RFK Jr. Says Panel Will Look at Vaccination Schedule

To earn the vote he needed to become the nation's top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a special promise to a US senator: He would not change the nation's current vaccination schedule. But on Tuesday, speaking for the first time to thousands of US Health and Human Services agency employees, he vowed to investigate the childhood vaccine schedule that prevents measles, polio, and other dangerous diseases, the AP reports.

• "Nothing is going to be off limits," Kennedy said, adding that pesticides, food additives, microplastics, antidepressants, and the electromagnetic waves emitted by cellphones and microwaves also would be studied to see if they have contributed to a rise in chronic illnesses such as diabetes and obesity that have plagued the American public.

• Kennedy's remarks were delivered during a welcome ceremony for the new health secretary at the agency's headquarters in Washington as a measles outbreak among mostly unvaccinated people raged in West Texas. The event was held after a weekend of mass firings of thousands of HHS employees. More dismissals are expected.
• Kennedy said a new "Make America Healthy Again" commission will investigate issues, including childhood vaccinations, that "were formally taboo or insufficiently scrutinized."

• While Kennedy did not directly call for changes to the vaccination schedule on Tuesday, his plan to investigate it raises questions about his commitment to Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana physician who harbored deep misgivings over the health secretary's anti-vaccine advocacy. Cassidy ultimately voted to send Kennedy's nomination to the Senate floor after he said Kennedy gave him assurances that he would not alter the federal vaccine schedule.
• Cassidy said during his Senate speech last month that Kennedy had made a number of promises that stemmed from "intense conversations" to garner his support. Specifically, Cassidy said Kennedy would "maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices' recommendations without changes."
• "On this topic, the science is good, the science is credible," Cassidy said during a Senate floor speech earlier this month explaining his vote. "Vaccines save lives. They are safe."

(More Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stories.)