The US Department of Health and Human Services has reinstated the Task Force on Safer Childhood Vaccines, a panel that had been dormant since 1998, as part of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s review of the national immunisation schedule. The task force, created under the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, will draw staff from the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to recommend ways to reduce adverse reactions to paediatric shots. Public-health leaders swiftly criticised the move. In an opinion article published on 18 August, former CDC director William Foege warned that Kennedy’s rhetoric "can be as lethal as the smallpox virus" and said Americans "deserve better" stewardship. Other physicians accused the administration of undermining trust in routine vaccination and claimed, without providing evidence, that Medicare payments to more than 36,000 doctors had been manipulated to promote childhood vaccines. The vaccine panel’s revival comes amid a broader realignment of federal health policy. Earlier in the day, two biotechnology experts detailed fresh federal funding cuts to mRNA research, saying the decision could slow work on both respiratory and non-respiratory diseases and hurt US competitiveness. Separately, a Bloomberg report found that financial conflicts of interest among members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committees were at record lows in 2024, shortly before Kennedy removed its entire membership and pledged to "clean out corruption."