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We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com. Back to Healio Key takeaways: Two USPSTF leaders were fired after being told they had been \u201cinappropriately appointed.\u201d Experts expressed concerns over the future of the task force and how its instability could impact public health. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has fired both vice chairs of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, according to letters obtained by Healio. The vice chairs were Esa M. Davis, MD, MPH, FAAFP, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and John B. Wong, MD, MACP, a professor at Tufts University School of Medicine.
According to the task force\u2019s website, Davis was appointed vice chair in March 2025. She previously served as a member from January 2021 to December 2024. Wong was appointed vice chair in March 2024. He previously served as a member from March 2018 to December 2023. Davis was supposed to serve as vice chair until March 13, 2027, and then chair until March 13, 2028, according to her appointment letter. Wong\u2019s term was set to end in March 2027, according to reporting by Reuters. Alex H. Krist, MD, MPH, a former USPSTF member, told Healio that the task force now consists of eight members, although no chairs or vice chairs remain. The task force usually consists of 16 members, but it has been a while since new members were appointed. Firings followed a review of appointments In the letters, dated May 11, Kennedy said that he ordered a review of current USPSTF appointments \u201cto ensure clarity, continuity and confidence in the [HHS\u2019] exercise of its appointment and supervisory responsibilities, and to protect the integrity of the Task Force\u2019s work.\u201d He said that Davis\u2019 and Wong\u2019s firings, which are effective immediately, were a result of the review and done \u201cto avoid uncertainty that could jeopardize the validity of future Task Force actions.\u201d The terminations are not reflective of Davis\u2019 and Wong\u2019s years of service or performance on the task force, Kennedy added, but that HHS \u201cis taking this step to help protect the Task Force and preserve confidence in the continuity and durability of its work.\u201d Kennedy encouraged Davis and Wong to reapply for USPSTF membership during the nomination cycle ending on May 23 as their \u201ccontinued participation would be highly valued.\u201d Wong told Healio that the firing was a surprise, but that he and Davis submitted requests to rejoin. \u201cWe believe very much in the work of the task force. Our goal is to help and keep people healthy to live longer, healthier lives,\u201d he said. When Wong asked if they could restore their chair statuses, he was told that they would only be considered for member roles, not leadership roles. \u2018Inappropriately appointed\u2019 In a letter to Roger D. Klein, MD, JD, director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and Benjamin Robles, HHS deputy general counsel, Davis and Wong said they were told they had been \u201cinappropriately appointed\u201d during a meeting on May 12, which would make their chair tenures \u201cinvalid.\u201d \u201cImportantly, Secretary Kennedy\u2019s termination letters neither state nor imply that our original appointments were somehow unlawful or inappropriate,\u201d Davis and Wong wrote. \u201cTo the contrary, he implicitly confirms our validity by thanking us for our \u2018many years of dedicated service to the Task Force\u2019 which, by definition, would include January 2025 through the present.\u201d When Davis and Wong asked for further clarification, \u201cthe response Dr. Klein provided to us was that our specific questions implicate legal and policy judgments that would not be appropriate to address in external correspondence,\u201d Wong said. \u201cThe external part is that we\u2019re no longer part of the task force, so it remains unknown to us exactly why in this context. But I can say the timing of this coincides with a solicitation for new task force members,\u201d Wong said. HHS did not respond to Healio\u2019s questions about why Davis and Wong were let go and whether the agency believes their appointments were in fact inappropriate. Kennedy not wanting Davis and Wong in leadership roles \u201cis one of our areas of confusion,\u201d Wong said. \u201cThere are some very nice compliments about early contributions and our expertise. He even says they’re deeply valued,\u201d Wong said. Criticism from medical societies Uncertainty surrounded the USPSTF for months. Under Kennedy\u2019s tenure, three task force meetings have been canceled since July 2025, and the USPSTF has published far fewer recommendations than under prior administrations. AMA President Bobby Mukkamala, MD, said his organization \u201cis extremely concerned\u201d about the terminations. \u201cToday\u2019s changes were foreshadowed by the earlier dismantling of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cWe strongly urge HHS to restore the USPSTF\u2019s long-standing, transparent process for selecting members, specifically clinicians with expertise in the fields of preventive medicine and primary care.\u201d Mukkamala also urged HHS \u201cto commit to once again holding regular Task Force meetings to ensure its important work can continue without further delay. Our patients\u2019 lives depend on it.\u201d ACP President Jan K. Carney, MD, MPH, MACP, said in a statement that Davis and Wong \u201cserve as important representatives for internal medicine physicians and the patients that we care for. Both physicians are highly qualified experts, and we take issue with the lack of transparency in any review that Secretary Kennedy has conducted of members of the task force.\u201d \u201cThe firings come as the task force has not met over the course of the past year and has been prevented from doing their work to ensure that the American public has up-to-date guidance, based on the best-available evidence, about preventive health care services. The USPSTF guidance is critical to a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}