In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread. Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.
A number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion.
Another leading anti-vaxxer is presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust. Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.
He is now Trump's nominee to head HHS.
Ahead of RFK Jr.'s confirmation hearing, Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote him a letter:
Vaccines are among the most important public health innovations of the last century. They have saved 154 million lives, including 146 million children, 101 million of whom were infants, over the past 50 years.5 As a result, “equitable universal access to immunization remains crucial to sustain health gains and continue to save future lives from preventable infectious mortality.”6 But your blatant disavowal of vaccine safety would wipe away this progress and put American lives in danger if you are confirmed as HHS Secretary.
Your lengthy record of advocating against vaccinations and your willful disregard for the scientific process is alarming.7 Dubbed “the ringleader of the misinformation campaign” who “turbocharged” anti-vaccine rhetoric during the Covid-19 pandemic, you have spread false hysteria that vaccines cause autism.8 Following the release of the FDA-approved coronavirus vaccine—which saved more than 3 million American lives during the Covid-19 pandemic9—you and your organization, Children's Health Defense, falsely claimed that the Pfizer vaccine that was being administered to Americans was not actually the licensed version—a baseless conspiracy that provoked unnecessary fear and hysteria across the country.10 You also accused Dr. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease doctor at the time, of orchestrating a “historic coup d’etat against Western democracy” for his work to combat coronavirus, including vaccination.11 In your book, you pushed unproven and unsafe treatments for the coronavirus.12 In your 2021 film, “Medical Racism: The New Apartheid,” you “used the real history of medical racism in the US to peddle conspiracy theories that coronavirus vaccines were an effort to harm Black communities.” 13 As Covid-19 ravaged the country and world, you attended rallies across Europe that decried Covid-19 restrictions and spread misinformation.14
Your dangerous views on vaccines have had tragic real-life impacts. In 2019, you traveled to Samoa, spouting dangerous anti-vaccination rhetoric.15 Your statements had a destructive impact on this Polynesian island: four months later, measles began to spread rapidly around the tiny country due to a low vaccination rate, partially thanks to your statements encouraging families and children not to get vaccinated only months earlier.16 More than 5,700 people were infected and 83 died because of your contributions to vaccine skepticism in Samoa.17 At the time, you shrugged off the epidemic as “mild”—this massive disregard for human lives is indicative of the irresponsible public health official that you would be, if confirmed as Secretary of HHS.18 Your past actions provide a very clear indication that you are not capable of upholding immunization programs or representing the United States on the global health stage. Indeed, Samoa’s public health minister, after the havoc you brought to that country, warned that, if confirmed, you “will be directly responsible for killing thousands of children around the world by allowing preventable infectious diseases to run rampant.”19
Your rhetoric indicates that, if confirmed as Secretary of HHS, you would abuse your power and use your role as a platform for spreading misinformation. Indeed, during your bid for president, you said you would use the power of the attorney general to threaten editors of medical journals and force them to publish studies that had been retracted due to their scientific unviability, such as the retracted study that says ivermectin, a parasite drug, is an effective treatment for coronavirus.20
Health officials and public health experts worry that, if confirmed as Secretary of HHS, you would sow doubt and confusion about vaccines that conservative states could weaponize to “dismantle and annihilate” public health guardrails for vaccines.21 For example, a regional health board in Idaho banned health department clinics that served six counties in the state from offering coronavirus because it heard testimony from physicians that spread misinformation about the vaccine safety.22 There are also concerns that you could slow vaccine production by delaying inspection of vaccine production facilities or requiring additional data and reviews on vaccine safety.23 Given that the FDA approves vaccines while the CDC provides recommendations on who receives them, I am deeply concerned that you could influence the vaccine approval and recommendation process by putting vaccine skeptics on advisory committees and make life-saving vaccines less accessible to American families.24
5 The Lancet, “Contribution of vaccination to improved survival and health: modelling 50 years of the Expanded Programme on Immunization,” Andrew Shattock, PhD, et. al, May 25, 2024, https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)00850-X/fulltext
6 Id.
7 AP, “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a long record of promoting anti-vaccine views,” Michelle Smith, November 14, 2024, https://apnews.com/article/robert-f-kennedy-vaccines-trump-rfkjr-7f8dcb25de76a5a70710d22bbc63f6fa; BBC,“Fact-checking RFK Jr's views on health policy,” November 15, 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0mzk2y41zvo.
