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The Anti-Vaccine Agenda of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr

Vincent Iannelli, MD

Those of us who warned about selecting Robert F. Kennedy, Jr to be Secretary of HHS had no doubt that he would have an anti-vaccine agenda.

Bill Cassidy, a medical doctor, could have helped make sure Robert F. Kennedy, Jr didn’t become the Secretary of HHS.

And now it is becoming plain to see for everyone else.

The Anti-Vaccine Agenda of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr

But wait, didn’t RFK Jr send some MMR vaccines to the measles outbreak in Texas?

Didn’t he recommend that everyone get vaccinated?

“Parents play a pivotal role in safeguarding their children’s health. All parents should consult with their healthcare providers to understand their options to get the MMR vaccine. The decision to vaccinate is a personal one. Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons.”

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.: Measles outbreak is call to action for all of us

Actually, no, he didn’t.

In his “call to action,” RFK, Jr offered a very good reason for why parents should vaccinate their kids, but never really advised that they do it. He even called the MMR vaccine “crucial to avoiding potentially deadly disease.”

What was missing was any recommendation that parents go out and vaccinate their children so that they don’t get measles!

And as the measles outbreaks worsen and a second person has died, RFK, Jr’s actions make it likely that things will get worse, much worse.

Since becoming Secretary of HHS, Kennedy a timeline of his anti-vaccine actions include that he:

  1. promoted vitamin A to treat measles, which can be helpful, but mostly if you are malnourished. Vitamin A is not a cure for measles! This led to some kids taking toxic doses of vitamin A and developing liver problems.
  2. promoted steroids and antibiotics to treat measles, neither of which is helpful, except antibiotics if you have secondary bacterial infections.
  3. pushed the idea of health benefits to getting measles, which is not true
  4. said “older people are essentially unvaccinated,” because he believes the measles vaccines quickly wanes, which is not true
  5. said vaccinated mothers don’t pass protection to their babies, which is not true
  6. said that people only die with measles if they have co-morbidities or if they are malnourished, which is not true, measles deaths were mostly among children who were otherwise healthy
  7. credited the creation of WIC in 1964 for decreasing measles deaths, even though the first WIC site didn’t open until 1974
  8. terminated grants related to the study of vaccine hesitancy
  9. launched a study into a connection between vaccines and autism, even though this has already been studied over and over again, with researchers concluding that there is no association
  10. canceled a publicity campaign that encouraged people to get a flu vaccine
  11. postponed the February ACIP meeting (and still haven’t rescheduled it) where members were going to discuss meningococcal vaccines, chikungunya vaccines, flu vaccines, RSV vaccines, HPV vaccines, Mpox vaccines, pneumonococcal vaccines, Lyme disease, COVID vaccines, and CMV vaccines
  12. canceled the FDA’s annual Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee March meeting, in which health experts would have worked to update next season’s flu vaccines
  13. has warned that he is planning to remove/replace members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) that he believes have conflicts of interest, even though any actual or perceived conflict of interests are already declared and acted on.
  14. has stated that he wants to pause all research that has to do with drug development or infectious diseases for at least eight years
  15. pushed Peter Marks, a key vaccine researcher, to resign
  16. has laid off about 10,000 employees at HHS, altogether, with other cuts, reducing their workforce by 25%
  17. buried an expert assessment that warned “the risk of catching measles is high in areas near outbreaks where vaccination rates are lagging” and “would have emphasized the importance of vaccinating people against the highly contagious and potentially deadly disease”

Combine all of Kennedy’s moves with things that the Trump administration has done, like cut USAID funding that was helping to prevent and control outbreaks around the world, and you won’t need a crystal ball to know where we are headed in the next few months and years.

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