Change has its enemies.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said this in last week’s raucous Senate Finance Committee hearing, a three-hour scolding session during which he was called a liar, a charlatan, and a child killer. Committee members also told him to resign.
Kennedy refuses to quit. He’s been waiting a very long time for the chance to reform the agency he now leads. On Thursday, he took on all his antagonists — as much as he was allowed to. Committee members arrived armed with choreographed takedowns crafted to make him look cruel and inept. They repeatedly cut him off before he could answer their questions or rebuke accusations, fearing that the longer he spoke, the worse they looked. For example, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) went after Kennedy by quoting supposedly false allegations about the mRNA injection made by Dr. Robert Malone. Dr. Malone is a new member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Before Kennedy could remind the senator that Malone is an inventor of that very technology, Bennet cut him off. This was emblematic of how the hearing went.
Kennedy knows he’s up against the Medical Establishment, a network with enormous wealth and power. That power extends to the halls of Congress. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) admitted during the hearing that “everybody” — Democrats and Republicans — receives PAC money tied to Big Pharma. It was a fascinating admission against interest.
Trump & Operation Warp Speed
Knowing they were unlikely to convince him to resign, many committee members, Republicans included, tried to corner Kennedy into discrediting Operation Warp Speed, the 2021 expedient rollout of the mRNA Covid-19 “vaccine.” His boss, President Donald Trump, takes pride in that boondoggle. If they could get Kennedy to admit it was a disaster, they likely calculated it would hurt Trump’s ego. And, as everyone knows, the president doesn’t react kindly to those who demean his perceived accomplishments. But Kennedy methodically stepped around that trap. Despite being on-record for a number of statements that disparage the mRNA concoction, he tip-toed on a fine line of praise for his boss and Operation Warp Speed while defending a series of actions his agency has taken to undermine the very concoction it brought about.
So far, Trump is standing by Kennedy. He said after the hearing that he appreciates that the secretary is brimming with ideas about how to find out what’s causing autism and other health problems plaguing Americans.
Attempt to Derail MAHA
There are multiple reports circulating about a coordinated plan to get Kennedy fired. Back in July, Dr. Malone wrote about a leaked document with minutes from a meeting during which forces conspired a coup. According to Malone:
According to the apparent leaked minutes, verified by the name of the creator of the file, on April 3, 2025, BIO [the Biotechnology Innovation Organization] held a “Vaccine Policy Steering Committee” (VPSC) meeting whose internal summary … reveals a campaign of strategic deception, institutional capture, and psychological warfare and exposes a campaign of institutional deception, investor protection, and coordinated sabotage of the MAHA reform platform. According to the leaked document, titled “BIO Vaccine Policy Steering Committee – April 3, 2025”, BIO has committed $2 million — half of its cash reserve — to counter what it calls the “threat” posed by Kennedy’s rise. But this is no ordinary PR push. It is a multi-pronged campaign designed to deceive the public, silence dissent, and preserve industry dominance through influence operations masquerading as science.
The memo, which you can read here, includes a plan to co-opt various influencers and conservatives as potential allies. Among those it names are Dr. Mehmet Oz, who is the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which sits under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.). When he questioned Kennedy last week, Cassidy devoted all his time to trying to trap the secretary into discrediting Operation Warp Speed. Cassidy also accused Kennedy of telling another committee member that the Covid vax killed more people than Covid, which was verifiably false.
Conservative podcaster Benny Johnson reported last week that he got information from whistleblowers within HHS and the CDC about a sabotage plot to dislodge Kennedy. Johnson said that CDC bureaucrats were using tactics from a CIA manual to upend Kennedy’s agenda. The walkouts, corporate media hits, fake protests, and heated Senate hearings are part of an attempt to derail the MAHA agenda, according to Johnson.
CDC vs. Kennedy
On the day before last week’s hearing, more than 1,000 current and former CDC employees signed on to a letter saying, “It’s time for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to Resign.” The letter contains many of the complaints heard during the hearing. It’s obvious there is a coordinated plan against Kennedy.
Some MAHA supporters have been disappointed with the secretary for failing to eliminate the Covid jab and for other perceived shortcomings. But the Establishment is clearly in a state of hysterical panic. Perhaps that’s because Kennedy’s agency has taken a number of actions that threaten to topple the Medical Establishment’s system of graft and dependency.
