RFK Jr. Renews Vaccine Attacks at CHD Conference — SkimNews
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- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivered a keynote at the Children’s Health Defense conference — the anti-vaccine nonprofit he helped start — and spent more than 20 minutes casting doubt on vaccine safety, telling the crowd the public has "no idea" about vaccine risk profiles.
- Kennedy used a hepatitis B vaccine package insert as "proof," claiming its trial enrolled only 147 children monitored for five days with no placebo; the FDA accepted that trial alongside data from thousands of babies given an older version of the shot, and post-market trials have supported the vaccine's efficacy and low risk.
- The Trump administration ended universal newborn hepatitis B vaccination last year — a policy that had driven a 99% drop in chronic hepatitis B infections among children and teens.
- HHS is now researching more than 150 serious adverse events reported after vaccination, running a task force review of the safety, timing, and sequence of childhood shots, and working to automate VAERS and compensate doctors who submit side-effect reports, Kennedy said.
- Kennedy claimed 454 adverse events are listed across 18 previously recommended childhood vaccines — including diabetes, SIDS, and autoimmune diseases — drawing a link between vaccines and chronic illness without evidence; the administration’s changes to the childhood immunization schedule are the subject of an ongoing lawsuit.
- Kennedy told the CHD crowd, "You have a strong and steadfast friend at the White House," emphasizing President Trump's backing for his agenda ahead of midterm elections that could serve as a referendum on the GOP's health care approach.
- As Kennedy walked offstage to applause, the next speaker introduced was Andrew Wakefield, the discredited British physician whose late-1990s work helped spark the modern anti-vaccine movement.
Why it matters: Kennedy used a flagship HHS speech to amplify unverified vaccine-doubt claims — directly contradicting the FDA's documented evidence on the hepatitis B vaccine he singled out — while his agency simultaneously runs research on 150+ adverse events, automates VAERS, and pursues an immunization-schedule overhaul already in litigation. With midweeks weeks away and Trump explicitly endorsing the ideology, the speech locks in a health-policy posture that public-health institutions and the courts will now have to contend with.
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