A file news photograph shows the back of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. while he speaks at a rally outside the Albany County Courthouse Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2019, in Albany, N.Y., following a hearing about vaccine religious exemptions. An investigation by The Associated Press finds that Children’s Health Defense has raked in money and followers as Kennedy used his star power as a member of one of America’s most famous families to open doors, raise money and lend his group credibility.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a rally about religious exemptions to vaccines in Albany in 2019.Hans Pennink/AP

Daniel Payne reports on how the health industry and Washington influence and impact each other. He joined STAT in 2025 after covering health care at POLITICO. You can reach Daniel on Signal at danielp.100.

WASHINGTON — Children’s Health Defense, the vaccine-skeptical organization once led by now-health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is playing the long game. 

The group has more power in Washington than the group’s CEO, Mary Holland, imagined possible in her lifetime. In an interview with STAT, she said CHD plans to parlay that influence into permanent policy changes — upending the childhood vaccination schedule, reformulating the shots, and abolishing mandates to get them, among a host of goals —  that will outlast Kennedy’s tenure at the Department of Health and Human Services.

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“We fully expect at some point there will be people in power who do not support our agenda,” she said. “And we want to do as much as we can in this arguably auspicious time to create the kind of public support that will see us through.”

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