Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Haley Stevens (MI-11)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following the release this week of a new report by Protect Our Care marking one year since RFK Jr.’s confirmation as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Congresswoman Haley Stevens is renewing her call for his impeachment.
In response, Congresswoman Haley Stevens issued the following statement:
“One year into RFK Jr.’s tenure, and the results are clear: our public health system is weaker, Americans are less safe and less healthy, and science has been pushed aside. The report confirms what doctors, researchers, and families across the country have been feeling for months.
“When the nation’s top health official rejects science and undermines public trust, he puts lives at risk. That is a profound violation of his oath of office, and it is why I am calling for his impeachment. Michigan families deserve leadership rooted in facts, science, and accountability.”
Here’s what Michiganders are reading about RFK Jr.’s year of chaos running America’s public health agencies:
RFK Jr.’s War on Vaccines
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RFK Jr. only got confirmed on the strength of promises to Sen. Bill Cassidy that he would protect vaccine access, respect the agency’s expert-driven process, and keep the CDC’s science‑based autism messaging intact. One year in, he has broken every promise, firing vaccine advisory committee members, slashing the childhood schedule, and forcing the CDC to walk back the core statement that “vaccines do not cause autism.”
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The CDC’s latest data show kindergarten vaccination rates fell again during the 2024–25 school year, with coverage for measles, mumps, rubella, and other shots declining in more than half of states compared with the previous year. Exemptions from one or more vaccines hit a record 3.6 percent of U.S. kindergartners — up from 3.3 percent the year before — and at least 17 states are now above 5 percent. Only about 28 percent of counties still have 95 percent measles coverage in kindergarten, the level pediatricians say is needed to protect classrooms, and those numbers are sliding faster under Trump and Kennedy than they were before they took office.
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In August 2025, Kennedy cancelled nearly $500 million out of 22 mRNA vaccine projects, axing government support for candidates fighting COVID‑19, the seasonal flu, and H5N1.
HHS Under RFK: Chaos By Design
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Within 24 hours of RFK Jr. being sworn in as HHS Secretary, the Trump administration targeted roughly 5,000 federal health workers for layoffs, including dozens at NIH’s Vaccine Research Center, sending an immediate signal that core scientific programs were in the crosshairs.
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In March, Kennedy announced that HHS would restructure and cut 10,000 more full-time employees across health agencies. This came on top of 10,000 employees who left voluntarily, shrinking the workforce from about 82,000 full-time employees to 62,000. But this wasn’t enough — during the October government shutdown, the administration moved to permanently terminate another 1,100 to 1,200 HHS staffers, more than any other department except Treasury.
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As of December, NIH was racing to fill almost half of its most important roles, with 13 vacant directorships out of 27 institutes and centers. Public health leaders warn that the combination of mass layoffs and ad‑hoc reinstatements at HHS is reckless and will make it harder to protect Americans by disrupting outbreak surveillance, program continuity, and essential services.
Gutting Science and Innovation
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Dozens of NIH‑funded clinical trials — 383 out of 11,008 total — were interrupted by funding cuts in 2025. Those disrupted trials span cancer, infectious diseases, cardiovascular disease, mental health, and reproductive health, and together involve at least 74,311 patients already enrolled in “active, not recruiting” studies who signed up on the expectation that their care and follow‑up would be completed.
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Former NIH Director Francis Collins has warned that abruptly cancelling multi-year Alzheimer’s or cancer trials puts “people’s lives at risk” and called the research cuts “careless” and “heartless.” Beyond the risk to people’s lives, cancelling clinical trials is a devastating loss to local economies since each dollar NIH awarded in 2024 was estimated to return $2.46 to the economy within a year — a 146 percent return on investment.
Public Health Threats: Inept Response and Surging Infections
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There were more than 2,200 confirmed measles cases in the United States in 2025 — the most in over 30 years. There were at least three measles deaths in the U.S. last year and 11 percent of those infected required hospitalization for treatment. Around 93 percent of cases were in people who were unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown.
Make America Unhealthy Again: Conspiracy Theories And Bogus Cures
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At a White House event in September 2025, Trump and Kennedy announced that FDA would revise acetaminophen labels to warn that Tylenol use in pregnancy “may be linked to a significantly heightened risk of autism,” and told expectant mothers to avoid the drug unless they “absolutely” could not “tough it out,” despite FDA’s own statement that some studies show an association but “a causal relationship has not been established.”
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RFK Jr. has spent his first year in office trying to turn his long‑running fringe crusade against fluoride into national policy, repeatedly calling fluoride “industrial waste,” and a “hazardous neurotoxin” that “makes people stupid” and blaming its addition to drinking water, without definitive evidence, on lower IQ scores, thyroid problems, and other chronic conditions.
To read the full report visit: https://www.protectourcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/REPORT-RFK-Jr-Public-Health-Enemy-Number-One.pdf
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