What kind of damage has RFK Jr’s health department inflicted on vaccine research in the US so far?

The moment Robert F Kennedy Jr’s name was floated in late 2024 as President Trump’s pick for health secretary serious concerns erupted in the scientific and public health communities about the future of vaccine R&D and policy in the country. This was primarily because of Kennedy’s long history as a very public vaccine critic and a conspiracy theorist, promoting, for example, the discredited claim that vaccines cause autism.

Now at the helm of the US government’s Department for Health and Human Services (HHS), Kennedy oversees agencies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). After almost a year-and-a-half in position, how has government policy toward vaccines changed?