A document the Department of Health and Human Services sent to lawmakers to support Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to change U.S. policy on covid vaccines cites scientific studies that are unpublished or under dispute and mischaracterizes others.

The new NBC News Decision Desk Poll powered by SurveyMonkey found adults divided over the health secretary but with a bare majority viewing him favorably.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Thursday he promised to allow U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy to pick a candidate for a key panel of vaccine advisers. Kennedy, who has a long history of questioning the safety of vaccines contrary to scientific evidence,

Just two days after retiring the entirety of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has appointed several prominent critics of the government’s Covid-19 response to that committee.

RFK dismissed the CDC's scientific vaccine advisers. His appointees for replacements are raising concerns about vaccine policy and recommendations moving forward.

The health secretary cited financial conflicts, but a White House official and someone familiar with his thinking said he was also concerned about ties to Democrats.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices helps the agency make recommendations on who should get certain vaccines.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday named eight new members of the CDC's advisory panel on immunization.

Kennedy's picks circumvented the usual CDC process for selecting members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. In previous administrations, career agency officials — not political leaders — vetted potential experts before forwarding them to the department for the secretary's approval.