Since Donald Trump took office in 2025, a flurry of executive orders and actions have directly threatened the health of Americans.
It all began with budget cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services, which eliminated entire departments and positions that specialize in things like food and medication safety, and infectious disease research. The administration also eliminated research grants, halting research to groups like transgender folks, pregnant women and more. The entire administration, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the helm of HHS, sows doubt on decades of health and science research, and has a particular target for vaccines.
These threats and changes will impact many people’s day-to-day health — and it won’t stop there. We’re tracking the ongoing changes that will have lasting consequences on the country’s health research and top health agencies.
Read the latest updates below:
RFK Jr. Needed Mere Months To Bring Our Health System To The Brink Of Disaster
Back in 2020, Americans in the throes of the COVID pandemic learned about “inflection points” — the moment in a crisis, in that case a public health disaster, that marks a threshold for change.
Five years later, public health in the United States is at a very different inflection point.
Mass firings and even a shooting at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Atlanta headquarters had already left the nation’s health officials rattled and demoralized. Then on Wednesday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, announced that the Food and Drug Administration had approved an updated version of the coronavirus vaccine — but only for a narrow group of people that included older adults and those with certain preexisting conditions.
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The FDA Has Approved COVID Shots, But Not For Everyone. Here’s What You Need To Know.
Just as COVID-19 cases continue to rise across the country, the Food and Drug Administration approved new COVID shots for 2025-2026. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the news Wednesday in a post on X.
The new recommendations are limited when compared with previous years; fewer people, particularly children and people under 65, will have access to the vaccine.
The FDA approved this year’s COVID shots for people 65 and older, and anyone under 65 with underlying conditions, like asthma, that put them at high risk of severe COVID.
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Leading Pediatrics Group Breaks With CDC Over COVID-19 Shots For Kids
The American Academy of Pediatrics on Tuesday released an evidence-based immunization schedule that, for the first time in 30 years, is not aligned with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Unlike the CDC, which under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. no longer recommends routine COVID-19 vaccination for children, the AAP is recommending all children ages 6-23 months should get a 2025-26 COVID shot.
The group said CDC data supports the finding, even if the CDC itself does not.
Data shows COVID-19 hospitalizations for children under the age of 2 are currently comparable to people between the ages of 50-64 years, and are the highest among all pediatric groups.
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RFK Jr. Is Making A Drastic Move On Vaccine Development — And It Could Endanger Us All
Earlier this month, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced he’s cutting nearly $500 million in funding for mRNA vaccine development from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. Famously, mRNA technology is what led to safe and effective COVID vaccines less than a year after the start of the pandemic.
The $500 million cuts to vaccine contracts will target COVID and flu research, but experts say the effects will stretch beyond this. These cancellations will make waves for other aspects of health within the United States and sow further distrust in science and medicine, experts told HuffPost.
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An Expensive Health Care Cliff Is Coming Unless Republicans Stop It
WASHINGTON — Top Senate Republicans indicated this week they’d be open to extending one of former President Joe Biden’s signature health care policies to avoid a politically poisonous spike in insurance costs ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
The enhanced premium tax credits, which Democrats included in President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act, reduced the cost of health insurance for many middle-class people enrolled in Obamacare exchanges. The average person who buys insurance through the exchanges is expected to pay 75% more for their premium if the tax credits expire, according to an analysis from KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has also projected that letting the subsidies lapse would lead to about 5 million Americans losing their insurance over the next 10 years.
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RFK Postponed A 'Woke' Preventative Health Meeting — And It Can Impact All Of Us
It’s hard to keep track of the funding cuts, layoffs, and other major changes happening within the country’s federal public health organizations at the hands of the Trump administration and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Health and Human Services secretary.
One of the latest changes is the postponement of a preventive health panel meeting by the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), which was scheduled for July 10. The group sets guidelines for preventive health screenings for conditions such as diabetes, depression and cancer in children and adults.
This comes not long after Kennedy postponed the meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which sets vaccine recommendations, and replaced the entire committee with individuals known to spread vaccine and health misinformation, according to earlier HuffPost reporting.
The postponement of the USPSTF meeting is worrisome for a few reasons and could directly impact your health.
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Major Public Health Groups Sue RFK Jr. Over 'Unlawful' Vaccine Policy
WASHINGTON ― National public health organizations on Monday filed a lawsuit against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., accusing him of flouting federal rules when he directed his agency to drop its COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for healthy children and pregnant people.
The lawsuit, brought by groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Physicians, alleges Kennedy didn’t have the authority to unilaterally remove the vaccine from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s immunization schedule. He announced he was doing so in a social media post in late May.
The groups argue Kennedy’s directive was akin to a final agency action, which is typically the result of a longer process required for making changes to CDC’s immunization schedules. The CDC’s so-called Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, an intensely vetted group of public health experts, has long made recommendations for changes to this schedule. But Kennedy recently fired all 17 of ACIP’s members and replaced at least some of them with people who have baselessly cast doubts on vaccine safety.
