Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and U.S. Public Health Policy

The Lancet, one of the world’s most cited medical journals, has published an editorial titled “Robert F. Kennedy Jr: 1 year of failure,” marking the first anniversary of his tenure as U.S. health and human services secretary and charging that the “destruction” he has caused “might take generations to repair.” The piece accuses Kennedy of purging agency staff, rewriting guidance in ways that contradict decades of established science, cutting cutting‑edge research, undermining vaccine policy and promoting “junk science and fringe beliefs.” Kennedy has previously said government scientists should stop publishing in journals like The Lancet because they are “all corrupt” and beholden to pharmaceutical companies, and he has even threatened legal action against journals. NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya defended Kennedy on X, saying he is “fixing the mess they helped make,” while other physicians note The Lancet’s own history of having published and later retracted Andrew Wakefield’s discredited autism–MMR paper. The editorial appears as the U.S. surpasses 1,000 measles cases in 2026 and faces losing its measles elimination status, fueling debate over how Kennedy’s anti‑vaccine record and his HHS policies are affecting real‑time public‑health outcomes.