RFK Jr Demands Answers Over Retracted Vaccine Study
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- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted a letter on X demanding that Toxicology Reports answer several questions by 25 June about its removal of a 2021 paper, including asking editor Lawrence Lash to identify the experts who investigated it
- Toxicology Reports removed Neil Z. Miller's paper this spring after determining it had serious methodological flaws that could harm patients and pose a risk to public health, according to publisher Elsevier
- Dorit Reiss of UC Law San Francisco warned that if Kennedy is using his position to bully a journal, he is "stepping close to violating their first amendment rights"
- Dr. David Gorski, a surgical oncologist, said Kennedy has portrayed himself as pro-free speech but is "apparently using the power of his position" to pressure a private publisher's editorial decision
- An HHS official defended the letter, saying "Asking questions is not censorship. Seeking an explanation is not coercion" and that the department is working to restore trust through "open scientific inquiry"
- Neil Z. Miller, who is not a scientist, defended his work and said he had not been in touch with anyone at HHS and did not know the letter was being sent
- Magdalen Wind-Mozley of the Oxford Vaccine Group called the paper "utter garbage from start to finish — it should never have been published" and described Kennedy's pressure as "low"
Why it matters: The dispute crystallizes the tension between Kennedy's anti-establishment vaccine posture and the editorial independence of scientific publishers, with critics framing his demand as government pressure on a private retraction. The Guardian identified three papers, including this one, that Kennedy and allies have used to justify controversial federal vaccine policy changes, putting a health secretary's authority on a collision course with peer review.