8 AP News, “How a Kennedy built an anti-vaccine juggernaut amid COVID-19,” Michelle Smith, December 15, 2021, https://apnews.com/article/how-rfk-jr-built-anti-vaccine-juggernaut-amid-covid-4997be1bcf591fe8b7f1f90d16c9321e; BBC, “Fact-checking RFK Jr's views on health policy,” November 15, 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0mzk2y41zvo; Inside Higher Ed, “Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Appointment Would ‘Put Americans at Risk,’” Ryan Quinn and Kathryn Palmer, November 15, 2024, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/science-research-policy/2024/11/15/what-robert-f-kennedy-jr-hassaid-about-nih.
9 The Commonwealth Fund, “Lessons from COVID-19 Can Help the U.S. Prepare for the Next Pandemic” Meagan C. Fitzpatrick, July 5, 2023, https://www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2023/lessons-covid-19-can-help-us-prepare-nextpandemic.
10 Skeptical Raptor, “Vaccine licensing primer – correcting anti-vaccine misinformation,” Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, September 25, 2021, https://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/vaccine-licensing-primer-correctinganti-vaccine-misinformation/; AP News, “How a Kennedy built an anti-vaccine juggernaut amid COVID-19,” Michelle Smith, December 15, 2021, https://apnews.com/article/how-rfk-jr-built-anti-vaccine-juggernaut-amid-covid4997be1bcf591fe8b7f1f90d16c9321e.
11 Id.; Alabama Reflector, “Fauci defends his work on COVID-19, says he has an ‘open mind’ on its origins,” Jennifer Shutt, June 4, 2024, https://alabamareflector.com/2024/06/04/fauci-defends-his-work-on-covid-19-says-he-has-anopen-mind-on-its-origins/.
12 AP, “How a Kennedy built an anti-vaccine juggernaut amid COVID-19,” Michelle Smith, December 15, 2021, https://apnews.com/article/how-rfk-jr-built-anti-vaccine-juggernaut-amid-covid-4997be1bcf591fe8b7f1f90d16c9321e.
13 NBC News, “RFK Jr. is courting Black voters, a group he once targeted with vaccine disinformation, ” Alex Tabet and Brandy Zadrozny, February 20, 2024, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/rfk-jr-black-votersvaccine-disinformation-rcna139459.
14 AP News, “How a Kennedy built an anti-vaccine juggernaut amid COVID-19,” Michelle Smith, December 15, 2021, https://apnews.com/article/how-rfk-jr-built-anti-vaccine-juggernaut-amid-covid4997be1bcf591fe8b7f1f90d16c9321e.
15 The Washington Post, “Global health experts sound alarm over RFK Jr., citing Samoa outbreak,” Sammy Westfall and Lena H. Sun, November 15, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/11/15/rfk-jr-global-healthsamoa-kennedy/.
16 Id.
17 Id.
18 Id.
19 Id.
20 NBC News, “RFK Jr. comes ‘home’ to his anti-vaccine group, commits to ‘a break’ for U.S. infectious disease research,” Brandy Zadrozny, November 3, 2023, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/rfk-jr-comes-homeanti-vaccine-group-commits-break-us-infectious-disea-rcna123551.
21 The Washington Post, “How much influence could RFK Jr. have over vaccines in Trump’s government?,” Dan Diamond, Lauren Weber, Lena H. Sun, and Rachel Roubein, November 8, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/11/08/rfk-jr-vaccines-fda-trump-health-policy/.
22 Id.
23 Id.
24 Id.
