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U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is facing backlash from some in the medical freedom movement after he announced last week that he signed a “targeted PREP Act” declaration to develop and deploy medical countermeasures for hantavirus.
In a post on X, Kennedy said the declaration “helps remove barriers to research and response efforts” for the recent outbreak that has garnered significant media attention during recent weeks.
“HHS is taking this situation seriously and will continue working to protect public health and support the safe development of potential treatments and countermeasures,” he said.
Today, I signed a targeted PREP Act declaration to support the development and deployment of medical countermeasures related to Andes virus, which can cause the deadly respiratory illness Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome.
This action helps remove barriers to research and response…
— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) May 22, 2026
Critics accused Kennedy of contradicting his previous strong stance against the use of the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, or PREP Act, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and betraying the values of the medical freedom movement.
Defenders argued that the declaration is narrow in scope and timing — it covers only one generic drug, favipiravir, and lasts only until July 18, 2026.
The PREP Act authorizes the health secretary to issue a declaration that exempts manufacturers and distributors of a vaccine or treatment that addresses a public health emergency from legal liability for injuries caused by those products.
The PREP Act became extremely controversial during the COVID-19 pandemic, because it granted blanket liability protection to COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers — including Moderna, Pfizer and Novavax — for nearly every type of injury caused by the vaccines.
As a result, vaccine-injured people have struggled to be recognized, cared for and compensated for their injuries. Vaccine-injured people and the groups representing them have challenged the act’s constitutionality in multiple lawsuits, but have failed to get it overturned.
The Biden administration extended the COVID-19 countermeasures PREP Act declaration through the end of 2029, even though the administration declared the pandemic over.
Kennedy has not rescinded that declaration, despite calls for him to do so.
Twitter wars erupt over the declaration
Del Bigtree, founder of the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) and communications director for Kennedy’s 2024 presidential campaign, criticized Kennedy on X.
“Bobby, I remember so many inspiring strategy discussions during your campaign,” he wrote. “Providing liability protection to corporate interests for a virus that killed 3 people out of 7 billion was not one of them.”
Medical freedom analyst Toby Rogers, Ph.D., also called Kennedy out for compromising his morals.
What are you doing, bro!? This ain’t it. Come join us again on the outside. The moral cost of remaining in the coalition is too high.
— Toby Rogers (@uTobian) May 23, 2026
Kennedy responded to critics on X: “Don’t believe Internet fearmongers. @HHSGov defends public health AND supports medical freedom — period.”
He noted that the declaration is for one drug, is time-limited and makes the drug available for people who want to take it voluntarily.
Don’t believe Internet fearmongers. @HHSGov defends public health AND supports medical freedom — period.
HHS action …
❌ Does NOT pave the way for a new mRNA vaccine
❌ Does NOT provide Big Pharma with new, limitless protections from liability
❌ Does NOT allow for mandates of… https://t.co/MZQNc4zKSL— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) May 23, 2026
Sense Receptor accused Kennedy of violating the Constitution, posting a recent interview in which Kennedy criticized the government for dismantling “the entire Constitution of the United States” within a single year through emergency powers assumed during COVID-19. That included violating the Seventh Amendment, which guarantees the right to a jury trial, by protecting vaccine manufacturers from liability.
Kennedy’s defenders, including Children’s Health Defense, posted that “we should rightfully be on high alert.” But they highlighted the short time scope and the single medication covered by the declaration.
Dr. Robert Malone, writing on Substack, said: “Frankly, compared to what Americans lived through in 2020 and 2021, this declaration barely rises above the level of bureaucratic housekeeping with lawyers attached.”
It is true that the declaration is much narrower than the COVID-19 declaration, California attorney Rita Barnett-Rose wrote on Substack, “But the triggering outbreak is also extremely small.”
“It is reasonable to ask why PREP immunity was needed at all when existing legal and medical systems already appeared fully capable of handling the situation,” she said.
“Invoking PREP emergency powers for this situation appears wildly disproportionate to the publicly described threat,” Barnett-Rose added.
She said that the legal language of the declaration allows for future amendments and contains stockpile provisions, and broad protections for manufacturers and distributors.
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Hantavirus story unfolding over last several weeks
The hantavirus outbreak has drawn international attention after multiple people on the cruise ship contracted the virus, and three passengers died.
On May 2, the World Health Organization (WHO) was notified of a cluster of severe acute respiratory illness among passengers and crew of a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
The ship, carrying 147 people from 23 different countries, had departed from Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1, 2026, and traveled across the South Atlantic, stopping at Antarctica, South Georgia Island, Tristan da Cunha, Saint Helena and Ascension Island.
Hantaviruses, a family of viruses named after the Hantaan River area in Korea where it was first identified, can be fatal. However, infection is rare. There are roughly 10,000 to 100,000 infections worldwide annually, according to WHO data.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Sunday that the agency has reported 12 hantavirus cases and three deaths confirmed as the Andes strain — the only strain known to sometimes transmit person-to-person.
Seventeen Americans and one British person exposed to the hantavirus on the cruise ship were quarantined in Nebraska or Georgia while they were monitored for symptoms. One person tested positive without being symptomatic, and one person showed mild symptoms but did not test positive.
It is widely acknowledged that the current hantavirus does not pose a pandemic threat. Unlike COVID-19, hantavirus doesn’t quickly genetically mutate in a way that fuels rapid transmission.
Related articles in The Defender
- Hantavirus Media Hype: The Real Lesson Is Not About Rodents — It Is About Us
- Does Hantavirus Survive in Human Sperm? The Real Story Behind the Latest Hantavirus Hysteria
- Key Hantavirus Countdown Starts Today, John Campbell Says
- RFK Jr.: Hantavirus ‘Under Control’ in U.S.
- Pharma’s Gatekeeper: How the PREP Act Protects Everyone Except Those Injured by Vaccines
