ANCHORAGE, Alaska — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. doubled down on his concerns over the safety of some long-used vaccines during his visit to the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium on Tuesday in Anchorage.

His visit came on the same day that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, under his direction, withdrew $500 million in funding for mRNA vaccine research.

"We support vaccination, but what we're doing is to make sure that the vaccines are adequately tested and that we get the best, safest vaccines available to Alaskans and every American," Kennedy told reporters.

Kennedy's funding withdrawal is the latest in a string of decisions that have raised alarm among public health advocates and infectious disease experts who say Kennedy's actions may reduce public trust in the efficacy of vaccines that have saved millions of lives.

Among those with concerns about Kennedy's approach to vaccines is U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who appeared at the Anchorage press conference alongside Kennedy, U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and leaders of ANTHC.

Murkowski criticized Kennedy during the press conference for his decision to replace all members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

"I have been critical of the fact that the ACIP board was basically terminated and a new group of individuals was installed because I feel that that challenges the credibility of the advisory board itself," said Murkowski. "So I have been one who has been perhaps more critical of some of the processes, but I don't fault the secretary for wanting to ensure that there is a more rigorous testing process for our vaccines, although I do believe that we have many vaccines that have been in place for years, if not decades, that have clearly demonstrated that efficacy over a period."

Both Murkowski and Sullivan voted to confirm Kennedy earlier this year.

Sullivan did not comment on Kennedy's approach to vaccines.

Alaska has among the lowest childhood vaccination rates in the country, and childhood vaccine uptake is on the decline in Alaska, recent state data shows.

Kennedy did not make any specific comments on Alaska's low vaccination rates, which health experts nationally say may contribute to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable illnesses like measles.

Kennedy said the National Institutes of Health is putting "major funding into developing universal vaccines" and that the canceled funding for mRNA vaccines will go toward developing that type of vaccine.

Outside the ANTHC offices in Anchorage, dozens of protesters gathered Tuesday chanting "RFK has got to go" and holding up signs. One read, "Autism is not a disease, but RFK Jr. is."

Kennedy, who has traveled extensively in Alaska previously, said that in visiting the state, he was making good on a promise he made to Sullivan, who is known for asking Cabinet nominees to visit Alaska. Kennedy planned to visit communities in the Interior and on the Kenai Peninsula before going fishing later this week on the Kenai River.

"It was not a hard sell to come back to Alaska," Kennedy said. "I wanted to do it during sockeye season."

Budget reconciliation bill

Kennedy used his visit to Anchorage to tout the budget reconciliation bill signed into law in July by President Donald Trump. Nonpartisan analyses have found that the law is expected to reduce federal Medicaid spending by $1 trillion in the coming decade, in large part through work requirements that are set to cause millions of Americans to lose access to the program that covers the cost of their health care.

Around one-third of Alaskans rely on Medicaid for health care access.

"You've been inundated by advertisements saying that there's cuts to Medicaid and Medicare," Kennedy said.

"That is not true," he said. "The cuts that are happening are to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse."

"We're using AI and we're using innovation to identify waste, fraud and abuse and eliminate it, and that's the only cuts that we're going to see," Kennedy added.

Sullivan echoed Kennedy's assertion that the law did not include cuts to Medicaid.

Murkowski, meanwhile, said that people may be "pushed off Medicaid" because of the work requirements.

Kennedy also touted the $50 billion rural health fund that was included in the budget reconciliation bill, called the One Big Beautiful Bill by Trump and congressional Republicans.

"Alaska has an opportunity to really get proportionally more money than any other state," said Kennedy.

Kennedy said that the application for the rural health fund would be posted in September. It is up to states to apply for the funding.

"The most innovative applications are going to get slightly more money than less innovative ones," Kennedy said, adding that he had asked Sullivan and Murkowski to speak with Gov. Mike Dunleavy "about making sure that he put in a high-quality application."

The state has requested health care providers across the state to submit input on potential uses of the funding. That input is due Aug. 18.

"What President Trump sees as the greatest way to advance our country is through the federal system, by turning our states into laboratories for innovation. So what their vision is, is to try to reward the most innovative ideas and transformative ideas," said Kennedy.

He said "all the hospitals should be looking at that and coming up with ideas that are going to be transformative, and those could be, for example, subsistence foods, they could be building health care centers, building physical fitness programs in their schools. Those are the kind of innovations that we're looking for."

Alaska Native health

Kennedy said that he has "a deep passion" for improving the health of Alaska Native people.

"Processed foods are literally killing them, part of a genocide that is centuries old," said Kennedy. He has previously made similar statements in congressional testimony.

"It's something that I want to leave as a legacy, that Alaska Native and American Indians are living longer" and "having more control and sovereignty over their food and their destinies," Kennedy said.

Kennedy added that he wanted to "dramatically change the food systems so that we can get Native foods to all tribes."

"We want to work with the tribes, we want to recognize and support their sovereignty, and we want to remove the impediments to food sovereignty, to subsistence and traditional foods," Kennedy said.

Kennedy said that addressing the cost of health care should begin "by addressing the food and encouraging Americans to take better care of themselves."

Murkowski said Kennedy's visit is an indication of "the significance that he has assigned to Alaska Native issues and the areas of concern that we face here."

Kennedy is the first in a slew of Trump Cabinet members set to visit Alaska this month. Sullivan said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner would be visiting the state later in August.

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