As health and human services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wields one of the louder megaphones the federal government has. Yet he insists he doesn\u2019t want to impose his opinions on Americans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think people should be taking medical advice from me,\u201d Kennedy told a<\/a> Democratic congressman in May.<\/p>\n Kennedy once expressed different views \u2014 for example, about the need to proselytize about exercise. As he said on a podcast<\/a>, he wants to use the \u201cbully pulpit\u201d to \u201cobliterate the delicacy\u201d with which Americans discuss fitness and explain that \u201csuffering\u201d is virtuous.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to establish an ethic that you\u2019re not a good parent unless your kids are doing some kind of physical activity,\u201d Kennedy told the podcaster in September 2024.<\/p>\n The Department of Health and Human Services is tasked with communicating information to protect and improve the health and well-being of every American. It provides reminders about vaccinations and screenings; alerts about which food is unsafe; and useful, everyday tips about subjects such as sunscreen and, yes, exercise.<\/p>\n Under Kennedy\u2019s watch, though, HHS has compromised once-fruitful campaigns promoting immunizations and other preventive health measures. On Instagram, the agency often emphasizes Kennedy\u2019s personal causes, his pet projects, or even the secretary himself. Former agency employees say communications have a more political edge, with \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d frequently featured in press releases.<\/p>\n Interviews with over 20 former and current agency employees provide a look inside a health department where personality and politics steer what is said to the public. KFF Health News granted many of these people anonymity because they fear retribution.<\/p>\n One sign of change is what is no longer, or soon will not be, amplified \u2014 for instance, acclaimed anti-smoking campaigns making a dent in one of Kennedy\u2019s priorities, chronic disease.<\/p>\n Another sign is what gets celebrated. On the official HHS Instagram account this year, out were posts saluting Juneteenth and Father\u2019s Day. In, under Kennedy, were posts marking President Donald Trump\u2019s birthday<\/a> and Hulk Hogan\u2019s death<\/a>.<\/p>\n Commenting on such changes, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in an email that \u201cDEI is gone, thanks to the Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n Some elected officials are pointedly not promoting Kennedy as a source of health care information. Regarding the secretary\u2019s announcement citing unproven links between Tylenol and autism, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told MSNBC that, \u201cif I were a woman, I\u2019d be talking to my doctor and not taking, you know, advice from RFK or any other government bureaucrat, for that matter.\u201d (Thune\u2019s office did not respond to a request for comment.)<\/p>\n At least<\/a> four<\/a> polls<\/a> since January show trust in Kennedy as a medical adviser is low. In one poll<\/a>, from The Economist and YouGov, barely over a quarter of respondents said they trusted Kennedy \u201ca lot\u201d or \u201csomewhat.\u201d<\/p>\n The department\u2019s online messaging looks \u201ca lot more like propaganda than it does public health,\u201d said Kevin Griffis, who worked in communications at the CDC under President Joe Biden and left the agency in March<\/a>.<\/p>\n Transition to a New Administration<\/strong><\/p>\n The new administration inaugurated dramatic changes. Upon arrival, political appointees froze the health agency\u2019s outside communications on a broader scale than in previous changeovers, halting everything from routine webpage updates to meetings with grant recipients. The pause created logistical snafus: For example, one CDC employee described being forced to cancel, and later rebook, advertising campaigns \u2014 at greater cost to taxpayers.<\/p>\n Even before the gag order was lifted in the spring, the tone and direction of HHS\u2019 public communications had shifted.<\/p>\n According to data shared by iSpot.tv, a market research firm that tracks television advertising, at least four HHS ads about vaccines ended within two weeks of Trump\u2019s inauguration.<\/p>\n \u201cFlu campaigns were halted,\u201d during a season in which a record number of children<\/a> died from influenza, Deb Houry, who had resigned as the CDC\u2019s chief medical officer, said in a Sept. 17 congressional hearing.<\/p>\n Instead of urging people to get vaccinated, HHS officials contemplated more-ambivalent messaging, said Griffis, then the CDC\u2019s director of communications. According to Griffis, other former agency employees, and communications reviewed by KFF Health News, Nixon contemplated a campaign that would put more emphasis on vaccine risks. It would \u201cbe promoting, quote-unquote, \u2018informed choice,\u2019\u201d Griffis said.