CDC to hire former head of anti-vaccine group founded by RFK Jr.

Source: CBS News

Updated on: June 25, 2025 / 8:49 PM EDT


The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is hiring Lyn Redwood, a nurse and the former head of a group critics have denounced as anti-vaccine, to work in its vaccine safety office, multiple CDC officials tell CBS News.

Redwood was the president of the group now called Children's Health Defense, which lists as its founder Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who now oversees the CDC as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Children's Health Defense has sued to curb vaccine requirements, petitioned federal agencies to revoke vaccine authorizations and spread misinformation about vaccines. Kennedy was listed as the group's founder and chairman before becoming the nation's top health official in the second Trump administration.

She is joining the CDC office responsible for overseeing most of the agency's work and data to probe potential safety risks from vaccines, including databases used by health officials to collect and analyze reports from the public and health care systems.

Redwood is expected to be hired as a special government employee, the CDC officials said, a status often afforded to advisers and other temporary experts brought on for specific projects or committees. The CDC and Redwood did not respond to CBS News' requests for comment.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cdc-vaccine-safety-office-hire-former-head-anti-vaccine-group-founded-rfk-jr/