Department of Health and Human Crackpots
The perfectly predictable catastrophe of RFK Jr.’s new anti-vax vaccine advisory committee.
We hope that President Trump enjoyed his trip to the Kennedy Center to see Les Misérables last night. As we’ve argued in the past, as far as we’re concerned, the more time the big guy spends running around the Kennedy Center, doing interior design at the White House, micromanaging the installation of flagpoles on the lawn, and so on, the better for the rest of us. Happy Thursday.
The Disaster We All Saw Coming
by Andrew Egger
A year ago, if you’d told somebody familiar with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that he’d soon be the nation’s secretary of health and human services, the first thing they’d have said—after spitting out their coffee—was: “So, he’s going to go after vaccines, huh?”
Four months ago, when Kennedy’s nomination was before the Senate, his long and public career of anti-vaccine advocacy (not to mention other forms of conspiracy crankdom) was exhaustively litigated in the press. Enough senators were won over by his assurances to be open-minded—but they were clearly duped. Ever since his confirmation, Kennedy has offered the most grudging lip service to such products as the measles vaccine while industriously laying the groundwork to go after various components of the U.S. vaccine approval process.
And now comes the news that Kennedy’s new hand-selected slate of nominees to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is chockablock with antivax lunatics. Certainly we shouldn’t be surprised.
One of the great minds now tapped to shape U.S. vaccine policy belongs to Robert Malone, a researcher who built a right-wing celebrity during the pandemic by criticizing the COVID vaccines while spuriously billing himself as the “inventor” of the mRNA technology on which they were based. In his own writings, on social media, and in appearances on the shows of Joe Rogan, Sean Hannity, Candace Owens, and others, Malone routinely claimed—for instance—that there had been “17M excess deaths” from COVID shots and that the public had been “hypnotized” into taking those shots. At one point he declared that “the truth is, it’s the unvaccinated that are at risk from the vaccinated.”
Also among Kennedy’s eight new selections to the board: Vicky Pebsworth, a doctor who has served as the research director for the anti-vax National Vaccine Information Center and who has claimed her own child was injured by vaccines while a baby. In December 2020, as the FDA prepared to authorize the COVID vaccine for the public, she spoke on the NVIC’s behalf at an FDA meeting, arguing that “using coercion and sanctions to persuade adults to take an experimental vaccine, or give it to their children, is unethical and unlawful.”
Kennedy told reporters this week he was “bringing people on who are credentialed scientists, who are highly credentialed physicians, who are going to do evidence-based medicine.” The rest of the eight new selections to the ACIP include some who have their peers’ respect and others who would be better described as public-health contrarians than out-and-out antivaxxers.
But even those who don’t see it as their mission to wage active war against vaccines are a far cry from the subject-matter experts Kennedy just canned. CBS News has a good rundown of the likes of Dr. James Pagano, a retired ER director, and Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, a retired nutrition researcher at the National Institutes of Health. It turns out, when you automatically exclude researchers whose work has shown vaccines to be safe and effective, the pool of vaccine experts from which to draw to staff your vaccine-policy commission gets very shallow very fast.
It bears emphasizing over and over again: None of this is designed to satisfy any mass public hunger to wage war against vaccines. No such mass hunger exists. Despite the grievous drop in confidence in public health that resulted from political polarization of the COVID pandemic, public confidence in childhood vaccinations remained largely unchanged from pre-pandemic times. Pew polling from 2023 found 88 percent of U.S. adults agreeing that the “benefits outweigh the risks” when it came to the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, a common target for anti-vaxxers, with only 10 percent saying the “risks outweigh the benefits.” Those numbers were identical when the same question was polled in October 2019 and in June 2016.
Instead, what’s been happening is even more unsettling: Republican adoption of anti-vax iconoclasm as a polarized political signifier has been creating new anti-vax sentiment within the Republican base. Polls show that, between 2023 and 2025, GOP trust dipped significantly in every authoritative medical voice, from government health officials to their own personal doctors. The Kaiser Family Foundation noted in polling this January that a similar share of Republicans now said they trusted President Trump and Kennedy to make the right recommendation on health issues “as say they trust their own doctors.”
