Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is requiring all new vaccines to undergo placebo-controlled trials in a policy change the agency described as a “radical departure from past practices.”

“Under Secretary Kennedy’s leadership, all new vaccines will undergo safety testing in placebo-controlled trials prior to licensure — a radical departure from past practices,” an HHS spokesperson said to Fox News Digital on Thursday.

HHS suggested that childhood-recommended vaccines listed under the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, for instance, should be tested.

“Except for the COVID vaccine, none of the vaccines on the CDC’s childhood recommended schedule was tested against an inert placebo, meaning we know very little about the actual risk profiles of these products,” the HHS spokesperson said.

A man receives his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Aug. 25, 2021. (Jon Austria/The Coloradoan / USA Today Network)

HHS also claimed that the CDC has not been monitoring vaccine complications adequately, and criticized its current surveillance system.

“The CDC’s former practice of suppressing information about vaccine injuries has badly eroded trust in our public health agencies,” the agency said. 

“The CDC’s own research has shown that the post-licensure surveillance system, VAERS, captures fewer than 1% of vaccine injuries,” the HHS spokesperson said. “It’s a system that was designed to fail. The Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) — intended as a backup to VAERS — is virtually unusable for serious research. Both systems have become templates of regulatory malpractice.”

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services building is seen in Washington, D.C., on July 21, 2007. (Saul Leob/AFP)

Kennedy, who has repeatedly said vaccines are not adequately tested for safety, is calling for greater transparency in its testing and approval process.

“Secretary Kennedy’s HHS has pledged radical transparency to the American public,” the spokesperson said. “This means being honest and straightforward about what we know — and what we don’t know — about medical products, including vaccines.”

“HHS is now building surveillance systems that will accurately measure vaccine risks as well as benefits — because real science demands both transparency and accountability,” the spokesperson added.