touted unproven and in some cases discredited links between Tylenol, vaccines and complex brain disorder.

Kennedy reshapes the Department of Health and Human Services through massive staff and research cuts

Within two months of taking office, Kennedy announced a sweeping restructuring of the Department of Health and Human Services, which would close entire agencies, merge others into a new agency focused on chronic diseases, and lay off about 10,000 employees in addition to 10,000 others who had already made acquisitions.

While parts of these efforts remain tied up in court, thousands of mass layoffs have been allowed to stand. Those voluntary departures have downsized the sprawling $1.7 trillion department, which oversees food and hospital inspections, health insurance for roughly half the country, and vaccine recommendations.

Kennedy also fired or fired several leaders at the Department of Health and Human Services, including four directors at the National Institutes of Health, a former vaccine chief at the Food and Drug Administration, and a CDC director he had appointed less than a month earlier.

In addition to staff reductions, he oversaw major cuts in scientific research. This includes the National Institutes of Health cutting billions of dollars in research projects and terminating $500 million in contracts to develop vaccines using mRNA technology.

Amid the cuts, Kennedy proposed or funded some new research on topics related to MAHA’s goals, including autism, Lyme disease, and food additives.

MAHA is gaining momentum, despite some hiccups

Kennedy began using the phrase “MAHA” on the campaign trail last year to describe his crusade against toxin exposure and chronic disease in children, but 2025 is the year the phrase becomes ingrained in the national lexicon.

In his tenure so far, the health secretary has made this a focus of his work, using the MAHA brand to wage war on ultra-processed foods, pressuring companies to phase out artificial food dyes, criticizing fluoride in drinking water, and pushing to ban fast food from a program that subsidizes the operation of grocery stores for low-income Americans.

He watches: Food policy expert says MAHA report ‘is not about actions’.

The idea spread beyond Kennedy’s agency through the federal government.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared with Kennedy to promote physical fitness through drag shows. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy teamed up with Kennedy in early December to announce $1 billion in funding for airports to install resources such as playgrounds and nursing bays for mothers and babies. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin recently announced that he is working to unveil a MAHA agenda with health-related goals for his administration.

MAHA has gained widespread popularity among the American public—even while enduring some administrative weaknesses. In May, for example, the Department of Health and Human Services faced scrutiny over the release of a MAHA report that contained numerous citations to non-existent studies.

But to the extent the initiative included calls to action that were not based on science — such as urging mistrust of vaccines or promoting raw milk, which is far more likely to lead to illness than pasteurized milk — critics say it could be dangerous.