It will only get worse. Democrats aren’t going to simply keep the likes of Robert Malone on the ACIP once they retake power. And when they do boot him and others, it will only radicalize Republicans further, crystalizing the notion that vaccine science is just yet another zero-sum battle line in the endless left-right culture war. Hopefully someday we can find a way to reconstruct a broad public trust in an actual evidence-based approach to public health. How we will, God only knows.
Some Good Vibrations
by William Kristol
It’s been a disheartening week for those of us who care about the American experiment in self-government.
In testimony before Congress over the last two days, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has confirmed what the president’s weekend memorandum suggested: That the deployment of the National Guard and active-duty troops to Los Angeles is not a one-off event. It’s now to be thought of as a routine part of the administration’s anti-immigrant and mass deportation campaigns.
“I think we’re entering another phase, especially under President Trump with his focus on the homeland, where the National Guard and Reserves become a critical component of how we secure that homeland,” Hegseth said on Tuesday. The guardrail that stood against the use of the military at home except in extraordinary situations is gone.
This is particularly ominous when combined with the firehose of repulsive propaganda emanating from MAGA world, and from the Trump administration itself, dehumanizing immigrants—including those who’ve worked and raised families here for years—as foreign invaders unworthy of being treated with even minimal decency.
But there are a couple of glimmers of hope that tempt me to say, in honor of the late Brian Wilson, that I’m pickin’ up good vibrations. They have to do with the American people, and (yes!) the Democratic party.
A new poll from Quinnipiac University suggests that a clear majority of the American people aren’t on board with the toxic mix of nativism and authoritarianism on offer from the Trump administration.
The poll has Trump’s job approval at 38 percent, down from 41 percent in Quinnipiac’s survey two months ago. And only 30 percent of the public strongly approves of Trump’s job performance, while 49 percent strongly disapprove.
The negative judgment of the Trump administration is consistent across subject areas, from the economy to immigration to Russia–Ukraine policy. On immigration specifically, the issue on which so many Democrats have been intimidated: Only 43 public approves of Trump’s immigration policies, while 54 percent disapprove. On his deportation policies specifically, 40 percent approve and 56 percent disapprove.
By the way, as we note in an item below, the Republican budget reconciliation bill is really unpopular, with only 27 percent of the public approving. Democrats will uniformly oppose that measure, which is all political upside for them.
There are other positive signs for the Democratic party as well. From California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s strong speech Tuesday night to the effective work of Democratic senators like Chris Murphy and Jack Reed in challenging administration witnesses on the Hill, more Democrats seem to be fighting vigorously rather than equivocating haplessly.
And on Tuesday, in New Jersey, Rep. Mikie Sherill easily prevailed in the Democratic primary for governor. So in this year’s two most prominent elections, the New Jersey and Virginia races for governor, the public will see Democratic candidates—Sherill and Abigail Spanberger—who are both very impressive leaders and tough-minded moderates. If they represent the future leadership of the party, the Democrats could be in decent shape.
So the Trump administration continues to do its worst. But the public and the Democratic party are doing better. We’d be crazy not to be very alarmed by the current moment. But perhaps we’re entitled to temper our alarm with some hope.
AROUND THE BULWARK
No Kings: Stand Against Trump’s Un-American Birthday Bash… He claims it’s about the Army, but it’s really about him, writes JEFFREY C. ISAAC. (Related: If you want some Bulwark “No Kings” Merch, we’ve got you covered!)
Un-American! Feel free to rage at the week from hell. On this week’s The Next Level, TIM, SARAH, and JVL discuss Trump’s extreme response to protests in L.A., his unsettling rally to a cheering military crowd, and the upcoming birthday parade. Also: Elon Musk’s 3 a.m. apology, RFK Jr.’s dissolving of the vaccine board, and Mikie Sherrill’s primary win.
