In September, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired the two vice chairs of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. This move was both unsurprising and troubling. The task force is a critical advisory body to HHS, reviewing scientific evidence to provide recommendations on whether private health insurers should be required to cover services like cancer screenings at no cost to patients. Congress created the task force as part of the Affordable Care Act and require by law that it be staffed by people with “appropriate expertise,” and “to the extent practicable, not subject to political pressure.” These firings are the latest chapter in a vast project of eliminating, ignoring, and replacing scientific advisory committees. In 2025, the Trump administration terminated 151 advisory committees at scientific government agencies, including 75 in HHS. It has altered or ignored those that are left. In 2025, Kennedy fired the entire Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which provides public recommendations on vaccines. His replacements are, to varying degrees, sympathetic to his unscientific views, and a majority lack substantial expertise in vaccines and immunology. Read the rest…
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