RFK Jr. Cements New CDC Priorities With Autism, Vaccines on Top

(Bloomberg) -- A new mission statement for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows the extent to which the historically nonpartisan health agency is being reshaped to align with President Donald Trump’s political agenda. 

The statement, posted online Wednesday, asserts the CDC’s stance on hot-button issues like immigration, diversity and inclusion, crime and parental rights — areas that haven’t historically been a focus for the decades-old public health agency. It outlines specific priorities, including research on vaccines and autism, that move it closer to issues that have been central to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s platform. 

The new platform is a striking departure at an agency that’s long been steered by scientific priorities rather than political ones. It goes even further than a recent Op-Ed written by Kennedy for the Wall Street Journal in which he outlined six priorities for the CDC after firing its director.

“Our job is to depoliticize CDC,” Kennedy said in an interview with Fox News on Sept. 9. “CDC was supporting dogma all through Covid. The American public does not trust CDC, we need to restore that trust.”

As part of the plan to restore public trust, the CDC will make “its leadership more public-facing and accountable to Americans,” the new statement says. 

It’s unclear yet how the new priorities will affect existing programs.

The agency is committing to not using taxpayer dollars “to fund or promote elective abortions, consistent with the Hyde Amendment,” according to the statement. “CDC will promote the dignity of human life at all stages of development, improve maternal health care, and strengthen the family.”

The CDC also won’t use federal funds to “to encourage or support illegal immigration,” the statement says.

The document also wades into topics not typically overseen by the agency, including parental choice around education. The CDC “believes parents are the primary decision-makers in their children’s education and should have full authority over what their children are taught.”

The new decree comes as Kennedy’s revamped advisory panel on immunization practices meets to discuss and vote on potential changes to the childhood vaccine schedule, a series of shots that’s been credited with keeping a slate of potentially deadly infectious diseases at bay in the US. Kennedy removed all 17 members of the panel in June and replaced them with a hand-picked group that included some who have questioned the safety of the currently recommended shots.

During a two-day meeting that starts on Thursday, the panel is planning to discuss a one-month delay of the hepatitis B vaccine for babies, which is usually administered at birth, and separating the chickenpox vaccine from the MMR shot.

In the months since Kennedy took over as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC has been thrown into disarray. Most recently, a dispute between Kennedy and CDC Director Susan Monarez - who was fired after only being in the role for a month — over vaccines snowballed into a public spat. 

On Wednesday, she testified in a Senate hearing that Kennedy is seeking even more changes to national vaccination policy and had sought to ensure her cooperation regardless of scientific evidence. During the hearing, she presented a detailed account of Kennedy’s ambitions to overhaul US vaccine policy, including the extent to which political staffers have gained influence over decision-making at the agency. 

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.