<\/p>\n Nixon called the claim \u201ccategorically false.\u201d Still, the department continues to push anti-vaccine messaging. In November, the CDC updated a webpage<\/a> to assert the false claim<\/a> that vaccines may cause autism.<\/p>\n Messaging related to tobacco control has been pulled back, according to Brian King, an executive at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, as well as multiple current and former CDC employees. Layoffs, administrative leaves, and funding turmoil have drained offices at the CDC and the FDA focused on educating people about the risks of smoking and vaping, King said.<\/p>\n Four current and former CDC employees told KFF Health News that \u201cTips From Former Smokers,\u201d a campaign credited with helping approximately a million people quit smoking, is in danger. Ordinarily, a contract for the next year\u2019s campaign would have been signed by now. But, as of Nov. 21, there was no contractor, the current and former employees said.<\/p>\n Nixon did not respond to a question from KFF Health News regarding plans for the program.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re currently in an apocalypse for national tobacco education campaigns in this country,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n Kennedy\u2019s HHS has a different focus for its education campaigns, including the \u201cTake Back Your Health\u201d campaign, for which the department solicited contractors<\/a> this year to produce \u201cviral\u201d and \u201cedgy\u201d content to urge Americans to exercise.<\/p>\n An earlier version of the campaign\u2019s solicitation asked for partners to boost wearables, such as gadgets that track steps or glucose levels \u2014 reflecting a Kennedy push<\/a> for every American to be wearing such a device within four years.<\/p>\n The source of funds for the exercise campaign? In the spring, leadership of multiple agencies discussed using funding for the CDC\u2019s Tips From Former Smokers campaign, employees from those agencies said. By the fall, the smoking program hadn\u2019t spent all its funds, the current and former CDC employees said.<\/p>\n Nixon did not respond to questions about the source of funding for the exercise campaign.<\/p>\n Food Fight<\/strong><\/p>\n At the FDA, former employees said they noticed new types of political interference as Trump officials took the reins, sometimes making subtle tweaks to public communications, sometimes changing wholesale what messages went out. The interventions into messaging \u2014 what was said, but also what went unsaid \u2014 proved problematic, they said.<\/p>\n Early this year, multiple employees told KFF Health News, Nixon gave agency employees a quick deadline to gather a list of all policy initiatives underway on infant formula. That was then branded \u201cOperation Stork Speed<\/a>,\u201d as if it were a new push by a new administration.<\/p>\n Marianna Naum, a former acting director of external communications and consumer education at the FDA, said she supports parts of the Trump administration\u2019s agenda. But she said she disagreed with how it handled Operation Stork Speed. \u201cIt felt like they were trying to put out information so they can say: \u2018Look at the great work. Look how fast we did it,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Nixon called the account \u201cfalse\u201d without elaborating. KFF Health News spoke with three other employees with the same recollections of the origins of Operation Stork Speed.<\/p>\n \u201cThings that didn\u2019t fit within their agenda, they were downplayed,\u201d Naum said.<\/p>\n For example, she said, Trump political appointees resisted a proposed press release noting agency approval of cell-cultured pork \u2014 that is, pork grown in a lab. Similar products have raised the ire of ranchers and farmers working in typically GOP-friendly industries. States such as Florida have banned lab-grown meat<\/a>.<\/p>\n The agency ultimately issued the press release<\/a>. But a review of the agency\u2019s archives showed it hasn\u2019t put out press releases about two later approvals of cell-cultured meat.<\/p>\n Wide-ranging layoffs have also hit the FDA\u2019s food office hard, leaving fewer people to make sure news gets distributed properly and promptly. Former employees say notices about recalled foods aren\u2019t circulated as widely as they used to be, meaning fewer eyeballs on alerts about contaminated ice cream<\/a>, peaches<\/a>, and the like.<\/p>\n Nixon did not respond to questions about changes in food recalls. Overall, Nixon answered nine of 53 questions posed by KFF Health News.