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Experts Say Trump's Big Bill Will Shut Down This 1 Type Of Hospital — And It'll Impact Multitudes
Just last week, Trump signed the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act into law, which delivers tax cuts to the richest Americans and strips away health care for the poorest.
The bill calls for nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, a state and federal health care program that pays for medical procedures and preventative health services for low-income adults and children, folks with disabilities and others with limited resources.
It’s estimated that roughly 12 million people will lose their health care coverage because of this legislation, and the ripple effects are expected to be felt in health systems and hospitals across the country — particularly in rural hospitals.
Trump Officials Are Doing Everything They Can To Obscure The Actual Fallout Of His Tax Bill
In interviews on Sunday, Trump administration officials did everything they could to downplay the Medicaid cuts in the president’s massive tax bill, given the electoral backlash Republicans could face.
During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested that Democrats were trying to “infantilize the poor” by raising concerns that new work requirements for Medicaid would be burdensome and result in people losing their benefits. And during an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett denied that many people would lose health coverage at all.
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House Passes Big Bill Cutting Taxes And Medicaid, Sends To President’s Desk
WASHINGTON ― Republicans pushed their giant bill cutting taxes and Medicaid through the House on Thursday, sending the legislation to President Donald Trump to sign into law.
Millions of Americans will lose health insurance as a result of the bill, while tax cuts favoring the wealthy will further swell the national debt. The bill will also supercharge Trump’s efforts to round up, detain and deport millions of immigrants lacking legal authorization to remain in the country.
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USAID Cuts Could Cause 'Staggering Number Of Avoidable Deaths,' Study Says
The dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development by the Trump administration is estimated to result in over 14 million excess, preventable deaths by 2030, according to a new study by The Lancet medical journal published online Monday.
The report sought to analyze the effect of USAID funding on adult and child mortality over the past two decades as well as predict the worldwide impact of its unwinding in the years to come.
Researchers found that the agency, which has been relentlessly targeted by right-wing Republicans, saved the lives of nearly 92 million people, including about 30 million children under 5 years old, during the 21-year study period, warning that the impending cuts could lead to “a staggering number of avoidable deaths.”
RFK Jr.'s CDC Panelists Bend To Anti-Vaxxers With Vote Against Flu Shot Ingredient
A panel tasked with advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine policy recommended Thursday that makers of flu vaccines should remove a well-studied ingredient used as a preservative, capitulating to anti-vaccine advocates who falsely claim it causes autism.
Most flu vaccines already do not contain the ingredient, thimerosal, but it is still used in multi-dose vials to prevent bacterial contamination when multiple needles are inserted.
The panelists were hand-selected by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s health secretary who is best known for spreading conspiracy theories about vaccines and public health. Kennedy had fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices earlier this month.
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Pediatrician In Congress Tells RFK Jr.: I Will Blame You For All Vaccine-Preventable Deaths
WASHINGTON – Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.) on Tuesday tore into Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for his decades of lies about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, saying she will blame him every time someone dies from a vaccine-preventable disease on his watch.
“You have lied to the American people,” Schrier, who is a pediatrician, charged as Kennedy sat silently before a House committee. “You have lied to parents about vaccines for 20 years.”
“And I also want to be clear that I will lay all responsibility for every death from a vaccine-preventable illness at your feet,” she said.
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RFK Jr. Sputters After Getting Grilled On Proximity To Apparent Conflicts Of Interest
A Tuesday morning hearing dedicated to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s proposed 2026 budget led Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.) to question his stances on two Trump appointees at the agency with apparent conflicts of interest.
One appointee, a former HHS DOGE staffer named Brad Smith, now runs a for-profit medical company. The other, Calley Means, is still in the Trump administration. Prior to that, he co-founded a company that sells medical equipment that can be bought with pretax dollars.
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Supreme Court Deals Another Major Blow To Transgender Rights
In a landmark ruling that could dramatically reshape how transgender rights and sex discrimination cases are handled by the courts for years to come, the Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Tennessee’s law banning gender-affirming care for minors in a 6-3 ruling.
Chief Justice John Roberts authored the majority opinion while justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. In the ruling, the court held that the Tennessee ban was not subject to heightened scrutiny, allowing the ban to remain in place.
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RFK Jr. Keeps Telling A Flat-Out Lie About Childhood Vaccines — And Doctors Are Sick Of It
After the firing of the CDC’s entire vaccine advisory committee and the ensuing replacement of some of these folks by anti-vaccine advocates, it’s no secret that vaccines in this country are under attack by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and others in the Trump administration.
In many, many interviews, Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist, has repeated false claims about vaccines, their side effects and their safety.
During a recent Fox News interview in which Kennedy tried to justify his firing of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee, he further sowed vaccine distrust by repeating inflammatory statements.
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