Mark Hertling: Contrary to American Values… On The Bulwark Podcast, GEN. MARK HERTLING joins TIM MILLER to discuss Trump’s threatening to shut down protests at his $45 million birthday parade and giving a highly partisan speech in front of soldiers against military policy.
Dems On L.A.: ‘Impeachable’ Tyranny or Trumpian Distraction? The party hasn’t yet settled on how to handle the moment, write ADRIAN CARRASQUILLO and LAUREN EGAN.
Quick Hits
BIG, BEAUTIFUL, BUSTED: Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill is taking a Big Beautiful Beating in the polls. An Economist/YouGov poll earlier this week found half of Americans oppose Trump’s budget, with only 30 percent in favor of it. Yesterday, the aforementioned Quinnipiac poll found a similar result: 27 percent in favor, 53 percent against.
Naturally, Democrats overwhelmingly oppose the legislation: 89 percent against, only two percent for, according to Quinnipiac. But what’s really hurting the bill is disproportionately soft support from Republicans: Only two-thirds of GOPers like Trump’s signature plan, with ten percent actively opposing it.
It’s not too surprising that even Republican support is so soft, given the controversial nature of many of the bill’s provisions and the fact that many Republican voters them are set to be deleteriously impacted by it. Quinnipiac notes that most Republicans don’t want to see cuts to Medicaid: “21 percent think federal funding for Medicaid should increase, 56 percent think it should stay about the same, and 18 percent think it should decrease.” (Tons of Trump voters are themselves on Medicaid.)
Meanwhile, a separate cohort of Republican voters—the kind who sympathize with the debt-reduction crusades being waged by the likes of Rep. Thomas Massie—are unhappy that the bill blows a massive new hole in federal deficits despite the spending cuts it does contain, simply because it slashes taxes (primarily for the rich) far more.
But at bottom, it’s a reminder that this is a bill without a real sense of who or what it’s for. It is a stitched-together Frankenstein’s monster of a policy package, a bizarre assemblage of Trump campaign taglines, GOP policy wish-list items, and pay-fors House lawmakers went scrounging through the couch cushions to find. That sort of thing doesn’t lend itself to impassioned advocacy.
FULBRIGHT IN CHAOS: The entire board overseeing the administration of the longstanding Fulbright Foreign Student Program resigned Wednesday, accusing the White House of unlawfully meddling in its scholarship-award deliberations.
“At the program’s inception, Congress clearly specified that the Fulbright Board has final approval authority of applicants,” the outgoing board members wrote in a statement posted to Substack. “However, the current administration has usurped the authority of the Board and denied Fulbright awards to a substantial number of individuals who were selected for the 2025-2026 academic year. . . . To continue to serve after the Administration has consistently ignored the Board’s request that they follow the law would risk legitimizing actions we believe are unlawful.”
What kind of meddling had the Fulbright board so steamed? The New York Times has the ugly details:
The State Department’s public diplomacy office is run by Darren Beattie, a political appointee who was fired from a job during the first Trump administration after he gave a talk at a conference attended by white nationalists. . . .
The nearly 200 American scholars who are receiving rejection letters from the State Department are about a fifth of the total U.S. scholars approved by the board over the winter. Mr. Beattie and his aides appear to be rejecting them based on their stated research topics, which include climate change, environmental resilience, migration, gender, race and ethnicity and homelessness, said the people familiar with the State Department’s actions.
Anti-vaxxers running government vaccine-policy groups. Crypto-white nationalists meddling in the selection process for prestigious research awards. It’s getting very bleak out there.
Cheap Shots
Andrew: "Enough senators were won over by his assurances to be open-minded—but they were clearly duped."
They weren't duped. They didn't give a shit because the only thing that matters to those senators is holding their office and the power that comes from it.
As for RFK Jr. and the carnage that's about to happen, **this is what a plurality of the voters wanted**. Therefore, they should get it full blast. Yes, people -- children -- will die, but you can't save people from themselves. The reason why children will die is because 49.8% of the electorate valued lower prices more than human life and reducing human suffering.
Bill Cassidy is such a coward that there may be a chapter for him in the history book if a generation of Americans die because of what happens in the federal government.