RFK Jr. Renews Vaccine Attacks at CHD Conference — SkimNews
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivered a keynote at the Children's Health Defense conference—an anti-vaccine nonprofit he helped found—telling attendees the public has "no idea" about the risk profile of vaccines administered tens of millions of times.
- Kennedy spent over 20 minutes on the subject, claiming hepatitis B vaccine safety rests on 147 infants monitored for only five days with no placebo and that "there's no way any other product would get FDA approval with that few people"; the FDA had accepted that trial alongside data from thousands of babies given an earlier version of the shot.
- The Trump administration ended universal newborn hepatitis B vaccination last year—a policy credited with a 99% drop in chronic hepatitis B infections among children and teens.
- Kennedy cited 454 adverse events listed across the 18 vaccines previously recommended for American children and suggested—without evidence—that vaccines could be underpinning an epidemic of chronic illness in the United States.
- HHS is now researching more than 150 reported adverse events for potential vaccine links and plans to make the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System more user-friendly, including compensating doctors for their reporting time, Kennedy said without offering details.
- Kennedy noted measles only once despite its rapid U.S. spread and at least four deaths in Pennsylvania; as he exited to applause, the next announced speaker was Andrew Wakefield, the discredited British doctor whose late-1990s work helped launch the anti-vaccine movement.
- Kennedy told the crowd he had the White House's support: "Let me be clear: You have a strong and steadfast friend at the White House," framing the address as a victory lap ahead of midterms that could serve as a referendum on GOP health care reform.
Why it matters: Kennedy is explicitly centralizing vaccine skepticism as his health secretary legacy, with administration policy changes to the childhood immunization schedule already the subject of an ongoing lawsuit. The CHD speech reframes Kennedy's agenda as a midterm political asset rather than a liability, with the next speaker being Andrew Wakefield signaling the administration's tolerance for discredited figures.
Ask SkimNews
