Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. kicked off his “Make America Healthy Again” tour in Utah to discuss the state’s fluoride ban.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed legislation Thursday barring cities and communities from adding the mineral to their water systems. The ban goes into effect May 7.

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy's Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) terminated more than $330 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and gender research in the state of California alone, Fox News Digital learned Thursday. 

"HHS terminated more than $330 million in wasteful research funding to organizations in California that is not aligned with NIH and HHS priorities," HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in a Thursday statement to Fox News Digital. 

State and county public health departments and nonprofit groups are reeling after the Trump administration announced abrupt cancellation and revocation of roughly $11.4 billion in COVID-era funding for grants linked to addiction, mental health and other programs.

"This is chopping things off in the middle while people are actually doing the work," said Keith Humphreys, an addiction policy researcher at Stanford University, who also volunteers doing harm reduction work with people in addiction. He warned the move could trigger layoffs and treatment disruptions.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services canceled around $12 billion in federal grants to states that were allocated during the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal department and state officials said on Wednesday.

The grants were being used to track, prevent and control infectious diseases, including measles and bird flu, as well as track mental health services and fund addiction treatment, said lawmakers and state governors, who sharply criticized the move.

The Senate voted along party lines Wednesday to end debate on Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, a key step that puts him on the precipice of confirmation later this week. 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday to vie for his confirmation as President Trump’s secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Kennedy is one of Trump’s most controversial nominees. That’s partly because of his highly skeptical attitude toward vaccines and what critics characterize as a fondness for pseudo-scientific conspiracy theories.

Kennedy is divisive for other reasons as well. Some social conservatives are dubious about the scion of the Democratic family, especially where his past support for abortion rights is concerned.

It didn't take long for the confirmation hearing of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to turn contentious as Senate Democrats grilled him.

The verbal fireworks exploded minutes into the Senate Finance Committee hearing on Wednesday, the first of two straight days of congressional confirmation hearings for the controversial vaccine skeptic and environmental crusader who ran for the White House in 2024 before ending his bid and endorsing Trump.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a contentious confirmation hearing to become the nation’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. struggled to answer questions about Medicare and Medicaid, programs that affect tens of millions of Americans, or to provide details about how he would work to drive down health care costs.

The House Oversight Committee on Friday announced that the Department of Health and Human Services officially cut all federal funding and disbarred EcoHealth Alliance and its former President Peter Daszak for five years. 

The company and Daszak allegedly facilitated and passed taxpayer money for to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, which is a suspected source of COVID-19, and did so without proper government oversight, according to the committee.