One of Kennedy’s most ire-drawing actions includes firing the entire ACIP panel. “RFK Jr. ousts entire 17-person CDC vaccine advisory committee,” a PBS headline screeched June 10. Last week, the committee repeatedly attacked Kennedy over this. “No one in your job has ever fired every committee member all at once,” Bennet said.
ACIP creates vaccine recommendations and vaccine schedules. It was the central body behind the Covid-19 shot recommendations. Kennedy claims that ACIP is saturated with conflicts of interest. The question isn’t whether he’s right about that, but how many former ACIP members have ties to Pfizer, Moderna, Merck, or others.
When he was accused of politicizing ACIP for firing everyone and replacing them with “non-experts, vaccine skeptics, and conspiracy theorists,” Kennedy shot back. “I didn’t politicize ACIP, I depoliticized it!” he said. He wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week that the ACIP shakeup was about eliminating conflicts of interest, bureaucratic complacency, and leaders who resisted reform.
Layoffs, Resignations, Firings
Kennedy has presided over mass layoffs, as well as the firings and “resignations” of a horde of high-level CDC officials. He admitted Thursday that he asked the former CDC director (which he ended up firing) to fire “career scientists or public experts at the CDC.”
In April, HHS laid off 10,000 people, including 2,400 from the CDC. Before that, the founding director of the National Center for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Public Health Infrastructure and Workforce; the director of the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities; the head of the Office of Science; and the acting director for the Office of Health Equity all “retired.” In June, Dr. Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos, who oversaw the CDC’s recommendations for Covid-19 vaccines, quit. That same month, Dr. Fiona Havers, who led the agency’s tracking of Covid hospitalizations, also resigned.
Last month, CDC Director Susan Monarez was fired. Her departure was followed by the resignations of a number of other high-ranking employees, including the chief medical officer and deputy director for program and science; the director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; and the director of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology.
Vaccine Controversy
The CDC is getting quite the makeover. The head of HHS is clearly trying to eliminate the culture and hive mindset that not only helped foster the disastrous Covid response, but also has contributed to the dire chronic illness problem plaguing America. On Thursday, Kennedy summarized to Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) what he thought these people had accomplished:
We were lied to about everything. We were lied to about natural immunity. We were told again and again the vaccines would prevent transmission, they would prevent infection. It wasn’t true. They knew it from the start. It wasn’t true because that’s what that the animal studies in the clinical trials showed. We were told there was science behind cloth masks. The CDC allowed teachers unions to write the order closing our schools, which hurt working people all over the country, then pretended it was science-based…. [HHS] failed miserably during Covid.
Another major move undermining the Covid jab was the CDC removing its recommended status. It is no longer recommended for any healthy people under 65. This, too, drew high-decibel outrage during the hearing. While Kennedy insisted that anyone can still get the shot, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) of Massachusetts and others were right to point out that removing the recommended status makes it more difficult. In some states, getting a Covid booster means you’ll need a prescription. It could mean that healthy people would have to pay out-of-pocket for one. It has already made it harder for people to find it at various pharmacies, according to recent reports. And come January, this could affect whether Medicaid or Medicare will cover it.
Kennedy has also canceled $500 million in vaccine projects that use mRNA technology. Justifying the move, he noted afterward:
After reviewing the science and consulting top experts at NIH [the National Institutes of Health] and FDA, HHS has determined that mRNA technology poses more risk than benefits for … respiratory viruses.
Settling for Reform of an Unconstitutional Agency
Kennedy’s HHS is implementing a slew of other changes. It’s employing a more rigorous testing process to ensure vaccines are safe and beneficial. The NIH is ending gain-of-function research. HHS is also attempting to shift the public health model from a reactive one that addresses symptoms to a preventive one that staves off illness.
Kennedy appears to be trying his best to do what he set out to do without stepping on a number of mines set out for him. He has a monumental task before him. In a more just America with ethical leadership, reform would come easier.
In an ideal, constitutionally obedient America, there would be no federal health agency to reform because it would not exist. But for now, Americans will have to settle for reform.
