HHS lawyers objected to new powers for Kennedy's COVID vaccine adviser
Source: Reuters
September 17, 2025 9:26 AM EDT Updated 4 hours ago
Sept 17 (Reuters) - U.S. government lawyers attempted to block a vaccine skeptic appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. from assuming new powers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that could be used to restrict access to COVID-19 shots, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Retsef Levi, a professor of operations management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, serves as an outside adviser to the government on vaccines. He was elevated to the head of a work group with CDC on COVID immunization in August.
At the same time, new rules published by CDC would allow him to appoint other panel members, set the work priorities and shape recommendations on who should receive COVID-19 vaccines. In the end, the Kennedy appointee did receive those new powers.
Lawyers at the Department of Health and Human Services "expressed legal concerns" about the widened scope and Levi’s outsized role in the group and proposed that government officials narrow its purview to topics "that are within the scope of the CDC mission," according to an August 25 email to federal health officials that was read to Reuters.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/government-lawyers-objected-new-powers-kennedys-covid-vaccine-adviser-2025-09-17/