Sanders releases trove of internal HHS emails showing RFK Jr. pressured CDC over vaccine messaging [View all]

Source: The Hill

06/25/26 7:55 PM ET


Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Thursday released a tranche of Health and Human Services (HHS) emails that appear to show HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pressuring the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) over its vaccine messaging. Emails indicate that Kennedy directed the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel to restrict access to vaccines, allowed researchers to access “confidential data” to indicate the disproven claim that vaccines cause autism and changed recommendations for the public to receive COVID-19 shots without input from the CDC.

Other emails also show that Kennedy’s then-chief of staff, Matthew Buckham, emailed former CDC Director Susan Monarez in August 2025 about the need for a “political review of major decisions at CDC … to ensure that [the Immediate Office of the Secretary] and the CDC political leadership all have eyes on the decisions for approval/changes before they go into effect.”

Less than a week later, Kennedy fired Monarez “for failing to rubber stamp recommendations from” the CDC’s vaccine panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, Sanders said in a statement.

Sanders, the ranking member on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), blasted Monarez’s firing as “outrageous,” accusing Kennedy of firing her “for her commitment to public health and vaccines.” Sanders requested a bipartisan investigation into her firing and called on Kennedy to resign.

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5941650-sanders-releases-hhs-emails/

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Link to Sen. Sanders PRESS RELEASE - NEWS: Sanders Releases Internal HHS Emails Demonstrating Secretary Kennedy’s Politicization of CDC, Interference with Vaccines

Link to emails Summary MEMO (PDF) - https://outreach.senate.gov/iqextranet/iqClickTrk.aspx?&cid=SenSanders&crop=0000.0000.0000.0000&report_id=&redirect=https%3a%2f%2fwww.help.senate.gov%2fimo%2fmedia%2fdoc%2fcdc-emails-memo623.pdf&redir_log=541808825095433

Link to EMAILS (PDF) - https://outreach.senate.gov/iqextranet/iqClickTrk.aspx?&cid=SenSanders&crop=0000.0000.0000.0000&report_id=&redirect=https%3a%2f%2fwww.help.senate.gov%2fimo%2fmedia%2fdoc%2fcdc_emails.pdf&redir_log=845482209526389

As a note - that file with a compilation of emails was the result of what is often derisively dubbed and dismissed as a "sternly worded letter" but in reality is a request for information, in this case, communications that happened during a specified time period, and answers to specific questions, with a deadline. The emails were what HHS submitted to Sen. Sanders that were deemed responsive to the request.