Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spent the first weeks of 2026 doing what he'd promised: in January, he cut the number of federally recommended childhood vaccines from 18 to 11. A federal judge blocked those changes in March — ruling Kennedy had skipped the expert review process required by law — and threw out his 13 hand-picked vaccine committee appointees. The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the panel that decides which vaccines insurers must cover, has been unable to meet since. The Wall Street Journal reported July 27 that Trump confronted Kennedy at a May lunch and, separately, at a June Oval Office meeting, pressing him to cut vaccines further and find evidence linking vaccines to autism. Trump accused Kennedy of "having the yips." Measles cases in the U.S. have reached 2,318 in 2026 — the most in 35 years — and 93% of those infected were unvaccinated.

Trump Accused Kennedy of "the Yips" — and May Replace Him

Trump believes vaccines cause autism and wants his health secretary to prove it and cut further.

Trump has made vaccines the central demand of every conversation with Kennedy. The Wall Street Journal reported the issue comes up in "nearly every conversation" Trump has with his health secretary. At a May lunch at Trump's National Golf Club in northern Virginia, Trump confronted Kennedy about why he hadn't investigated the vaccine-autism link more aggressively — and accused him of "the yips," a golf term for performance anxiety.

At a separate June Oval Office meeting, Trump dressed Kennedy down. The president told Kennedy he wasn't making enough progress on vaccine cuts and the autism question, according to the Journal. Trump signed an executive order in late May directing HHS to cut the recommended vaccine schedule further and to break up the combined MMR shot into separate doses.

Trump may replace Kennedy with Dr. Oz. Lobbyists and HHS staffers told the Journal that Trump could swap Kennedy for CMS chief Dr. Mehmet Oz after the midterms if Kennedy doesn't move faster. HHS officials and Oz have publicly denied any such plan, and Kennedy has told associates he intends to stay in the administration long-term.

Doctors Say Kennedy Already Cut Too Much — They Have the Numbers

Pediatricians and public health experts say the existing cuts fueled a 35-year measles record.

Measles is back at its worst level since 1991. The CDC counted 2,318 measles cases in the U.S. in 2026, more than in all of 2025, and the last 18 months have produced more measles cases than the prior 25 years combined. The overwhelming majority — 93% — of those infected were unvaccinated or had fewer than the two required MMR doses.

Dr. Paul Offit, a former ACIP member, said plainly: "We're screwed." Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said of Kennedy: "He scares people about vaccines, which only causes them not to get them." The American Academy of Pediatrics told the court that HHS "has had and continues to have the power to restore a lawful ACIP and schedule a meeting at any time." Kennedy's team calls that framing wrong — they say courts, not HHS, caused the paralysis.

The ACIP freeze is blocking a new flu vaccine. The FDA's vaccine advisory committee voted 9-0 on June 18 to recommend Moderna's mFlusiva, the first mRNA flu shot for adults 50 and older. The FDA has a decision deadline of August 5, 2026. Without ACIP's sign-off, most insurers won't cover mFlusiva at no cost under the Affordable Care Act — which means millions of Americans may go into fall flu season without access to the most effective flu vaccine the FDA has approved yet. The AAP, California, New York, and Illinois have started issuing their own independent vaccine schedules to fill the federal gap.

Decades of research find no link between vaccines and autism. A 2019 study of more than 600,000 children in Denmark and a 2021 Cochrane Collaboration review of 138 studies both found no connection. Federal courts and the medical establishment regard Trump's core demand as scientifically settled.

Kennedy's Supporters Say the Old System Needed Disrupting — His Own Colleagues Blocked Him Too

MAHA advocates call Kennedy's cuts overdue reform; moderates inside HHS quietly stopped his most extreme proposals.

Children's Health Defense calls Kennedy's changes a restoration of parental rights. Kennedy's longtime organization dismissed the court ruling and medical pushback as the predictable response of a "pharma-captured" system fighting to protect itself. Aaron Siri helped vet Kennedy's ACIP appointees — the ones the court later threw out. Siri is a vaccine-litigation attorney who joined internal HHS policy meetings by speakerphone. Kennedy's team argues the old committee's members had financial ties to vaccine manufacturers and that his changes simply returned decision-making authority to families and their doctors.

Kennedy's team argues courts caused the paralysis — not HHS. His team frames the ACIP freeze as a legal accident — a court-imposed lockout, not a choice — and points out that Kennedy filed an expedited appeal. Kennedy told associates he is not going anywhere and described his work as "essential to ensuring that vaccine recommendations remain grounded in evidence."

Makary and Bhattacharya stopped Kennedy's most extreme proposals. Reuters reported that Kennedy and adviser Stefanie Spear had proposed eliminating the entire childhood immunization schedule and removing the MMR and polio vaccines. FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya redirected Kennedy toward a more limited set of changes — and Bhattacharya blocked a Kennedy request for $5 billion to study vaccine-autism links. Kennedy's critics say that means even his own appointees drew a line. His supporters say those men were never the real MAHA believers anyway.

White House staff are pulling Kennedy in two directions at once. The Journal reported that separate White House officials told Kennedy to "tone it down" ahead of the midterms — directly contradicting the president's simultaneous pressure to move faster. Kennedy has said nothing publicly about the contradiction.

Where This Lands

The FDA's August 5 decision on Moderna's mFlusiva is the next concrete test: if the agency approves the shot without a functioning ACIP, millions of Americans this fall may find it uncovered and out of reach. The AAP says Kennedy can restore a lawful ACIP today if he chooses. Kennedy's team says courts created the paralysis and the midterms are the political constraint. Trump says Kennedy hasn't done nearly enough — and has reportedly discussed swapping him out while also directing his own aides to tell Kennedy to pull back.

Sources