RFK Jr. to Gut Vaccine Promotion and HIV Prevention Office, Sources Say
CBS News ^ | March 28, 2025 | Alexander Tin
Posted on 03/28/2025 2:49:01 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The entire staff of the federal government's Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy is expected to be laid off, multiple federal health officials told CBS News Friday. The moves are part of a broader restructuring plan ordered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that involves cutting 20,000 HHS positions.
Much of the government's efforts to buoy lagging childhood vaccination rates nationwide have been run through OIDP, including a new campaign called "Let's Get Real" that had launched in the final months of the Biden administration to provide resources and information to health care providers talking to hesitant parents.
"Spreading the truth saves lives, so use our resources to help parents understand how vaccines work, why they're safe, and how they help protect kids," the department had said of the campaign after it was launched.
The Office of Minority Health has also been informed that it should expect to be dissolved, sources said.
However, multiple officials said that written notices of layoffs had not yet been received by HHS employees.
Senior federal health officials initially said Friday they were expecting that official notices of the cuts would be issued in the afternoon, but acknowledged that the timing of the letters could slide into the weekend, similar to the cuts to HHS probationary workers sought by the Trump administration earlier this year.
OIDP, overseen by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health or OASH, had numbered around 60 employees at the end of the Biden administration. The cuts come as the Trump administration is trying to merge the other offices in OASH into a new HHS agency called the Administration for a Health America, or AHA.
HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the potential layoffs.
The National Vaccine Program has also been run by OIDP, which works with an advisory committee to coordinate the department's agencies to develop vaccines, oversee their safety and increase their availability and use.
Other initiatives overseen by OIDP include the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. program, which was launched by President Trump during his first term. It is unclear what will happen to those initiatives, which Congress had approved funding for.
OIDP had previously been among several overseen by former Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine under the Biden administration.
It is unclear whether other HHS agencies that had been overseen by Levine, like the office tasked with updating the federal dietary guidelines, will also be cut. That office had been the target of criticism under Kennedy's Make America Health Again agenda.
The new AHA agency would also absorb the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and Health Resources and Services Administration, according to a fact sheet published by the department.
Who would lead the AHA in the long term is unclear. For now, officials have been told to expect HRSA's administrator Thomas Engels to head AHA.
Kennedy's aides have told senior health officials that they are targeting a quick turnaround to launch the AHA, with some implementation goals to be hit within the next 10 days.
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: hiv; rfk; vaccine
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1 posted on 03/28/2025 2:49:01 PM PDT by nickcarraway
To: nickcarraway
Ah... relief! I was needing my “gut/gutted” fix.
2 posted on 03/28/2025 2:50:53 PM PDT by Magic Fingers (Political correctness mutates in order to remain virulent.)
To: nickcarraway
It is very, very easy to prevent HIV:
Stop treating the large intestine as if it is a sexual organ.
3 posted on 03/28/2025 2:51:50 PM PDT by Ciaphas Cain
To: nickcarraway
We need people in the government to tell use to get a vaccine?
“Oh I stepped on a rusty nail, let’s see what the government says I should do!” said nobody.
4 posted on 03/28/2025 2:52:58 PM PDT by packagingguy
To: nickcarraway
Parents are getting wary of the necessity of giving their children 72 vaccinations before the age of 18. The CDC recommends 5 shots for 1 month old infants and 6 for 2 month old infants, and they are often given all the shots at once. Why is it necessary to give a baby 6 doses at once. Sure, it’s inconvenient, but can they not be spread out over a 6 week period?
5 posted on 03/28/2025 2:54:43 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Time to dump out the Treasury drawer and throw out all the junk that is wasting our money.)
To: Magic Fingers; nickcarraway
NO.
NOT happy until childhood vaccine schedule gets cut back down — to the original schedule from the 1970–80s. And that pediatricians get penalized for refusing to follow parental request to delay or forego vaccine schedule. And that religious exemption rights be implemented NATIONWIDE.
I’m not against case by case by vaccine promotion though. Certain at risk groups should be made aware and reminded… ??♀️
To: Blood of Tyrants
Yes see my post above. ^ The schedule from decades prior was far more sensible. And all other shots should be optional of course.
As it stands pediatricians drop patients even for wanting to space out or delay certain shots. ?And certain states like CA ban religious exemptions.
To: nickcarraway
“Much of the government’s efforts to buoy lagging childhood vaccination rates nationwide”
My neighbor’s daughter was a practicing physician assistant before giving birth.
She told parents the results of infections and was able to get her young patients vaccinated.
To: Brian Griffin
There’s nothing wrong with vaccinating. There’s everything wrong with taking the rights away from parents from deciding when and how.
To: CondoleezzaProtege
There’s nothing wrong with vaccinating.
There is if it causes widespread SIDS, autism, allergies and other inexplicable illnesses.
To: Blood of Tyrants
Pray for Bobby Kennedy. He is an honorable man with whom I disagree on many issues. Unlike most of the lefties, he is a rational caring person.
11 posted on 03/28/2025 3:23:22 PM PDT by Machavelli (True God)
To: ROCKLOBSTER
Exactly.
If Big Pharma accepts full legal liability for all negative side effects then voluntary vaccines are fine.
Otherwise they are evil.
12 posted on 03/28/2025 3:26:28 PM PDT by cgbg (It was not us. It was them--all along.)
To: Machavelli
RFK Jr. is sending out a bunch of emails starting this weekend to thousands of federal employees abolishing their divisions and/or firing them.
None of these employees will be missed.
13 posted on 03/28/2025 3:28:33 PM PDT by cgbg (It was not us. It was them--all along.)
To: CondoleezzaProtege
Agreed - and perhaps even before 1970s. My old folks are and were super extra strong and lasted into their 90s just fine.
14 posted on 03/28/2025 3:43:47 PM PDT by GreatRoad ('In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act' )
To: nickcarraway
Uh, oh...
Here comes 45 straight months of front page, brand new, infectious diseases, that only the Democratic Party could have prevented.
15 posted on 03/28/2025 4:02:20 PM PDT by zeestephen (Trump Landslide? Kamala lost the election by 230,000 votes, in WI, MI, and PA.)
To: GreatRoad
perhaps even before 1970s. My old folks are and were super extra strong and lasted into their 90s just fine.
Great point!
To: Blood of Tyrants
Transplant patients cannot receive anything until vaccinated for Covid.
To: nickcarraway
Those TV ads in 2022 and beyond saying I care about my loved ones, that’s why I get protected against things that could hurt them I might carry, so I get my Covid shots and keep up to date.
Oh, brother.
18 posted on 03/28/2025 4:29:30 PM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
To: nickcarraway
HOW COME:
THE SHOTS I GOT AS A KID:
MUMPS/MEASLES/SMALLPOX/TETANUS & the POLIO SUGAR CUBE were ALL I NEEDED?
GOT a COUPLE OF TETANUS BOOSTERS-—BUT BEING RAISED ON FARM ===nails, etc.
NEVER EVEN GOT THE OLD FARTS FLU SHOTS
I SURE AS HELL DIDN’T GET COVID SHOTS.
19 posted on 03/28/2025 4:30:29 PM PDT by ridesthemiles (not giving up on TRUMP---EVER)
To: zeestephen
Does everyone else here see absurdly ignorant people wearing their masks outside?
Every supermarket and drug store and clothes store I’ve been in lately has a couple of them, minimum.
They feel so safe that the ugly little Covid monster molecules can’t squeeze into the mesh holes of the masks, despite being a tiny percentage of the size of the mesh holes.
20 posted on 03/28/2025 4:33:26 PM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
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