Three Vaccine Papers RFK Jr. Cited Retracted or Under Scrutiny
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- Three scientific papers that raised questions about vaccine safety have been removed, retracted, or placed under investigation by their publishing journals over the last two months, in some cases years after scientists first flagged their methodology.
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. relied on two of the studies for his 2023 book "Vax-Unvax: Let the Science Speak," co-written with Brian Hooker, which argued unvaccinated children are healthier; the book itself notes that five medical journals rejected the Hooker paper before Sage accepted it after an 11-month peer review.
- The CDC cited the hepatitis B/autism paper in November when it changed its long-held position that vaccines do not cause autism, with the reworked page now declaring "Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities" — the paper was retracted on 21 May after an independent statistical reviewer found fundamental methodological flaws.
- Lawyer Aaron Siri, who has represented Kennedy and the anti-vaccine group Children's Health Defense, cited all three papers in a December presentation to the federal vaccine advisory committee calling for changes to the childhood immunization schedule.
- The three papers — Neil Z Miller's 2021 Toxicology Reports study on vaccines and SIDS, the Miller/Hooker 2020 Sage Open Medicine study on health problems in vaccinated children, and Gallagher and Goodman's 2010 hepatitis B/autism study — all share a common theme and have been criticized for poor methodology, small samples, and reliance on VAERS data.
- Authors dispute the actions: Goodman said the hepatitis B study was never meant to be "the final word" and called for larger follow-up studies; Miller called the allegations against his work false; Hooker did not respond; HHS did not return requests for comment on whether Kennedy would update his book or the CDC would revise its page.
Why it matters: The CDC rewrote its autism-vaccine position in November citing a study that has now been formally retracted for fundamental methodological flaws, meaning federal health guidance was changed on evidence that no longer stands. With public health officials reporting rising measles and whooping cough outbreaks, the retractions expose how a small number of disputed papers propagated from an anti-vaccine book through federal policy and a lawyer's advisory-committee presentation.
