RFK Jr. tells anti-vaccine activists they have a friend in Trump’s White House

September 18, 2026 / 4:28 PM EDT / AP

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave the keynote address Thursday at a conference of an anti-vaccine activist group he once chaired, telling the hundreds in attendance that they had a friend in President Donald Trump's White House.

It was Kennedy's first time appearing at the Children's Health Defense conference since he became secretary. Kennedy took leave from the group when he launched his bid to become president in 2023, but his speech Thursday served as a sort of homecoming, offering him a platform from which to hail the administration's steps to scale back vaccine guidance and reassure the activists in attendance that he was working to turn their priorities into policy.

"Let me be clear: You have a strong and steadfast friend in the White House. We've accomplished in 19 months things that would have seemed unthinkable two years ago," he said.

The speech, peppered with questions about long-established vaccine safety, also highlighted how once fringe views on vaccines have been given a prominent pulpit under the Trump administration.

Kennedy boasted about the administration's moves to downsize the childhood vaccination schedule and reshape a key vaccine advisory…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/moneywatch/