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When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. assumed the role of the nation’s top health official last year, scientists and health professionals were naturally fretting about how the anti-vaccine activist would approach vaccine policy.
But during his first few months in office, Kennedy repeatedly offered two assurances designed to quell those concerns.
The Department of Health and Human Services, with its $1.8 trillion budget, would operate with “radical transparency” and produce only “gold-standard science” under his lead, Kennedy regularly vowed.
Our most recent reporting at KFF Health News found that neither of those criteria was met in developing President Donald Trump’s executive order issued last week, which calls for the U.S. to reduce the number of childhood vaccine recommendations; split up the measles, mumps, and rubella shot; and prioritize “religious freedom” over school vaccination requirements.
Trump’s order, titled “Delivering Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations for Americans,” offers no new scientific research to support its prescriptions. Kennedy stood beside Trump in the Oval Office as the president discussed the order, often suggesting that vaccines are to blame for a rise in autism diagnoses.
That struck us as odd since Kennedy had promised to pinpoint an environmental cause of autism by September of last year. He made that pledge despite decades of research showing that factors such as genetics, the age of a father, and the health of a mother play important roles. A significant body of science also shows vaccines have nothing to do with the disorder.
And Kennedy blew past that deadline.
The National Institutes of Health held a webinar this week to report on the autism initiative’s research and findings. One media outlet reported on the presentations, noting that the pace of science is often slow.
Meanwhile, those with a stake in the efforts to more conclusively identify the causes of autism told us they’ve been shut out of the process. Kennedy, instead, has trusted political appointees — many of whom lack scientific or research credentials — to lead the initiative. In a briefing with reporters, White House officials refused to answer my questions about the status of Kennedy’s hunt for autism’s cause. Without providing the public with new research to support their assertions, Kennedy and Trump have fallen back on old, discredited theories about autism and vaccines to issue their new directive.
Several sources pointed out to us that the endeavor hasn’t exactly been radical in its transparency.
Or, as renowned psychologist Helen Tager-Flusberg put it, “This is as opaque as it could possibly be.”
The Trump administration is working to implement the president’s new order on childhood vaccines, which he publicly faulted for a rise in autism — even as health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s closed-door research has yet to produce evidence linking them.
