
RFK Jr. aides accused of censoring NIH's top ultra-processed food scientist
The National Institutes of Health's top researcher on ultra-processed foods announced Wednesday he was stepping down from the agency, accusing top aides to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of censorship.
"Unfortunately, recent events have made me question whether NIH continues to be a place where I can freely conduct unbiased science," the researcher, Dr. Kevin Hall, wrote
in a post
on social media Wednesday.
Hall told CBS News that top aides to Kennedy, including spokesperson Andrew Nixon, manipulated his responses to questions from a reporter for The New York Times asking about
recent research
on how ultra-processed foods can be addictive.
The study found that ultra-processed foods did not appear to be addictive in the same way as addictive drugs, which trigger outsized dopamine responses in the brain. That means overconsumption of ultra-processed foods might be happening for more complex reasons.
"It just suggests that they may not be addictive by the typical mechanism that many drugs are addictive. But even this bit of daylight between the preconceived narrative and our study was apparently too much," Hall said in a message.
HHS downplayed the study's results, Hall said, and edited his written answers without his consent. He also said he was blocked from being directly interviewed by the reporter.
"The truth is that it was the largest study of its kind and no previous study had the same level of dietary control, much less admitted them to a hospital to ensure diet adherence," Hall said.
In a statement, a spokesperson for HHS said it was "disappointing that this individual is fabricating false claims."
"NIH scientists have, and will, continue to conduct interviews regarding their research through written responses or other means. We remain committed to promoting gold-standard research and advancing public health priorities. Any attempt to paint this as censorship is a deliberate distortion of the facts," the spokesperson said.
In response to the department's statement, Hall asked: "I wonder how they define censorship?"
Hall said he had also been blocked from presenting his research on ultra-processed foods at a conference and given an ultimatum to either comply with edits demanded by officials on a manuscript he had worked on with outside scientists or remove himself as a co-author.
"I was hoping this was an aberration. So, weeks ago I wrote to my agency's leadership expressing my concerns and requested time to discuss these issues, but I never received a response," he said in his post.
Before this week, Hall had been considered as one of NIH's leading researchers on ultra-processed foods. He was among experts featured in
CBS Reports' investigation
on how ultra-processed foods have become so pervasive in the American diet.
"He led a seminal clinical trial demonstrating that ultra-processed foods led to calorie consumption," Susan Mayne, former head of the Food and Drug Administration's food safety and nutrition center, said in a message.
Mayne said that more recent work has focused on unpacking Hall's findings about how ultra-processed food leads to overconsumption.
"This work is critical to understand what it is mechanistically about UPF that may be driving obesity. Few places other than NIH have metabolic wards to even do such research," Mayne said.
Hall's early retirement marks the latest high-profile departure from the NIH, which has seen its ranks of top scientists gutted through oustings and
layoffs
under the Trump administration
since February
.
It also marks the latest divide between Kennedy and the federal scientists who have found themselves muzzled on his priorities.
Kennedy on Wednesday also touted recent autism research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that experts and advocacy groups
say mischaracterized
the agency's findings.
