Daniel Payne , 2025-04-16 20:31:00
WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. downplayed his past criticism of vaccines as he sought to become the nation’s health secretary.
Now, just two months after winning confirmation, he’s frequently returning to rhetoric from his time as perhaps the most prominent vaccine critic in the U.S.
In recent interviews and appearances, Kennedy has suggested without evidence that some vaccines are risky, argued that others don’t work at all, promoted fringe treatments for a vaccine-preventable disease, called the FDA a “sock puppet” for the industries it regulates, called the state of a key U.S. vaccine safety system “outrageous,” and moved to study — and, by September, potentially determine — the causes of rising rates of autism, which he has previously blamed on vaccines.
To those who worked closely with him to foment skepticism of vaccines, his recent remarks sound familiar.
“He’s the same Bobby Kennedy, 100%,” said Mary Holland, CEO of Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine advocacy group Kennedy founded. “I think that he’s on the right track.”
Kennedy stepped down from his role leading Children’s Health Defense before taking the reins at the Department of Health and Human Services, and he has no formal relationship with the organization, Holland said.
Another anti-vaccine activist close to Kennedy agreed with Holland’s assessment.
“I don’t believe Bobby Kennedy’s ever changed,” said Del Bigtree, CEO of the MAHA Alliance PAC and manager of the corporation that owns the Make America Healthy Again trademark. “I think he is always the same person.”
Kennedy’s return to anti-vaccine talking points comes after months of questions about how he would run the health department, including from Republicans like Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a physician and strong supporter of vaccines who was concerned about Kennedy’s past rhetoric resurfacing.
“Can I trust that that is now in the past?” Cassidy asked at a hearing in January.
Kennedy ultimately promised, among a slew of other assurances to Cassidy, to boost public trust in evidence-based medicine and not change a number of vaccine-related policies within HHS. Cassidy in turn voted to confirm him to lead HHS.
Some of Kennedy’s comments last week seemed in alignment with those pledges. He said the measles vaccine is the “most effective way” to prevent measles and said his position — and that of the government — was that people should get the shot.
Cassidy had urged public health leaders to speak out in support of measles vaccinations and praised Kennedy for his pro-vaccine comments — though he has largely avoided questions about Kennedy’s remarks calling the safety of shots into question. A Cassidy spokesperson declined to comment on the dynamic, besides pointing to the senator’s posts on the topic.
But Kennedy’s comments in support of the measles vaccine haven’t stopped him from — at the same time — suggesting the current vaccine system in the U.S. is risky because the government doesn’t adequately monitor side effects or efficacy of shots of all kinds.
On Tuesday, he said he plans to change the vaccine injury surveillance program. His idea is to automate parts of the system and add new data in service of understanding the “culprits” contributing to the rise of chronic diseases.
Then on Wednesday, Kennedy denied established researchers’ assertion that autism risk is largely driven by genetics. He instead pushed a theory that a rise in cases is a result of exposure to environmental toxins — including in medicines. His comments echoed years of arguing that vaccines cause autism. Scientists have extensively explored whether vaccines are linked to autism and have found they are not.
Kennedy’s stances go beyond messaging. Late last month, a vaccine chief at the FDA was forced out of his role, saying Kennedy sought data to justify his anti-vaccine beliefs. And a Novavax Covid-19 vaccine’s review was delayed by a political appointee, a move Kennedy defended.
Still, Kennedy’s support for vaccines he once decried as deadly doesn’t trouble Holland, despite her insistence that the current measles vaccine has problems.
“I don’t think it’s inappropriate for him as HHS secretary to endorse what is today the government’s position — that obviously may change over time as there is greater radical transparency,” she said. She added that Kennedy’s insistence that the government shouldn’t mandate vaccines has been another sign that he’s now working toward the same goals he had while leading Children’s Health Defense.
Through the outbreak, Children’s Health Defense has continually argued parents should think twice about getting their children vaccinated. The group promoted the comments of a father who refuses to vaccinate his children, despite one of them dying from measles. Kennedy and the father have suggested she died from other causes.
Holland said she’s hopeful Kennedy is just getting started. She wants Kennedy to look into how he can set rules around electromagnetic radiation — which Children’s Health Defense has argued harms human health via cell towers — and increase the transparency of the agency, among other things. (The reported firings of staff working in FOIA offices, she said, were in service of the goal of transparency.)
And she wants him to change how the agency approves vaccines.
“I am looking for him to meet his own benchmarks: and that is gold-standard science,” she said. “I cannot imagine that it will look the way it does 1744867489 in two to four years.”
Bigtree, meanwhile, has at times seemed frustrated by Kennedy’s apparent reversal in recommending the measles shot.
“Your post got cut off: …the MMR is also one of the most effective ways to cause autism,” Bigtree, previously communications director for Kennedy’s presidential campaign, posted in response to Kennedy’s statement last week. He added that he believes Kennedy “has a heart that is incapable of compromise.”
Public health officials say the old Bobby Kennedy is back, too.
“All of those things that he demonstrated he had done before — that he promised he wouldn’t do — he turned around and did,” said Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, which last week called for Kennedy to step down. “It has enormous negative implications.”
Justin Gill, a nurse practitioner, said he regularly treats patients who are confused about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines or misinformed about medical issues that have become politicized.
“I’m seeing this from patients every day,” said Gill, who is president of the Washington State Nurses Association and said Kennedy’s comments are worsening the situation. “It creates conflicting information when you need clarity.”