RFK, Jr. turns his attention to another vital health advisory group

After reshuffling a key government vaccine advisory committee to include vaccination skeptics, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr. is reportedly preparing to appoint new members to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), an independent group that guides recommendations for preventive services such as cancer screening and helps determine insurance coverage.

Kennedy pledged to remake the group to a Appearance at the Capitol in April, telling a Senate committee that the panel was “reckless and negligent.” Kennedy said his department has already started receiving applications for new members and will look to add doctors from specialties that he said have been underrepresented in the past, such as oncologists and anesthesiologists.

The USPSTF typically meets three times a year, but has been on hiatus since March 2025. Kennedy fired USPSTF leaders, Tufts Medical Center physician John Wong and University of Maryland professor Esa Davis, in May of this year. The Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement to Scientific American that the group’s next meeting, scheduled for July, would take place in August “to allow more time for the selection and integration of new members of the working group.”

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Kennedy skepticism of accepted medical practicessuch as vaccinations, and the promotion of unproven substances such as peptideshas raised concerns among some experts about his efforts to reform the USPMTF.

Adam Carroll, president and CEO of AcademyHealth, a health policy nonprofit, said: Policy that it is possible that Kennedy appointees could promote policies that are “no longer evidence-based or scientific.” Kennedy said the USPSTF could require insurance companies to cover more preventive health checks at no extra cost to consumers, but those checks could be “things that might not be evidence-based or could potentially cause more harm than good,” Carroll said.

When asked for comment, the American Medical Association (AMA) cited Scientific American to two previous statements. In the first, published in July 2025, the AMA expressed “deep concern” over reports that Kennedy planned to replace all members of the USPSTF, saying it played a “critical, nonpartisan role” in guiding doctors’ efforts to prevent disease.

In the other statement, released after Wong and Davis’ firings, the AMA urged Kennedy to “restore the USPSTF’s long-standing and transparent process for selecting members, particularly clinicians with expertise in the areas of preventative medicine and primary care.”

“We also implore HHS to commit to once again holding regular task force meetings to ensure its important work can continue without further delay. Our patients’ lives depend on it.”

Editor’s Note (07/08): This is a developing story and may be updated.