RFK Jr. Used ‘Disinformation’ to Defend Change to Vaccine Schedule, Expert Says: Reports

The Department of Health and Human Services sent Congress a document to support Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to change federal vaccine recommendations that cited unpublished or disputed studies and misrepresented other findings, according to NPR and KFF Health News.

In late May, Kennedy, who has a history of vaccine skepticism, announced on X that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) removed the COVID vaccine from the recommended immunization schedule for healthy children and pregnant women, while touting President Trump’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.

“It is so far out of left field that I find it insulting to our members of Congress that they would actually give them something like this. Congress members are relying on these agencies to provide them with valid information, and it’s just not there,” Dr. Mark Turrentine, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine, told KFF Health News, the outlet that obtained the FAQ document.

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The outlet also reported that the document suggests a link between heart conditions like myocarditis or pericarditis and the COVID vaccine, but updated research suggests that connection has decreased with newer vaccine procedures.

The document also left out multiple other peer-reviewed studies that show the risk of myocarditis and pericarditis is greater after getting sick with COVID for both vaccinated and non-vaccinated people than the risk of the same complications after vaccination alone, per KFF Health News. 

“There is no distortion of the studies in this document. The underlying data speaks for itself, and it raises legitimate safety concerns. HHS will not ignore that evidence or downplay it. We will follow the data and the science,” a HHS spokesperson told KFF Health News.

“This is RFK Jr.’s playbook,”  Sean O’Leary, chair of the Committee on Infectious Diseases for the American Academy of Pediatrics, told KFF Health News. “Either cherry-pick from good science or take junk science to support his premise — this has been his playbook for 20 years.”