Gov. Maura Healey didn’t mince words this week when asked about the latest moves by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been working to reshape the nation’s vaccine policies under the Trump administration.
At a press conference in Boston, Healey vowed not to let Kennedy—or President Donald Trump—“get between patients and their doctors.” She called the secretary “a world-class conspiracy theorist” and accused him of dragging the country down a “zany rabbit hole” of misinformation about vaccines.
“It’s a pretty sad statement that we can no longer trust the federal government on this, but sadly, that’s where we’re at,” Healey said.
Her comments came the same day Kennedy testified before the Senate Finance Committee, where he was grilled about his dismissal of CDC Director Susan Monarez, his decision to fill a vaccine advisory panel with skeptics, and the Trump administration’s new rules that restrict access to COVID-19 boosters for younger, healthy Americans.
Monarez, who was removed from her post less than a month after Kennedy appointed her, wrote in The Wall Street Journal that Kennedy had pressured her to rubber-stamp recommendations from a handpicked group of antivaccine panelists. “It is imperative that the panel’s recommendations aren’t rubber-stamped but instead are rigorously and scientifically reviewed,” she warned.
Kennedy denied making such demands, though he conceded that he ordered Monarez to fire veteran CDC scientists. His insistence that “anyone can get a COVID booster” was contradicted by his own admission that access now “depends on the state.”
That drew fire from Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who said Kennedy had broken his promise to keep vaccines widely available. “Everybody can get the vaccine,” Kennedy shot back. “You’re making things up to scare people and it’s a lie.”
For Healey, the exchange underscored just how far federal health policy has veered from science. “When you were little, you got your MMR shot, you got chickenpox, and we all understood that was about protecting public health,” she said. “Now we’ve got an administration that is undermining the very foundation of that.”
The governor stressed that Massachusetts would hold the line. “If you want a vaccine, we’re going to make sure you can get one here. Period,” she said. “I’m proud that Massachusetts companies helped develop and distribute COVID vaccines that saved lives around the world. That’s the ingenuity, the science, the innovation we stand for.”
For doctors and health experts watching from the sidelines, the stakes are clear. “It’s a true national tragedy,” said Dr. Tim Johnson, the longtime ABC News medical editor, in a local television interview. “I’m sad that this great country has come to this point on the most important public health measure in our lifetime, namely vaccines.”
Healey put it more bluntly. “We’re going to stay the course here in Massachusetts,” she said. “Because what’s happening in Washington isn’t about science. It’s about politics.”
