During his Senate confirmation hearings, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggested he wouldn’t undermine vaccines. “I am not going to go into HHS and impose my preordained opinions on anybody at HHS,” he said. “I’m going to empower the scientists at HHS to do their job and make sure that we have good science that is evidence based.”

The reconstituted C.D.C. panel will revisit the standard vaccination schedule. The former head of an anti-vaccine group is now a special federal employee.

If the CDC adopts the recommendation, it will mark one of the first major changes in federal vaccine guidance and access as Kennedy embarks on his goal of remaking immunization policy in his image.