RFK Jr. releases new dietary guidelines
Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced new dietary guidelines and said his message was clear: “Eat real food.”
More than six months after his controversial firing and hiring of the federal vaccine commission, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has expanded the commission and added two more members, one of whom describes himself as an “anti-vaxxer.”
Kimberly Biss and Adam Urato, obstetricians and gynecologists who have been outspoken critics of COVID-19 vaccinations during pregnancy, have been appointed to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), HHS announced on January 13.
For more than 60 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has historically relied on this panel, an independent panel of experts, to establish vaccine recommendations. Back in June 2025, President Kennedy fired all 17 current members of the commission just days later, before the secretary began appointing new members, including some vaccine skeptics.
As first reported by The Washington Post, two of the new members have previously spoken out against mainstream medical guidance in various podcast and conference appearances, with one calling himself an “anti-vaxxer.”
“ACIP will serve as the American public’s watchdog for vaccine safety and transparency,” Kennedy Jr. said in a news release announcing his appointment. “Dr. Urato and Dr. Biss bring the scientific qualifications, clinical experience, and integrity that this committee needs.”
The appointment comes as Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic himself, has called for changes to the country’s federal vaccination guidelines. Earlier this year, HHS revised its childhood immunization schedule and recommended four fewer vaccines.
“The lives of America’s children are now at risk,” Michele Slavkoski, executive director of Families Fighting Influenza, said in a statement to USA TODAY of the HHS revisions.
Here’s what you need to know about Kennedy’s two new appointments.
Who is Kimberly Biss?
Biss is a St. Petersburg, Fla.-based physician who has held leadership positions at hospitals across the state, HHS said. Her experience also includes clinical education roles, the federal agency added.
“Before COVID-19, I wasn’t an anti-vaxxer, but I went down that rabbit hole and now I’m an anti-vaxxer. I hope I meet Robert F. Kennedy Jr. one day,” Biss said in a December 2022 podcast interview.
She reiterated these comments during a livestreamed panel discussion in May 2023, saying, “I was never anti-vaccine. I’m anti-vaccine now.”
Who is Adam Urato?
Dr. Urato is an obstetrician-gynecologist specializing in maternal-fetal medicine who trained at Harvard University and practiced in Massachusetts, according to an HHS news release.
Urato questions the need for vaccination during pregnancy and whether Americans are being overvaccinated overall. Once, during a podcast interview in December 2023, he brought up an imaginary scenario about a prenatal clinic outside a chemical manufacturing plant.
“So the drug, whether it’s a vaccine or a product or whatever it is, has just come out of a chemical manufacturing facility,” Urato said on the podcast. “These are synthetic chemicals that are brought to prenatal clinics and injected into pregnant women.”
Contributor: Sara Moniuszko, USA TODAY. Reuters
Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Contact us at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow us at X @fern_cerv_.
