Secretary Kennedy’s Bold Agenda: Radical Transparency and Rational Vaccine Policy

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the new secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is quickly delivering on his agenda. First, his promise to senators of “radical transparency” is fulfilled in his rapid response to congressional inquiries into federal policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Team Biden ignored those congressional requests for information over the past four years.  

Second, Kennedy and his team are also recalibrating government recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines based on a rational risk-benefit calculation, while terminating the 17 members—all Biden administration appointees—of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the panel that makes recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

After four troublesome years, federal policy governing COVID vaccine recommendations is long overdue for a change. The reason: There is a vast difference in the risks of COVID-19, particularly mortality, and the benefits of the COVID vaccines based on age and the presence or absence of underlying health conditions. According to CDC data, over the period Jan. 1, 2020 to April 30, 2025, there were 1,227,616 deaths attributable to COVID-19. Of that number, 669,463 (54.5%), were over the age of 75; 270,847 (22.1%) were aged 65 to 74; and 209,694 (17.08%) were aged 50 to 64. In short almost 94% of the officially recorded COVID deaths occurred among Americans 50 years of age or older.   

The statistical contrast between the older and younger cohort of the American population is dramatic. Over the same period, according to the CDC data, there were 20,554 deaths (1.67%) among Americans aged 30 to 39; 7,394 (0.06%) among those aged 18 to 29; 639 deaths (0.05%) between age 12 and 17; 394 deaths (0.03%) between the ages of 5 and 11; and 1,112 deaths (0.09%) of those aged 0 to 4. 

Because older and sicker Americans face much greater risks of serious illness and death from COVID-19, the benefits of the vaccines—generally preventing hospitalization and death—outweigh the risks for this cohort of the population. 

Official policy, at least until now, has not reflected this risk-benefit calculation. Writing in The New England Journal of Medicine, Marty Makary, the new commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, and his colleague Dr. Vinay Prasad address the specific issue of annual COVID booster shots. The Biden era recommendations, they argue, are overly broad and unjustified by the data: 

“While other high-income countries confine vaccine recommendations to older adults (typically those older than 65 years of age), or those at high risk for severe COVID-19, the United States has adopted a one size fits all regulatory framework and has granted broad marketing authorization to all Americans over the age of 6 months. The U.S. policy has sometimes been justified by arguing that the American people are not sophisticated enough to understand age and risk-based recommendations. We reject this view.”  

In that article, Makary and Prasad “anticipate” that continued COVID-19 vaccination would be appropriate for persons over 65 and, of course, for those persons with an underlying medical condition that would lead to severe illness, hospitalization or death. For healthy persons between the age of six and 64, they believe vaccination would be appropriate—based on the results of randomized clinical trials for this population—combined with strong post-market surveillance. Kennedy, meanwhile, announced that he would cancel the CDC’s recommendation of the COVID vaccines for healthy young children and pregnant women. 

This is a major shift in government policy, and it more closely aligns U.S. practice with that of our European friends and allies. While federal officials have insisted that adverse reactions are “rare,” there has been steadily mounting evidence COVID-19 vaccines are not as “safe and effective” as advertised. Adverse reactions have included anaphylaxis, myocarditis (heart inflation), pericarditis (an inflammation of the heart membrane), strange blood clotting, and various neurological problems.  

On May 21, 2025, in sworn testimony before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, a panel of medical professionals cited COVID vaccines as a cause of death in certain instances, revealed the inadequacy of vaccine safety surveillance, and highlighted a relationship between injection and miscarriage. Based largely on self-reporting, the government’s Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System is incapable of proving a direct causal relationship between an injection and a specific adverse reaction. House congressional investigators note, however, that the reporting system records a level of mortality from COVID-19 vaccination that dwarfs all other vaccines.   

This acknowledgment of the disparate impact of the coronavirus and the effectiveness of the vaccine and a revision of the COVID vaccine recommendations is a major departure from the Biden administration’s policy.  

Recall that in 2021, Biden and his appointees claimed—in the teeth of emerging evidence—that the COVID vaccines would prevent infection. They ignored or downplayed the power of natural immunity and then falsely insisted that the pandemic was a “pandemic of the unvaccinated”; a claim that was obviously untrue in the daily experience of millions of Americans. And finally, they tried to impose an unprecedented vaccine mandate on 80 million private employers and employees, an illegal diktat struck down by the Supreme Court.  

This series of measures not only undermined public confidence in the COVID vaccine and public health officials, but also contributed to a broader vaccine hesitancy, a profoundly dangerous development.   

Worse, Team Biden ignored or downplayed crucial evidence of adverse COVID vaccine reactions. Because of Kennedy’s promise of full transparency, we have proof. He delivered 2,473 pages of previously withheld records to Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.  

Johnson subsequently published an explosive report revealing that in early 2021 Israel’s Ministry of Health told Biden administration officials that their own comprehensive data showed a “large number” of myocarditis cases among young people. An internal federal working group then received data indicating a “safety signal” for myocarditis among persons aged 16 to 24 years of age. By May 2021, the Senate report proves, Biden administration officials had ample reason to warn the public about the dangers of vaccine-induced myocarditis. They failed to do so.   

Today the FDA affixes a “black box” warning on certain drugs that have the potential of causing serious injury or death. This is the case, for example, with antidepressants, which can induce suicidal ideation among young people; opioids, such as oxycodone, which can result in addiction; or warfarin, a common blood thinner that can result in serious or fatal bleeding. Based on the emerging evidence, it is time to affix the “black box” label to the mRNA COVID vaccines.    

Kennedy has made a fresh start, including getting rid of Biden administration “holdovers” on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. But there is much more to be done. Based on an evaluation of congressional oversight over the last three years, The Heritage Foundation has outlined 21 specific steps that Kennedy and his new team can take to ensure better accountability for public health decisions. These include protecting scientific debate from federal censorship efforts, toughening enforcement of the Freedom of Information Act to ensure the free flow of information, improving the process of diagnostic testing during a pandemic, providing full transparency on vaccine ingredients, and upgrading rules to prevent financial conflicts of interest among public health employees.  

Kennedy has a golden opportunity to repair and reinvigorate public health agencies, clarify their roles and responsibilities in preparation for the next pandemic, and reinspire Americans’ trust in public health. Godspeed.  

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