Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in his first address to employees of the Department of Health and Human Services, said a new presidential commission would scrutinize childhood vaccine schedules, psychiatric medications and other frequent targets of his suspicion as part of his efforts to fight chronic disease.
“Nothing is going to be off limits,” Mr. Kennedy said.
Mr. Kennedy’s 22-minute address was not public; The New York Times watched via video link.
Mr. Kennedy used the address to also extend an olive branch, urging his new colleagues to set aside the partisanship and vitriol that surrounded his nomination. He promised to keep an open mind, continue asking “difficult questions” and listen to “all the stakeholders” — especially those with whom he has disagreed.
“Let’s all depoliticize these issues and reestablish a common ground for action, and renew the search for existential truth with no political impediments and no preconceptions,” he said, adding, “I promise to be willing to be wrong.”
In a signal of how he plans to use his new authority, Mr. Kennedy also made clear that he would prod the department, and the “Make America Healthy Again” commission established by President Trump that he will lead, to prioritize topics he cares about but that he said were “formerly taboo or insufficiently scrutinized” by mainstream scientists.
Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who is among Mr. Kennedy’s most vocal critics, said the remarks suggested that Mr. Kennedy did, in fact, have preconceived notions.
Dr. Offit also noted that there was a range of explanations for chronic disease that Mr. Kennedy did not mention: genetics; changes in the gut microbiome, the microbes that populate the intestinal tract; the use of certain drugs; and the fact that Americans are living longer and thus facing chronic ailments that come with age.
“He’s saying that all the scientists before him who have weighed in on the validity of these causes have all been in the pocket of somebody — but not him, he’s going to look behind the curtain, he’s going to tell us what the real truth is,” Dr. Offit said.
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services declined to comment.
Mr. Kennedy’s address came after a weekend of mass firings at his department, which includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and other agencies Mr. Kennedy has attacked as corrupt.
He did not mention the job cuts, which are part of a broader effort to reduce the size of the federal government, and have disproportionately affected young employees, some of them in prestigious fellowship programs for laboratory science and public health.
Mr. Kennedy’s arrival in Washington has generated intense trepidation among many of the scientists and public health officials whose work he will oversee; he has spent 20 years tearing their agencies down, which he now says he wants to build up. In his remarks, he said “radical transparency” was the path to restoring trust.
“Both science and democracy flourish from the free and unimpeded flow of information,” Mr. Kennedy said.
But Mr. Kennedy’s goals for transparency may collide with those of the pharmaceutical industry and academic institutions, which take money from the federal government but keep their work secret for competitive reasons. The F.D.A., for example, has strict rules governing the sharing of “non-public information.”
Reiterating a promise he made as a presidential candidate and in more recent months as a supporter of Mr. Trump, Mr. Kennedy said he would overhaul the expert committees that advise scientific agencies. The members of those committees often partner with industry; they are currently required to declare those collaborations and recuse themselves from voting on issues in which they have a financial stake, which Mr. Kennedy suggested might change.
“We’ll remove conflicts of interest on the committees and research partners whenever possible, or balance them with other stakeholders,” Mr. Kennedy said.
In his remarks, Mr. Kennedy, a one-time Democrat who turned against his prominent family’s party to partner with Mr. Trump, offered some historical sweep and also showed his spiritual side, offering his employees a glimpse of the man his supporters saw on the presidential campaign trail.
He spoke of how many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were “citizen-scientists,” including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. He invoked his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, who challenged the nation to become more fit.
“Our overall wellness must begin with a spiritual question: How do we relate to ourselves, to each other, to the community, to our communities and to the planet?” he said, adding, “Inside of us, we know that love and self-knowledge are the only true paths to good health.”