Unlike previous releases from the CDC's ongoing study on autism spectrum disorder, federal scientists have not been allowed to speak to the media about the latest round of results, CBS News
previously reported
.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Business Insider
6 hours ago
- Business Insider
RFK Jr. reconstituting vaccine advisory committee, retiring 17 current members
In an opinion article published by The Wall Street Journal, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated: 'Vaccines have become a divisive issue in American politics, but there is one thing all parties can agree on: The U.S. faces a crisis of public trust. Whether toward health agencies, pharmaceutical companies or vaccines themselves, public confidence is waning… That is why, under my direction, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is putting the restoration of public trust above any pro- or antivaccine agenda… Today, we are taking a bold step in restoring public trust by totally reconstituting the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP). We are retiring the 17 current members of the committee, some of whom were last-minute appointees of the Biden administration. Without removing the current members, the current Trump administration would not have been able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028… A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science.' Confident Investing Starts Here:
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
RFK Jr scraps vaccine committee members in effort to restore 'public trust'
The Department of Health and Human Services dismissed all the members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) on Monday. The committee's job was to decide and "make recommendations" related to the necessity and use of vaccines, according to an HHS news release. All the current members of the committee were brought in under the Biden administration, and 13 of them were put on the committee last year. HHS said it would take until 2028 for most of the members to be replaced if they served their full term. Rfk Jr's Hhs To End Routine Covid Vaccine Guidance For Children, Pregnant Women: Report Public debate about vaccines, especially whether government or workplaces should mandate them, escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Much of the criticism and skepticism fell on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which ACIP advises. "Today we are prioritizing the restoration of public trust above any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda," Secretary Robert F. Kennedy said in a statement on Monday. "The public must know that unbiased science—evaluated through a transparent process and insulated from conflicts of interest—guides the recommendations of our health agencies." Read On The Fox News App The HHS release noted that the next meeting for the committee will be June 25-27 in Atlanta, and the committee will have new people that are "currently under consideration." Cdc Eyes Narrower Covid-19 Vaccine Guidance Ahead Of 2025-2026 Season "A clean sweep is necessary to reestablish public confidence in vaccine science," Kennedy continued. "ACIP's new members will prioritize public health and evidence-based medicine. The Committee will no longer function as a rubber stamp for industry profit-taking agendas. The entire world once looked to American health regulators for guidance, inspiration, scientific impartiality, and unimpeachable integrity. Public trust has eroded. Only through radical transparency and gold standard science, will we earn it back." HHS cited an executive order from President Donald Trump saying that changes were needed in how the federal government plays a role in science and health. "Unfortunately, the Federal Government has contributed to this loss of trust. In several notable cases, executive departments and agencies (agencies) have used or promoted scientific information in a highly misleading manner," the order stated. Millions Spent By Biden On Covid 'Vaccine Hesitancy' Campaign Slashed By Trump Nih: Report "For example, under the prior Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued COVID-19 guidance on reopening schools that incorporated edits by the American Federation of Teachers and was understood to discourage in-person learning," the order, signed on May 23, continued. "This guidance's restrictive and burdensome reopening conditions led many schools to remain at least partially closed, resulting in substantial negative effects on educational outcomes — even though the best available scientific evidence showed that children were unlikely to transmit or suffer serious illness or death from the virus, and that opening schools with reasonable mitigation measures would have only minor effects on transmission," it added. Kennedy was confirmed by the Senate to lead the department in February after Trump nominated article source: RFK Jr scraps vaccine committee members in effort to restore 'public trust'
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Collins calls Kennedy's firing of vaccine experts ‘excessive'
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Monday called Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s firing of all 17 experts on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) vaccine panel 'excessive,' but she cautioned she needs to learn more about the decision. Kennedy announced the decision in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, catching many GOP lawmakers by surprise. 'I did not know that that had happened,' Collins, a senior member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, said. 'It seems to me to be excessive to ask for everybody's resignations, but I can't judge because I don't know who he's replacing them with.' The Maine senator said the CDC's vaccine advisory committee 'provided helpful guidance to the public on what they should do.' Collins said that Kennedy didn't promise members of the HELP Committee that he would keep the vaccine experts in place. 'I'm just learning about it for the first time,' she said. 'I don't know what the basis was.' Kennedy said in his Wall Street Journal column that he removed the experts so that President Trump could shape the membership of the committee. 'Without removing the current members, the current Trump administration would not have been able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028,' he wrote. Kennedy argued that vaccines have become 'a divisive issue in American politics' and that public confidence is waning' in health agencies, pharmaceutical companies and vaccines themselves. 'That is why, under my direction, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is putting the restoration of public trust above any pro- or antivaccine agenda. The public must know that unbiased science guides the recommendations from our health agencies. This will ensure the American people receive the safest vaccines possible,' he wrote. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) in a statement blasted Kennedy's move as 'reckless.' 'RFK Jr. and the Trump administration are taking a wrecking ball to the programs that keep Americans safe and healthy. Firing experts that have spent their entire lives protecting kids from deadly disease is not reform — it's reckless, radical, and rooted in conspiracy, not science,' Schumer said in a statement. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.