Since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed as health secretary, he has made clear he wants to overhaul the nation’s immunization system.
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Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is slated to give the keynote speech Thursday at a conference hosted by Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group he founded and where he served as chairman.
“We couldn’t be more excited to welcome our founder back to the CHD stage,” an email announcing Kennedy’s speech at the one-day conference in Washington, D.C., said.
The address comes as the anti-vaccine movement has spent years on the fringes of the medical community, but has become increasingly encouraged as President Donald Trump’s administration has attempted to significantly alter U.S. vaccine policy, prompting concerns from major medical groups.
The conference website states that the event is a “timely conversation [that] will take place against a backdrop of unprecedented opportunity and risk for the health freedom movement.” Republican Sens. Rand Paul (Kentucky) and Ron Johnson (Wisconsin) are listed to appear among other speakers.
Children’s Health Defense has previously told The Washington Post that the group “is not anti-vaccine. We are pro-vaccine safety and anti-vaccine mandates.”
Some public health experts and former health officials expressed concern over Kennedy’s attendance, saying they view it as a public embrace of the group’s messages. The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to questions about the conference.
“The secretary’s presence at the meeting implies an endorsement,” said Deb Houry, the former chief medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who resigned a year ago to protest what she called Kennedy’s politicization of science.
Since Kennedy was confirmed as the nation’s top health official in February 2025, he has made clear both publicly and behind the scenes that he wants to overhaul the nation’s immunization system. Many of his signature efforts were placed on hold this spring when a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from reducing recommended childhood vaccines and ruled Kennedy’s health department had improperly reconstituted an influential federal vaccine advisory panel.
Yet, some of those efforts saw a renewed push last month when Trump issued a sweeping executive order calling for cutting the number of recommended childhood shots, spacing out immunizations and breaking up the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three separate doses. Republican pollsters have warned that vaccine skepticism carries political risks, but Trump has privately urged his deputies to move faster on the vaccine schedule.
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Those efforts have received fierce criticism from Democrats, public health experts and Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy (Louisiana), who say they fear the return of preventable diseases amid the nation’s largest measles outbreak in 35 years. On Wednesday, Cassidy said measles-associated deaths reported by Pennsylvania health officials were “going to be a terrible legacy for this administration.”
HHS has defended its moves, saying it has mounted an “aggressive measles response” and that Trump’s executive order is aimed at ensuring “federal vaccine policy is grounded in rigorous scientific review and gives parents accurate information to make informed decisions with their healthcare providers.”
“Any notion that the Trump Administration is discouraging measles vaccination is absolutely fake news,” Emily Hilliard, an HHS spokeswoman, said in a statement Wednesday.
During Kennedy’s confirmation hearing to be the nation’s top health official, lawmakers questioned his ties to Children’s Health Defense. At one point, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) pulled up a picture of a onesie emblazoned with the words “Unvaxxed Unafraid.”
“Are you supportive of these onesies?” Sanders asked Kennedy of the outfits he said were being sold by Children’s Health Defense.
Kennedy said he had no power over the group and had resigned from the board. Financial disclosure forms show he took an unpaid leave of absence from the group in April 2023 as he launched his presidential bid and officially resigned his positions in December 2024.
Kennedy did not go to the group’s convention last November in Austin, though his wife, the actor Cheryl Hines, was in attendance. She received loud applause at a dinner.
Kennedy’s supporters contend that he has ignited a conversation where Americans are allowed to challenge the medical establishment.
“The media and various institutions tried to almost bully Bobby Kennedy and the administration not to honor and take seriously concerns around vaccine injury,” Calley Means, a Trump administration official and Kennedy ally, said speaking to a group of journalists at a health coverage fellowship. “You’ve got Bobby Kennedy speaking to the Children’s Health Defense … and he gave the probably the most well-received speech at the RNC [Republican National Committee] convention, which was widely well-received, where he acknowledged these concerns.”
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This is a developing story and will be updated.
Maggie Penman contributed to this report.
