Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s crusade to scale back Americans’ reliance on vaccines has collided with political and legal realities that have endangered the Senate confirmation of one top health official, delayed the nomination of another and diminished his clout in Washington.
A string of developments over the past several weeks have put Mr. Kennedy’s vaccine agenda at risk. The confirmation of Dr. Casey Means, President Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, is stalled on Capitol Hill ….
… Mr. Trump missed a deadline to nominate a permanent director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, leaving the agency officially leaderless. The White House is trying to find someone who fits with Mr. Kennedy’s broader health agenda but whose views of vaccines are conventional enough to win Senate confirmation.
… [A] federal judge blocked Mr. Kennedy’s changes to the childhood vaccine schedule.
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All told, it is a major setback for Mr. Kennedy, whose Make America Healthy Again movement and his legion of mostly white, mostly female followers — the so-called “MAHA Moms” — helped power Mr. Trump to victory in 2024.
