Chicago – Feburary 28, 2026
In a blistering editorial titled “Robert F. Kennedy Jr: 1 year of failure,” The Lancet, one of the world’s leading medical journals, has condemned U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s tenure on its February 28, 2026, cover.
The piece highlights Kennedy’s broken promises to restore public health trust through “honest engagement” and unbiased science. It criticizes mass dismissals of agency staff, guideline revisions defying decades of evidence, research funding cuts, weakened vaccine policies, and promotion of “junk science.”
“The destruction that Kennedy has wrought in 1 year might take generations to repair,” the editorial warns, urging Congress to hold him accountable.
Defenders like NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya countered on X: “Sec. Kennedy is fixing the mess they helped make.” Critics note The Lancet’s past retraction of Andrew Wakefield’s debunked vaccine-autism study. Dr. Amesh Adalja of Johns Hopkins called the outcomes predictable for an “anti-vaccine advocate” in charge.
This comes amid over 1,000 U.S. measles cases in 2026, risking elimination status loss.
