Well-aged rawhide sack and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., abruptly canceled a scheduled meeting of yet another critical public health advisory board on Thursday, the US Preventive Services Task Force. That’s the group that makes a wide range of health recommendations that result in, say, mammograms and colonoscopies being covered by insurance; as reported by Axios and others, it was set to discuss preventive cardiovascular health care at July’s meeting.
This is just the latest in a string of attacks on the volunteer groups of experts that help guide federal government policy. There was the complete dissolution of the National Cancer Institute’s Board of Scientific Advisors, first reported by Splinter back in April; and then the mass firing of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices followed by its reconstitution with a cadre of anti-vax goblins. And now, the group that lets cancer screenings happen may be next.
Along with those sorts of screenings, the USPSTF addresses a wide range of public health concerns. Just for example, its most recently published recommendations cover intimate partner violence and caregiver abuse of older adults; screening for syphilis infection during pregnancy; behavioral counseling interventions regarding breastfeeding; and screening for food insecurity. The experts on the panel consider available evidence, and include grades for their recommendations to help guide clinical practice and insurance coverage.
Its importance was confirmed in a June Supreme Court decision, where the liberal justices along with Justices Roberts, Kavanaugh, and Coney Barrett held that insurance companies must indeed cover the panel’s recommended procedures; the case was brought by conservatives in Texas over the requirement to cover pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV.
There is no indication, yet, what exactly the sandpaper-wrapped humanoid leading HHS into oblivion has planned for the USPSTF; that SCOTUS decision also confirmed that the HHS secretary has sole discretion over hiring and firing of its members. In a message emailed to panel members canceling Thursday’s meeting, according to The Hill, RFK’s office said: “Moving forward, HHS looks forward to engaging with the Task Force to promote the health and well-being of the American people.” In an administration so neatly aligned against the very concept of expertise, who knows what that will mean in the end.
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