Health Care

Protect Our Care publishes scathing report of Kennedy’s tenure ahead of congressional hearing marathon

Comments:

by Joseph Choi - 04/15/26 9:28 AM ET

Comments:

Link copied

by Joseph Choi - 04/15/26 9:28 AM ET

Comments:

Link copied

NOW PLAYING

The progressive health care advocacy group Protect Our Care is releasing a highly critical review of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s first 14 months in office ahead of a marathon series of hearings he will have in the House and Senate this month to defend President Trump’s budget request.

In the report titled “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vs. Public Health,” shown first to The Hill, Protect Our Care highlights the secretary’s actions on vaccines, medical research, food as well as his apparent aims of mobilizing his “Make America Healthy Again” base as a key voting block ahead of the midterms.

With Kennedy recently defending Trump’s push to expand access to glyphosates and including several experts tied to the beef and dairy industry in writing the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the report argues he is “selling out” his supporters by allowing practices they’ve spoken out against.

This report comes one day before Kennedy is set to begin a series of six hearings in the House and Senate over the next two weeks.

“RFK Jr. truly earned the dubious honor of having the lowest public trust rating for health information in the country, and not just by bragging about snorting cocaine off of toilet seats,” Protect Our Care President Brad Woodhouse said in a statement. “Trump’s health secretary has fully exposed himself as a charlatan whose contempt for peer-reviewed science is making America sicker and woefully unprepared for the next public health crisis.”

Protect Our Care blasted Kennedy for turning COVID-19 vaccine guidance into a “maze,” arguing that despite his assurances that anyone who wants a shot can get one, the updated recommendations under his tenure have effectively reduced vaccine uptake.

The group also noted the growing influence of MAHA-aligned vaccine skepticism at the state level, pointing to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s (R) recently announced investigation into physicians who administer vaccines under claims that they receive financial incentives to do so.

“Despite legal setbacks on the federal level, Kennedy-aligned groups are already using the newly announced federal vaccine schedule to press legislatures nationwide to weaken school and daycare requirements and drive down pediatric vaccination further,” the report stated.

The MAHA agenda’s aims of reforming food standards are one of the areas where critics and allies of Kennedy unite, but Protect Our Care argues in its report that his actions thus far have been “all sizzle, no steak.” The organization accused Kennedy of being out-of-touch with people’s diets and what they can afford.

“For a health secretary who presents himself as a champion of working people’s diets, Kennedy has been completely oblivious to what food actually costs,” they stated. “School nutrition directors say the red-meat- and full-fat-heavy menus Kennedy is pushing are financially unrealistic for already strained school meal programs. The food industry itself has grown so hostile that major companies are pushing back on his proposed ingredient restrictions.”

The Hill reached out to HHS for comment.

Add as preferred source on Google