RFK Jr. Is Vindicating His Critics

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been secretary of Health and Human Services for all of six weeks, but he’s already vindicating his critics. First he downplayed a measles outbreak in Texas. Then he reportedly hired a trial-lawyer ally to work on a government study of the link between vaccines and autism. Now he has pushed out a top Food and Drug Administration official because he helped accelerate approval of the Covid vaccines.

Mr. Kennedy grabbed headlines on Thursday by proposing to consolidate sundry HHS agencies and cut 20,000 jobs. The bloated department could use some shrinking. Most of his plan, such as refocusing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on its core mission of preparing for and responding to infectious disease outbreaks, isn’t radical.

What is disturbing are news reports that Mr. Kennedy has tapped David Geier, a longtime vaccine critic, to assist with a CDC study of vaccines and autism. The White House hasn’t confirmed the reports, but HHS lists Mr. Geier in its staff directory as a “senior data analyst.”

Mr. Geier has spent decades spreading the discredited theory, embraced by Mr. Kennedy, that thimerosal in vaccines causes autism and neurological damage in children. He has published more than a dozen studies that trial lawyers have cited as evidence of vaccines’ harms, though they have been rejected by judges and the government’s special vaccine courts.

Mr. Geier has also accused the CDC of concealing vaccine safety data and claimed that better nutrition and hygiene—not vaccines— are responsible for the disappearance of deadly infectious diseases. If Mr. Kennedy truly wants an independent, impartial review of vaccine data, Mr. Geier is the wrong man for the job. The study’s results look preordained.

Another concern is that Mr. Kennedy will create a brain drain at HHS as he pushes out scientists who don’t toe his antivaccine line. We warned last month that Mr. Kennedy might try to fire Peter Marks, the head of the FDA biologics division who helped shepherd President Trump's Operation Warp Speed for Covid vaccines in the first term.

On Friday Mr. Marks resigned, which is especially regrettable since he pushed the FDA bureaucracy to accelerate life-saving therapies for children with rare genetic disorders. He also pushed back against those in and outside of the agency, including Biden FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, who fretted that the FDA was approving too many novel drugs with high prices.

Mr. Marks writes in his resignation letter that he was willing to work with Mr. Kennedy to address his “concerns regarding vaccine safety and transparency.” However, he adds, “it has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.”

Some Senate Republicans hoped that other Trump HHS appointees—e.g., FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya—would keep Mr. Kennedy in check. It isn’t working out that way. NIH is now requiring grants or contracts involving mRNA technology to be reported to Mr. Kennedy’s office. The mRNA platform helped to develop Covid vaccines, and it has shown potential to treat and prevent other diseases including cancer.

Mr. Kennedy rightly criticized the Biden Administration’s Covid responses for ignoring science, but he won’t restore public confidence if he feeds skepticism about vaccines that have saved countless lives. Our worst fears about Mr. Kennedy are coming true.