RFK Jr fires leaders of group that sets guidelines for preventive healthcare

Key points

• The Trump administration has fired the two leaders of an influential health group that determines when insurance must provide free preventive care, like mammograms and colonoscopies, for millions of Americans.
• In letters dated 11 May, the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, notified the two doctors who chaired the US Preventive Services Task Force that he was terminating their appointments immediately, before the end of their multiyear terms.
• The Department of Health and Human Services already had largely sidelined the taskforce, indefinitely postponing scheduled public meetings over the past year and thus leaving some long-expected updates on cervical cancer screenings and other topics in limbo.
• The panel, first created in the 1980s, is composed of experts who scrutinize the latest evidence behind a wide array of disease prevention tools, such as depression screenings and the use of statins to prevent heart attacks.
• The panel updates guidelines with letter grades showing...