The appointment by President Donald J. Trump of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an avowed anti-vaxxer, to be the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in early 2025 was the beginning of the end to federal support for people’s health in the United States. Kennedy started by slashing funding for millions of dollars in research programs and firing workers in entire departments.

Dr. Susan Monarez, confirmed as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director in July, refused to fire her colleagues or rubber-stamp Kennedy’s dictates concerning vaccines. As a result, she was asked to resign. She refused. Then she was terminated.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, during a White House press conference on Aug. 28, highlighted the thinking behind RFK Jr.’s actions: “It was President Trump who was overwhelmingly reelected on November 5. This woman has never received a vote in her life, and the president has the authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission.” (CNN, Aug. 28)

Monarez’s lawyers, Mark S. Zaid and Abbe David Lowell, wrote in a statement following the HHS announcement, “When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda.” (Politico, Aug. 30)

After Monarez was fired, four of her colleagues at the CDC also resigned in protest. One, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, former CDC chief of vaccines and

respiratory diseases, said, “I think that if CDC is being characterized as troubled by Secretary Kennedy, I think we have to turn the mirror back to him, because I think that the trouble is emanating mainly from him.” (CNN, Aug. 28)

“Medicine and public health have added three decades to the human lifespan.

Vaccination alone produced 40% of the reduction in child deaths,” Dr. Atul Gawande, a surgeon and renowned writer, posted on Aug. 28 on X.

Kennedy terminating vaccine projects, limiting accessibility

Already, RFK Jr. has terminated investments in 22 separate mRNA-type vaccine projects, claiming these vaccines “fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu,” even though these vaccines helped curb the pandemic. He fired the 17-member panel of outside vaccine experts who sit on the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which reviews vaccine data. Some of Kennedy’s selections to replace those experts have expressed anti-vaccine views in the past. (CNN, Aug. 30)

Whereas the updated COVID-19 shot was previously authorized for everyone six months old and older, it will now be limited by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to adults 65 and older and younger people with certain underlying medical conditions. This means that lower-risk younger people who want the vaccine will need to persuade their doctors to prescribe it “off-label” and then find a pharmacist willing to administer it.

Access to COVID-19 vaccines may be even more restricted in the future. Kennedy’s new panel of “experts” replacing the ones he fired include prominent anti-vaccine activist Retsef Levi. Levi has called for coronavirus vaccines to be removed from the market and is now leading a review of their safety. Another member of this “safety review subgroup,” Robert Malone, has propagated the falsehood that COVID-19 shots cause a form of AIDS.

Workplace hazard research undermined

Kennedy seemed to indicate to Trump that he would soon point to a link between vaccines and autism. Erin McCanlies, an epidemiologist at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, has spent much of the past two decades studying how parents’ exposure to workplace chemicals affects the chance that they will have a child with autism. Just three weeks earlier, she had been finalizing her fourth major paper on the topic when Kennedy eliminated her entire division.

Kennedy has also overseen tens of millions of dollars in cuts to federal funding

for research on autism, including its environmental causes. This, while claiming that he was going to gather “the most credible scientists from all over the world”

to “solve the mystery” of autism. (ProPublica, Sept. 2)

Life-saving childhood vaccines could be next on the chopping block. The advisory committee is already considering pulling hepatitis B immunizations and the measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (MMRV) vaccine from the standard schedule of shots that nearly all children receive.

At a recent Cabinet meeting, Kennedy hinted at a major announcement next month. “We’re finding interventions, certain interventions now that are clearly, almost certainly causing autism,” he said. Given his years of activism promoting the link between vaccines and autism and his hiring of discredited vaccine skeptic David Geier to lead the federal government “study” on the topic, the outcome seems all but predetermined.

If funding for the projects against disease and salaries for the scientists is cut, the funds ultimately go back to the billionaires in the form of tax cuts. They make a killing as a result.

This is yet another case of profit over human life — as it has always been for the imperialists.