<\/p>\n Pushing Politics<\/strong><\/p>\n Televised HHS public service campaigns earned nearly 7.3 billion fewer impressions in the first half of 2025 versus the same period in 2022, according to iSpot data, with the drop being concentrated in pro-vaccine messaging. Other types of ads, such as those covering substance use and mental health, also fell. Data from the marketing intelligence firm Sensor Tower shows similar drops in HHS ad spending online.<\/p>\n With many of the longtime professionals laid off and new political appointees in place atop the hierarchy, a new communications strategy \u2014 bearing the hallmarks of Kennedy\u2019s personality \u2014 is being built, said the current and former HHS employees, plus public health officials interviewed by KFF Health News.<\/p>\n Whereas in 2024, the agency would mostly post public health resources such as the 988 suicide hotline on its Instagram page, its feed in 2025 features more of the health secretary himself. Through the end of August, according to a KFF Health News review, 77 of its 101 posts featured Kennedy \u2014 often fishing, biking, or doing pullups, as well as pitching his policies.<\/p>\n By contrast, only 146 of the agency\u2019s 754 posts last year, or about 20%, featured Xavier Becerra, Kennedy\u2019s predecessor.<\/p>\n In 2024, on Instagram, the agency promoted Medicare and individual insurance open enrollment; in 2025, the agency has not.<\/p>\n In 2024, the agency\u2019s Instagram feed included some politicking as Biden ran for reelection, but the posts were less frequent and often indirect \u2014 for instance, touting a policy enacted under Biden\u2019s signature legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, but without mentioning the name of the bill or its connection to the president.<\/p>\n In 2025, sloganeering is a frequent feature of the agency\u2019s Kennedy-era Instagram. Through the end of August, \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d or variants of the catchphrase featured in at least 48% of posts.<\/p>\n Amid the layoffs, the agency made a notable addition to its team. It hired a state legislative spokesperson as a \u201crapid response\u201d coordinator, a role that employees from previous administrations couldn\u2019t recall previously existing at HHS.<\/p>\n \u201cLike other Trump administration agencies, HHS is continuously rebutting fake news for the benefit of the public,\u201d Nixon said when asked about the role.<\/p>\n On the day Houry and Susan Monarez, the CDC leader ousted in late August, testified before senators about Kennedy\u2019s leadership, the agency\u2019s X feed posted clips belittling the former officials. The department also derisively rebuts unfavorable news coverage.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very interesting to watch the memeification of the United States and critical global health infrastructure,\u201d said McKenzie Wilson, an HHS spokesperson under Biden. \u201cThe entire purpose of this agency is to inform the public about safety, emergencies as they happen.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Clear, Powerful Messages From Bobby\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Kennedy\u2019s Make Our Children Healthy Again report<\/a>, released in September, proposes public awareness campaigns on subjects such as illegal vaping and fluoride levels in water, while reassuring Americans that the regulatory system for pesticides is \u201crobust.\u201d<\/p>\n Those priorities reflect \u2014 and are amplified by \u2014 cadres of activists outside government. Since the summer, HHS officials have appeared on Zoom calls with aligned advocacy groups, trying to drum up support for Kennedy\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n On one call<\/a> \u2014 on which, according to host Tony Lyons, activists \u201crepresenting over 250 million followers on social media\u201d were registered \u2014 famous names such as motivational speaker Tony Robbins gave pep talks about how to influence elected officials and the public.<\/p>\n \u201cEach week, you\u2019re gonna get clear, powerful messages from Bobby, from HHS, from their team,\u201d Robbins said. \u201cAnd your mission is to amplify it, to make it your own, to speak from your soul, to be bold, to be relentless, to be loving, to be loud, you know, because this is how we make the change.\u201d<\/p>\n The communications strategy captivates the public, but it also confuses it.<\/p>\n Anne Zink, formerly the chief medical officer for Alaska, said she thought Kennedy\u2019s messaging was some of the catchiest of any HHS director.<\/p>\n But, she said, in her work as an emergency physician, she\u2019s seen the consequences of his health department\u2019s policies on her puzzled patients. Patients question vaccines. Children show up with gastrointestinal symptoms Zink says she suspects are related to raw milk consumption.<\/p>\n \u201cI increasingly see people say, \u2018I just don\u2019t know what to trust, because I just hear all sorts of things out there,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\nUSE OUR CONTENT<\/h3>\n