RFK Jr. to gut vaccine promotion and HIV prevention office, sources say
Much of the federal government's efforts to buoy lagging childhood vaccination rates have been run through the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy.
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RFK Jr. to gut vaccine promotion and HIV prevention office, sources say
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March 28, 2025 / 5:25 PM EDT / CBS News
The entire staff of the federal government's Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy is expected to be laid off, multiple federal health officials told CBS News Friday. The moves are part of a broader restructuring plan ordered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that involves cutting 20,000 HHS positions.
Much of the government's efforts to buoy lagging childhood vaccination rates nationwide have been run through OIDP, including a new campaign called "Let's Get Real" that had launched in the final months of the Biden administration to provide resources and information to health care providers talking to hesitant parents.
"Spreading the truth saves lives, so use our resources to help parents understand how vaccines work, why they're safe, and how they help protect kids," the department had said of the campaign after it was launched.
The Office of Minority Health has also been informed that it should expect to be dissolved, sources said.
However, multiple officials said that written notices of layoffs had not yet been received by HHS employees.
Senior federal health officials initially said Friday they were expecting that official notices of the cuts would be issued in the afternoon, but acknowledged that the timing of the letters could slide into the weekend, similar to the cuts to HHS probationary workers sought by the Trump administration earlier this year.
OIDP, overseen by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health or OASH, had numbered around 60 employees at the end of the Biden administration. The cuts come as the Trump administration is trying to merge the other offices in OASH into a new HHS agency called the Administration for a Health America, or AHA.
HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the potential layoffs.
The National Vaccine Program has also been run by OIDP, which works with an advisory committee to coordinate the department's agencies to develop vaccines, oversee their safety and increase their availability and use.
Other initiatives overseen by OIDP include the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. program, which was launched by President Trump during his first term. It is unclear what will happen to those initiatives, which Congress had approved funding for.
OIDP had previously been among several overseen by former Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine under the Biden administration.
It is unclear whether other HHS agencies that had been overseen by Levine, like the office tasked with updating the federal dietary guidelines, will also be cut. That office had been the target of criticism under Kennedy's Make America Health Again agenda.
The new AHA agency would also absorb the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and Health Resources and Services Administration, according to a fact sheet published by the department.
Who would lead the AHA in the long term is unclear. For now, officials have been told to expect HRSA's administrator Thomas Engels to head AHA.
Kennedy's aides have told senior health officials that they are targeting a quick turnaround to launch the AHA, with some implementation goals to be hit within the next 10 days.
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Wild West out here
