If Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is confirmed as HHS secretary, could he ban vaccines? (2024)

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Kennedy could make vaccines less accessible, experts said Efforts to ban vaccines would face legal challenges, industry pushback Our sources
If Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is confirmed as HHS secretary, could he ban vaccines? (1)

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

"IMPORTANT — vaccines could now be BANNED for part of this winter by Trump and RFK Jr, although hopefully any such ban would get halted with an injunction in court," said oneNov. 15 Threads post. "GET CAUGHT UP ON VACCINES NOW — just in case."

For two decades, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeated false and misleading claims about science and public health. His unsuccessful presidential campaign of conspiracy theories earned him PolitiFact’s 2023Lie of the Year. Kennedy, the nephew of Democratic President John Kennedy and the son of former presidential candidate Sen. Robert Kennedy Sr., D-N.Y., ran as an independent beforesuspendinghis campaign in August and backing Trump.

Scientistssignaled their alarmat Trump’s decision to tap Kennedy. There are 13 agencieshoused withinthat department, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.

Scientists were far from alone in expressing concern about what Kennedy could do as Health and Human Services secretary.

"Serious question — can he outlaw vaccines?" one Threads useraskedNov. 14. "Like if I want to get a Covid and flu vaccine next year, is it possible they won’t be available?"

The outlook is murky, partly because we can’t be sure what Kennedy will do. On Nov. 6, before Trump officially tapped him for the seat, Kennedy told anNBC Newsreporter, "If vaccines are working for somebody, I’m not going to take them away."

Vaccine law and policy experts told PolitiFact that Kennedy couldn’t unilaterally ban vaccines and that any effort to ban vaccines would probably face a legal battle. But Kennedy could still reduce how accessible they are for Americans, they said. And some of his power rests on whether Trump’s administration can get buy-in from other lawmakers and public health leaders, some of whom Trump could also appoint.

Wendy Parmet, a Northeastern University law professor and the director of the law school’s Center for Health Policy and Law, said Kennedy couldn’t ban vaccines "by fiat," or with one order or decree.

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But he "could begin the process of having the FDA rereview the safety of vaccines and move to revoke or place restrictions on some vaccine approvals," she said. "But this would take time and would undoubtedly be challenged in court."

There are limits to the Health and Human Services secretary’s level of control over vaccines, Parmet said. But if he’s confirmed, Kennedy would "control the people who control the agencies that have a lot of authority over vaccines," she said.

Kennedy could have those people act to limit vaccine access by revoking vaccines’ licenses or directing the CDC to change its vaccine messaging and recommendations, which would affect insurance coverage and medical practice, Parmet said.

Still, "there is no authority to ban vaccines as a group nationwide," she said. "He would need an act of Congress for that."

Dorit Reiss, a vaccine law and policy expert at University of California Law, San Francisco, told PolitiFact thatfederal regulationsdictate how approved vaccines are taken off the market.

"You need to meet procedural requirements and show that the removal was not arbitrary and capricious," she said. "And the main actor on that is the FDA commissioner, not the secretary, and we do not know who that will be" or whether the person will be "sympathetic to the idea yet."

The regulations say the FDA commissioner — whom Trump would also appoint — could begin the license revocation process if thecommissioner findsthat "the licensed product is not safe and effective for all of its intended uses."

For years, Kennedy’s refrain has been thatvaccines are unsafe. In July 2023,he tolda podcaster that some vaccines "are probably averting more problems than they’re causing," but in the same breath Kennedy maintained, "There’s no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective."

After notifying the manufacturer of the agency’s plan to revoke a vaccine license, the FDA commissioner would have tohold a hearingand provide the manufacturer "reasonable" time to achieve compliance with whatever the government had asked of it.

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"Manufacturers may well sue if they disagree," Reiss said. "If there is no sufficient justification, (they) may win in court against the revocation."

Kennedy could make vaccines less accessible, experts said

Reiss said it’s easier to stop the approval of new vaccines than it is to revoke access to existing vaccines, but it would require an FDA commissioner who is receptive to the idea.

She added that, as secretary, Kennedy could, for example, rescind emergency use authorizations for COVID-19 vaccinations for children, which would result in children younger than 12 losing access to those vaccines.

Kennedy could also nominate or remove members of federal advisory committees, including theAdvisory Committee on Immunization Practices, whichrecommends vaccinesthat the CDC reviews and adopts. He could fill the committee with people who hold anti-vaccine beliefs who could then rescind vaccine recommendations, Reiss said.

Parmet said the CDC’s adopted vaccine recommendations determine the vaccines "covered without charge" under the Affordable Care Act and the immunizations 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 immunization programs, such as the CDC’sSection 317 Immunization Program, a reference toSection 317 of the Public Health Service Act. The program aims to ensure that children and adults are immunized by awarding federal grant money to state and local public health agencies to support vaccine purchases and operation costs, the317 Coalitionwebsite said.

Pennsylvania’s Health Departmentsaysthe program "plays a critical role in achieving national immunization coverage targets and reductions in disease." Oklahoma’s State Department of Healthdescribedthe program as "a precious national resource" that provides routine vaccination for people without insurance and responds to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases.

Even without changes to official vaccine recommendations, Parmet said, "informal changes" in CDC recommendations might change parents’ willingness to vaccinate their kids, influence states’ vaccination recommendations and affect some pediatricians’ practices.

"In other words, by simply changing the wording on its website," the CDC could "discourage or reduce vaccine uptake," she said.

Efforts to ban vaccines would face legal challenges, industry pushback

If Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is confirmed as HHS secretary, could he ban vaccines? (2)

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

It’s unclear whether a vaccine ban would win congressional support, but anti-vaccine lawmakers have madegains in statehousesnationwide in recent years,passing legislationthat removes vaccine requirements for homeschooled children or preemptively prohibits schools from requiring students to receive COVID-19 vaccines.

Kennedy could also begin to have the FDA rereview vaccine safety and move to revoke or restrict some vaccine approvals. But those actions "would take time and would undoubtedly be challenged in court," Parmet said.

Reiss said existing laws and regulations could constrain Kennedy.

"He cannot violate express statutory provisions unless they change, and (he) needs to contend with other agency heads," such as the people in charge of the CDC and FDA, she said.

Just as he’ll name the Health and Human Services secretary and FDA commissioner, Trump will appoint the CDC and National Institutes of Health commissioners. In 2025, all these roles will needSenate approval, and the Senate will have a Republican majority in January.

Kennedy could "certainly try and persuade these people, and there’s some interdependence — they need the secretary to pass rules and to appoint people to advisory committees," Reiss said. "But it's the president who has the removal power over them, not the secretary."

It’s also likely that pharmaceutical companies would resist by lobbying against efforts to ban vaccines and suing the government, Reiss said.

PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

Our sources

If Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is confirmed as HHS secretary, could he ban vaccines? (2024)
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