Kennedy blocks preventive health care panel that reviews treatments for HIV, diabetes, and cancer from meeting — for fourth time

For the fourth time, the Trump administration has prevented an important public health panel from meeting as planned.

The panel, the United States Preventive Services Task Force, has not met in person since March 2025.

It typically meets three times a year to review scientific evidence for tests and medications to prevent conditions like cancer, diabetes and H.I.V. The panel’s recommendations guide doctors and determine what insurance companies cover for millions of Americans. But under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., it has been stymied, with little ability to make new recommendations.

[Emily Hilliard, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services], attributed the decision to postpone the meeting until late August to “an unprecedented number of nominations” to serve on the task force and said more time was needed to select and onboard new members.

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Mr. Kennedy canceled meetings of the panel last July, last November and this March. He also did not fill the vacancies left when the terms of several members expired months ago, and in May, he fired the panel’s two chairs.

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