The Department of Health and Human Services has canceled seven federal grants that supported programs aimed at reducing sudden infant deaths, prenatal substance exposure, birth defects and adolescent mental health problems, after the grants’ recipient repeatedly criticized federal vaccine policy.
The grants had been awarded to the American Academy of Pediatrics, a professional association that has been a fierce critic of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The academy took issue with Mr. Kennedy’s efforts to fire the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for disagreements over vaccine policies and his decision to dismiss all 17 members of an influential advisory panel on immunization to overhaul the U.S. vaccination policy. Mr. Kennedy later installed members who shared his vaccine skepticism.
The seven programs whose grants were revoked received at least $3 million in fiscal 2025, which ended on Sept. 30, according to a database for federal grants. The academy received roughly $18 million from the Health Department in that period.
The news of the funding cuts was reported earlier by The Washington Post.
Mark Del Monte, the academy’s chief executive, said in a statement that the “sudden withdrawal of funds” from its child health initiatives would “directly impact and potentially harm infants, children, youth, and their families in communities across the United States.” He added that the American Academy of Pediatrics was considering “legal recourse” to stop the funding cuts.
The academy had publicly criticized Secretary Kennedy’s push to alter vaccine policies, including immunization recommendations and schedules.
Earlier this month, when Mr. Kennedy’s handpicked panel members voted to end a decades-old recommendation that all newborns be vaccinated against hepatitis B, the academy called the decision “irresponsible and purposefully misleading,” saying it would harm children. Hepatitis B can be transmitted from mothers to infants during childbirth and can cause chronic liver diseases like cirrhosis or cancer.
In July, the academy joined five other medical organizations in suing Mr. Kennedy and the Health Department after the C.D.C. stopped recommending Covid vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women.
The Department of Health and Human Services confirmed in an email statement that it had canceled grants to the academy, saying that the awards “no longer align with the department’s mission or priorities.” But it did not answer an inquiry from The New York Times on what specific research or use of funds the department had found problematic.
Instead, a department spokesman, Andrew G. Nixon, provided web links to a report on the department’s priorities that cited a White House report on its “Make America Healthy Again” agenda. The reports cite A.D.H.D. medication, fluoride in drinking water, vaccines, microplastics, ultraprocessed foods and physical inactivity as factors that have caused a deterioration in children’s health.
Minho Kim reports on breaking news for The Times from Washington.
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