The Trump administration has ousted two leaders of a key health panel, The Daily Caller News Foundation confirmed.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. informed U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) Vice Chairs John Wong and Esa Davis that their appointments were scrapped effective immediately, according to letters obtained by the DCNF. An HHS official confirmed the firings to the DCNF in an email on Thursday.
Kennedy wrote in the letters that the two doctors’ “leadership, contributions, and expertise have been deeply valued and have advanced the Task Force’s important mission to improve the health of Americans through evidence-based preventive services.”
“As part of the Department’s implementation of updated governance and oversight procedures for the USPSTF and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, I directed a review of current USPSTF appointments,” according to Kennedy’s letters. “That review was undertaken to ensure clarity, continuity, and confidence in the Department’s exercise of its appointment and supervisory responsibilities, and to protect the integrity of the Task Force’s work.”
Kennedy went on to say that the decision was “administrative in nature and is unrelated to your performance or many years of dedicated service to the Task Force.”
The New York Times first reported the firings on Wednesday.
The move comes after Kennedy said during a House Ways and Means Committee hearing in April that the Trump administration is now “reforming” the USPSTF. He added that the USPSTF “has been lackadaisical and negligent for 20 years.”
HHS said in a notice issued in April that it expects new members will be invited to serve on the task force beginning in July, The Hill reported.
The task force usually meets three times per year – in March, July and November – but has not held a meeting since March 2025, CNN reported on March 3. HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon told CNN that the USPSTF’s first meeting of 2026 was postponed and “will be rescheduled in the coming months.”
The USPSTF aims to “improve the health of people nationwide by making evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services,” according to the task force’s website. One section of the 2010 Affordable Care Act requires“private insurers to cover preventive services recommended by the USPSTF with a grade of A or B,” alongside those recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, Bright Futures and the Health Resources and Services Administration’s guidelines for women’s health.
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