RFK Jr’s advisory panel overhaul stalled update on helping kids quit tobacco

A group of children with cigarettes Photograph: Chuck Savage/Getty Images View image in fullscreen A group of children with cigarettes Photograph: Chuck Savage/Getty Images RFK Jr’s advisory panel overhaul stalled update on helping kids quit tobacco US preventive services taskforce’s members have not issued binding recommendations since March 2025 The health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s overhaul of an influential federal advisory group has stalled an update that would have highlighted “encouraging” new evidence on helping children quit tobacco, according to a recently departed member of the group. The Trump administration has postponed or canceled all meetings of the US preventive services taskforce since March 2025, effectively preventing taskforce members from issuing binding recommendations for more than a year. As a result, 14 topics under consideration have been stalled – including on cervical cancer screening, perinatal depression and autism screening. The taskforce was created by the Reagan administration; the Affordable Care Act (ACA) tied the taskforce’s recommendations to insurance coverage for preventive services. “There was a lot of new, very encouraging evidence on tobacco cessation for kids,” said Dr Michael Silverstein, who served on the task force from 2016 to March 2025, when he rotated off the committee. “We’re talking about children and tobacco – I can’t imagine there’s anything controversial about that.” US lawmakers urge stricter monitoring of medically assisted suicide in hospices Read more As the taskforce was prevented from voting as a group, it is unclear what its recommendation on the new evidence would have been. Kennedy also fired two taskforce leaders in May , and called members , “lackadaisical and negligent for 20 years” at a congressional hearing in April. The Guardian sent HHS a list of questions related to the taskforce, regarding new appointments, lobbying of the agency that supports the taskforce and criticism of the administration’s actions. “Due to an unprecedented number of nominations received for Task Force membership, the forecasted July US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) meeting has been postponed until late August to allow additional time for selection and onboarding of new task force members,” said Emily Hilliard, senior press secretary for HHS, in a statement. The taskforce most recently considered childhood tobacco cessation in 2020. Then, it made formal recommendations for preventing children from taking up smoking, but found insufficient research to recommend tobacco cessation for children. The topic of childhood tobacco cessation was revisited in 2025, with the hopes of publishing an updated recommendation. Silverstein said the issue moved through taskforce subcommittees even as the broader group was prevented from meeting, but without the ability to convene and meet formally, a draft recommendation was never reached. Since Trump took office for a second term, the administration has dis