Whopper of the Week: RFK Jr.’s Search for Hidden Vaccine Injuries Fails Again

THIS WEEK'S WHOPPER:

RFK JR.'S SEARCH FOR HIDDEN VACCINE INJURIES FAILS AGAIN

IN SUMMARY

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is famous for blaming chronic conditions on vaccines and for suing vaccine manufacturers. As a wellness grifter, he was free to make unsupported statements, but as the Secretary of Health and Human Services, he now needs to produce evidence for his claims. Kennedy can no longer say that “we do not have sufficient surveillance systems on vaccine safety post-approval” or imply that damning data has been hidden when vaccine surveillance is under his authority. Since taking office, Kennedy has promoted a half dozen projects that were meant to “find the root sources” of chronic disease in health databases. So far the studies have come up empty. Kennedy is finding out the hard way that Gold Standard Science is not as easy as making stuff up and posting it on social media.

WHY IS THIS A WHOPPER?

Last week a leaked report from an advisory board at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claimed that the COVID-19 vaccine might cause a chronic condition similar to Long COVID. While Long Covid has been intensely studied and is understood as a complex post-infection condition that affects millions, no medical organization recognizes any chronic illness caused by the COVID-19 vaccines. The CDC has several programs monitoring vaccine safety and could easily have provided data and analysis. But the advisory board relied primarily on case reports and surveys. The introduction to the report highlighted a survey about whether respondents “knew someone who died” from the COVID-19 vaccine. A poll of unconfirmed deaths of acquaintances is not evidence that COVID-19 vaccines cause chronic injuries. 

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD, an epidemiologist and founding member of Defend Public Health, explained that the advisory group was trying to “create the illusion that Long COVID is actually a common “vaccine injury”. Their hypothesis falls apart quickly. The identification of patients with Long Covid symptoms pre-dates the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines. In fact, as more people got vaccinated over the course of the pandemic, the rates of Long Covid actually declined. Studies have since demonstrated that people who are vaccinated against COVID-19 have, on average, a 40% lower risk of developing Long Covid than those who are not vaccinated, even for children. None of this matters to Kennedy’s allies at the MAHA Institute, who held a conveniently timed panel on COVID shots last week, entitled the “Massive Epidemic of Vaccine Injury” to amplify the illusion that Long Covid could be a vaccine injury. They are exploiting the fact that Long COVID is relatively common, to make it seem like vaccine injuries are too. They are not.

Over the last year, Kennedy has launched multiple projects whose objectives are to find a causal link between vaccines and “injuries like cancers, autoimmune diseases, allergies, fertility problems, and neurological illnesses.” His attempts to manufacture data have failed so far. In April 2025 Kennedy announced he would create an automated vaccine adverse event reporting system to generate more cases directly from health records. In May 2025 he proposed an autism registry with data from public and private health insurers; advocacy groups protested and plans were dropped. Kennedy hired an autism therapy quack, giving him deep access to a key reporting database on adverse events, to find associations between vaccines and autism. No results have been published. In March 2026, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it had consolidated all medical product adverse event reporting into a single Adverse Event Monitoring System (AEMS) and will use artificial intelligence to detect patterns and that merit investigation. AEMS will be publicly searchable even though anyone can submit a report, which is not verified and cannot prove causation. AEMS data will provide anti-vaccine advocates with an illusion of causality.  

Last fall, two Kennedy appointees at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Tracy Beth Hoeg and Vinay Prasad, produced an internal report on child fatalities post COVID-19 vaccination that echoed the Long Covid playbook. In September, Hoeg's proposed study about pediatric deaths was so flawed none of the FDA expert staff supported it. Vinay Prasad then leaked its findings to the press in the form of an internal memo which claimed that “at least 10 children have died after and because of receiving COVID-19 vaccination.” The memo contained no verified data and a promised report never materialized. A dozen former FDA commissioners criticized Prasad for tossing “aside the basic rules of science.” They called for “open deliberation, solid evidence, and procedures the public can see and trust.” This was just one episode in Prasad’s controversial and chaotic tenure at the FDA; he is stepping down in a reorganization of HHS leadership.

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

In the absence of good data supporting his policy proposals, Kennedy has had to settle for faulty research from ideological allies which fail to convince the medical or scientific community. Isolated from mainstream professionals, Kennedy resorts to other influence tactics. He stacks scientific advisory boards with unqualified supporters; he amplifies weak papers through MAHA aligned organizations;  he announces policies by posting on X and Instagram.

Kennedy’s main audience is the general public which finds disagreement about vaccines between doctors, scientists and the CDC confusing. Any discussion of a possible association with an adverse event plants seeds of doubt. Every time Kennedy discusses research the purpose is to stoke uncertainty and increase vaccine hesitancy. 

The professional health community has challenged Kennedy's scientific processes and policies.  A federal judge recently nullified recent changes to the CDC’s immunization schedule because an advisory panel was improperly appointed and under-qualified. Kennedy's habit of bypassing the open discussion and deliberation of science-based policies is against the law.  It also destroys America’s trust in its health agencies.

Contributors to this post are: Benedicte Callan, Ph.D.,  Elizabeth Jacobs, Ph.D., Aurora Horstkamp, M.D.