The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) upcoming Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meeting on March 13 was abruptly canceled via email on Wednesday. The committee was to consider the selection of strains to be included in the influenza virus vaccines for the 2025–2026 flu season.

The move comes during a time of major upheaval across federal health agencies, and as the public waits to see how Kennedy will enact his pledge of “radical transparency” at the department.

The Department of Health and Human Services is reversing a decades-old policy of soliciting public comment before it issues regulations affecting government benefits and grants, including NIH funding.

Kennedy Jr. ended a longstanding transparency rule on Friday, supercharging his authority to change policies in areas ranging from Medicaid to the National Institutes of Health without advance notice to the public.

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is seeking to eliminate public participation in many of his department's policy decisions, a move that appears to contradict his pledge to Congress of "radical transparency.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Friday released a policy prohibiting public comments during his department’s rulemaking process, ending more than 50 years of the public’s involvement in crafting his department’s rules.