RFK Jr. Wants Federal Health Data So He Can Prove Vaccines Are Unsafe, Trump Transition Co-Chair Says

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island – Co-Chair Donald Trump transition team said Trump supporter Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants access to federal health data so he can prove the vaccines are unsafe and lead to their removal from the market under a second Trump administration.

Howard Lutnick repeated a number of Kennedy’s debunked anti-vaccination talking points in an interview with CNN on Wednesday, including lies about the vaccination schedule and the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism. Trump often talked about how Kennedy, who suspended his candidacy for the presidency and endorsed him in August will play a big role if the former president returns to the White House.

Although Lutnick said Kennedy would not be selected as Secretary of Health and Human Services, he did not specify what Kennedy’s role might be. Lutnick made the comments the same day Kennedy told NewsNation that Trump had asked him to “reorganize” agencies, including the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and some Agriculture Department agencies. farms.

Lutnick’s comments sparked immediate concern among public health experts as influencing one of the most famous anti-vaccination activists in the world could lead to “serious health consequences” for Americans, especially children. They arrive just a few days before elections November 5 and since Trump, a Republican, and Democrat Kamala Harris vying to win over late-arriving voters.

Lutnick, CEO of financial services company Cantor Fitzgerald, told CNN that Kennedy wants access to the data “so he can say these things aren’t safe” and that would stop sales.

“He says: If you give me the data, all I need is the data and I will take it and show that it is not safe. And then if you remove product liability, companies will immediately remove these vaccines from the market. That’s his point,” Lutnick said.

It was unclear what data Lutnick was referring to, since extensive data and research on vaccine safety is public.

The World Health Organization estimates that global immunization efforts have resulted in savings at least 154 million lives in the last 50 years.

In recent days, Trump has said he would let Kennedy “go crazy” on health care, food and medicine. Kennedy has said repeatedly that he plans to exert his influence over a wide range of policies if Trump wins, and said Trump promised him control of health agencies and said he wanted him to reorganize them.

Asked about Kennedy’s comments and his role in the Trump administration, Jason Miller, a senior campaign adviser, said the only thing Trump and his campaign are focused on is winning on Nov. 5.

“Whatever comes after this will come after this, and President Trump has made it clear that Bobby Kennedy will play an important role,” Miller wrote.

It would be “extremely dangerous” to put Kennedy in a position of power where he could make decisions or be able to change regulatory policy, said Joshua Sharfstein, associate dean for public health practice at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“Removing vaccines from the market would have serious consequences for American health,” said Sharfstein, a former deputy commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “We go about our daily lives in the United States without worrying about many preventable diseases. like measles, because of the protection that vaccines provide. But if there is a systematic effort to use the federal government’s tools to undermine vaccinations, children will not be safe. Dot.

Even if Kennedy were given a smaller role, with input and commentary but no control over policy, it could still be damaging, according to people who have held public health positions in government.

“Advisers like Scott Atlas have demonstrated the significant influence they can wield without congressional oversight, raising concerns about misinformation and harm,” Trump’s chief surgeon, Dr. Jerome Adams, wrote in an email, referring to the former Trump adviser on the COVID-19 pandemic. a radiologist with no experience in the field of infectious diseases who advocated for the widely discredited herd immunity strategy.

Adams said he believed it was unlikely that Kennedy could be appointed to lead a major health agency because he has no medical experience, he would likely have difficulty passing a background check for a top secret clearance, and he would likely not enough support in Congress, although Trump bypassed the background check system during his first administration and filled his Cabinet with sitting officials who did not receive congressional approval.

Kennedy’s anti-vaccine organization has a pending lawsuit against news organizations including the Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy is on leave from the group but is named in the lawsuit as one of its lawyers.

Republican lawmakers have long enjoyed (and reciprocated) support from drug companies, even promising to repeal a law signed by Democratic President Joe Biden that allows the government to negotiate the price of prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries. Republicans argue the law will hurt businesses and stifle innovation in the industry. But vaccine skepticism, growing across the country, has deepened among conservatives.

In addition to the health and well-being of people, the possibility that Kennedy’s influence will cause debunked ideas, such as the vaccine-autism link, to resurface and waste time, energy and money has disheartened public health advocates.

“Trump helped bring the vaccine to market, and he took the vaccine. … I don’t know why he’s giving this man this megaphone,” said Amy Pisani, CEO of Vaccinate Your Family, noting that Trump’s Operation Warp Speed ​​helped bring a COVID-19 vaccine to market even though Kennedy was relentless criticized her.

Vaccinate Your Family is a nonpartisan group founded by former First Lady Rosalynn Carter and former First Lady of Arkansas Betty Bumpers, which has worked on vaccination programs with both Republican and Democratic presidential administrations over the past 30 years.

“I don’t want to go back 30 years and fight the anti-vaccine movement,” Pisani said. “To go back in time and spend millions and millions of taxpayer dollars again on this witch hunt is simply untenable.”

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Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz in Washington contributed to this report.