Health experts have raised alarm over the Trump administration’s “war on science” following a Supreme Court decision that empowered Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr to implement mass firings, effectively greenlighting the politicisation of science. The decision comes as Kennedy abruptly cancelled a scheduled meeting of the US Preventive Services Task Force and removed a panel of more than a dozen vaccine advisers, signalling further dismantling of science-based policymaking at HHS.
Celine Gounder, a professor of medicine and infectious disease expert at New York University, warned in a keynote speech of “rising threats to public health institutions” and accused the administration of “active censorship of scientific discourse”. Medical experts say Kennedy’s unscientific views on vaccines are sowing distrust, as measles cases soar to a three-decade high, and his draconian cuts are hurting vital healthcare research.
Kennedy sparked a firestorm in June by ousting 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and replacing them with an eight-person panel, half of whom share his vaccine scepticism. The new panel quickly retracted recommendations for flu vaccines containing an ingredient falsely linked to autism by anti-vaxxers. The American Academy of Pediatrics boycotted the first meeting, with committee chair Sean O’Leary calling it “an orchestrated effort to sow distrust in vaccines”.
Dissent has also spread at the National Institutes of Health, where dozens of researchers released the Bethesda Declaration warning that key missions were being damaged by budget cuts. A Rhode Island federal court ruled against HHS in July, temporarily halting the restructuring and staff cuts. The ruling came in a lawsuit by 19 Democratic state attorneys general and the District of Columbia, who attacked the changes as “unconstitutional and illegal dismantling”.
