Washington Examiner Chief Political Correspondent Byron York weighed in on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shake-up under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s leadership, saying, “turmoil in the healthcare bureaucracy was pretty much a given.”

“If this were only about coronavirus, and the vaccine for coronavirus, I’m not sure the politics of it would be quite the same,” York said, pushing back on the narrative that Kennedy is solely focused on anti-vaccine ideology. 

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“We know RFK Jr. has been a vaccine skeptic for a very, very long time, long before COVID and turmoil in the healthcare bureaucracy was pretty much a given, once he arrived as head of HHS. He’s not going to change his ideas,” York said on Fox News’s Special Report Thursday.

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His comments come after Kennedy set off a wave of resignations and turmoil at the CDC this week by pushing for the removal of Director Susan Monarez only a month into her tenure, reportedly over vaccine policy disagreements.  

The standoff culminated with Monarez being escorted from CDC headquarters in Atlanta along with two senior officials. Kennedy’s deputy, Jim O’Neill, was named acting director.

“He still goes on about autism, and vaccine, and other issues,” York said. “This is something the president is probably going to have to settle, and I think it’s going to get to that level really soon.”

Kennedy is no stranger to controversy. He is well-known for his long-standing skepticism of vaccine safety and promotion of theories that have drawn sharp criticism from the medical community. Before his appointment to lead HHS, Kennedy raised alarms by claiming vaccines are linked to autism, a view that is widely discredited by medical science.

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His critics argue that his leadership poses a risk to evidence-based health policy, while his supporters say he is confronting entrenched interests and voicing concerns long ignored by federal health agencies.

The White House said it will provide more details in September regarding Kennedy’s public health agenda, including a controversial focus on autism research and environmental factors, setting the stage for potentially even more friction between Kennedy’s team and the medical establishment.