Lizzy Lawrence , 2025-05-14 17:14:00
SAN FRANCISCO — Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf said health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s hesitance to endorse vaccines is harming the American public.
“Fundamental vaccination saves millions of lives every year already, and he’s busy eroding public confidence in it,” Califf said at STAT’s Breakthrough Summit West conference on Wednesday. “I think he’s flat out wrong and doing harm to the American people.”
Califf, who served as FDA commissioner under both the Obama and Biden administrations, shared his thoughts on Kennedy as the secretary took the stand at a congressional budget hearing. At that hearing, Kennedy said his opinions about vaccines are “irrelevant” and that it’s not his job to give medical advice. Kennedy’s messaging on vaccines during the ongoing deadly measles outbreak has been mixed, as he’s downplayed the threat of the disease and pointed to unproven treatments.
“His opinions are not irrelevant,” Califf said. “He is the leader of Health and Human Services in the United States of America. That’s the most powerful position in the world for health advocacy.”
Several public health experts expressed similar criticism on Wednesday, including the former surgeons generals under George W. Bush and Trump in his first term. Richard Carmona and Jerome Adams said at a Harvard public health webinar that Kennedy should at least tell people to get vaccinated, and defer to medical experts for specifics.
“We have a secretary who comes with significant biases that creates uncertainty in the American public,” Carmona said.
And at a briefing by public health officials arranged in response to Kennedy’s testimony, Marissa Levine, former director of the Virginia Department of Health and professor at the University of South Florida, said, “I just wonder what it would be like if the transportation secretary refused to answer the question about whether he would fly, given all of the issues that have happened recently.”
Kennedy was also testifying in front of the Senate health committee on Wednesday.
Despite harshly rebuking Kennedy on vaccines, Califf said he approves of the secretary’s focus on tackling chronic disease. But he raised doubts as to how effective Kennedy could be, noting his broad firing of 20,000 employees across HHS in April and Elon Musk’s firing of probationary employees in February. People across HHS told STAT that the layoffs and other changes have broken or slowed down critical functions.
The chaos is also prompting senior leaders across FDA and other health agencies to leave, including top nutrition scientist Kevin Hall — who left after federal officials censored his work on ultraprocessed foods.
“I don’t know how the policies are going to be enacted in the right way without the people to actually do the work that it takes to get it right,” Califf said.
Califf also expressed concern over reports that political appointees halted the full approval of Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine, saying that FDA scientists should be shielded from any political involvement.
“It’s not a good thing for political appointees to be making decisions about individual products,” Califf said. “Once you open that up, it sets a precedent that opens the door to political favoritism and lobbying and a whole bunch of other issues.”
One area Califf seemed optimistic about was FDA Commissioner Marty Makary’s push to incorporate generative AI into the product review process. The FDA announced it would launch the technology agency-wide by June 30 in order to free reviewers from “tedious, repetitive tasks.” The announcement did not explain exactly how the AI model will actually be used. Califf said it could be used to identify flaws in regulatory submissions.
“Finding cheating is going to be a lot easier with AI, and I think people should be aware of that if they’re thinking about cutting corners in what they submit to FDA,” Califf said.
Isabella Cueto and Helen Branswell contributed reporting.
