Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is preparing a major shake-up in the way American scientists communicate with the world—and Big Pharma is not going to like it.

Kennedy, now serving as Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Donald Trump, said this week that his agency may soon forbid federal scientists from publishing in leading medical journals, calling them “corrupt” mouthpieces for pharmaceutical interests.

Speaking on the Ultimate Human podcast, Kennedy slammed publications like The Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, and JAMA for relying heavily on Big Pharma funding, saying the journals have “abandoned their integrity” and allowed commercial influence to distort scientific truth. “We’re probably going to stop publishing in those journals,” he said. “Because they’re all corrupt.”

Instead, Kennedy floated the idea of creating independent, government-backed alternatives—possibly published through the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—to return credibility to the process. “If you get NIH funding,” he said, “it is anointing you as a good, legitimate scientist.”

The proposal is part of Trump’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda, which aims to restore public trust in science after the disastrous COVID-19 response under the previous administration. Kennedy has long criticized the politicization of pandemic guidance, from mask mandates to vaccine recommendations, accusing federal agencies of pushing policies that lacked sound evidence and transparency.

And the shake-up didn’t stop with journal policy. On Tuesday, Kennedy, joined by NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, announced a major reversal on COVID guidance: the CDC will no longer recommend coronavirus vaccination for healthy children or healthy pregnant women.

“It ends today,” Bhattacharya said during the announcement. “It’s common sense. That’s good science.”

Makary echoed the move, pointing out that “there’s no evidence healthy kids need it today, and most countries have stopped recommending it for children.” The CDC, under Biden, had previously urged vaccinations for all children—even without solid data on long-term outcomes from repeat boosters.

Kennedy said the decision was long overdue and was part of fulfilling Trump’s promise to break with the pharmaceutical complex and “Make America Healthy Again.” He emphasized that under the Trump administration, policy will no longer be dictated by pharma-funded research—or the journals that publish it.

The MAHA Commission Report, released earlier this year, outlines broader reforms beyond vaccines and journals. It links skyrocketing chronic illness in children to a combination of ultra-processed foods, overprescription of drugs, and weak regulatory oversight. Now, HHS is promising to revisit not just medical guidance, but the entire medical-industrial complex that influences it.

The journals Kennedy singled out are considered among the most prestigious in the world—but they’ve faced increasing criticism in recent years for their reliance on industry funding and their tendency to suppress dissenting views, especially during the pandemic. Kennedy’s plan to sideline them isn’t just symbolic—it’s a declaration that the Trump administration wants its science rooted in independence, not ideology.

It’s also a warning to institutions that have grown too comfortable rubber-stamping pharmaceutical narratives: the days of automatic deference are over.

As Trump continues his push to dismantle the old bureaucratic order, Kennedy’s blunt stance could redefine how medical knowledge is validated in America. Whether you agree with him or not, one thing is clear: the scientific establishment has officially been put on notice.