The US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has called for better Alzheimer's screening – but a critical federal panel that might have helped researchers find practical ways to do that has been prevented from meeting for more than a year.
The panel, formally called the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), had planned to issue a recommendation on screening for cognitive decline this year, alongside 13 other topics as varied as autism screening and food allergy prevention.
Evidence for screening ‘not great’
“The evidence for cognitive screening for dementia is not great,” said John Ruiz, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Arizona and a recent member of the panel.
The taskforce is a group of expert volunteers who assess preventive services for health insurance coverage. The Trump administration has prevented the taskforce from meeting since March 2025, a political appointee fired two panel chairs, and the administration has so far failed to appoint new members. Ruiz rotated off the taskforce in January.
“You get 10 neurologists, you get 10 approaches on how they’re going to assess that – there’s no consensus. The evidence is mixed at best,” said Ruiz. “The taskforce’s response has been to say, ‘Put more funding into building the evidence, allow researchers to do screening studies to find out – what does the evidence say about screening tools?’”
Criticism and contradiction
In April, Kennedy criticized the panel and called for better Alzheimer’s screening in the same breath. “Screening for prevention is absolutely critical,” said Kennedy in congressional testimony, responding to a question from Republican House member Vern Buchanan of Florida. “We are forming now the USPSTF, which is the committee that decides on new procedures and interventions that need to get [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid] compensation. And that committee has been lackadaisical and negligent for 20 years,” Kennedy said.
At the time Kennedy made the statement, the health department had prevented the USPSTF from meeting for more than a year and failed to fill at least eight vacancies (the panel usually has 16 members). A month later, a political appointee, director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Dr Roger Klein, fired two taskforce chairs.
Research slowed by funding disruptions
Alzheimer's researchers reported their work has been “slowed” by the health department’s policies, including funding disruptions. The Guardian reported in March 2025 that 14 of the US’s 35 Alzheimer’s disease research centers (ADRC) nationally were impacted by funding freezes, making it difficult to hang on to staff and even clinical trial patients. Ann D Cohen, co-director of the University of Pittsburgh Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, said her funding did not clear until the “end of last summer”, forcing her to use “several hundred thousand dollars” in philanthropic funds once earmarked to advance blood biomarker tests. “We had to cancel that because we had to use those funds to keep our clinic open,” said Cohen, adding: “There’s no way around the fact that science has been slowed down.”
Emily Hilliard, an HHS spokesperson, said: “HHS remains committed to advancing research in Alzheimer’s disease and other serious health conditions.” She added that other federal agencies “are carrying out programs focused on prevention, workforce development, caregiver support and dementia-capable communities”.
Alzheimer’s screening landscape
An estimated 7.4 million Americans 65 and older live with Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia. About 200,000 Americans in middle age are also diagnosed with the disease, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. Screening typically relies on the appearance of symptoms. There is no major treatment for Alzheimer’s, making early detection urgent.
Some researchers believe Kennedy might be speaking about a new blood biomarker test for P-Tau217, approved last May for people older than 50 showing signs of Alzheimer’s – not for screening. The Alzheimer’s Association has promoted the blood tests as a “mammogram moment”, but researchers have urged caution. “I disagree with [Kennedy’s] assertion we should be rolling those out broadly,” said Ann D Cohen. “They have very good diagnostic – not prognostic – value.”
Allison Aiello, a professor at Columbia University, whose population studies are seeking biomarkers and cognitive tests, said: “If we can measure these kinds of things we know are associated with cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s in older age, we might be able to find small nuanced changes that characterize patterns that lead to change in older life.” But she added: “Should we be doing that at every primary care visit? That’s a whole other question – and that’d be something you’d have to talk to a policy person about.”
