Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. won’t acknowledge the scientific consensus that childhood vaccines do not cause autism.
That skepticism over seemingly settled science appeared to come to a head over the weekend when the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) top vaccine official was forced out and issued a fiery public letter blasting Kennedy.
“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,” wrote Peter Marks in his resignation letter.
“Efforts currently being advanced by some on the adverse health effects of vaccination are concerning,” Marks continued. “Undermining confidence in well-established vaccines … is irresponsible, detrimental to public health, and a clear danger to our nation’s health, safety, and security.”
Marks has been criticized for being too friendly with companies seeking approvals for novel gene therapies, while Kennedy has railed against what he sees as an overly cozy relationship between regulators and industry.
Public health experts and scientists have expressed fear about Kennedy’s long history as an anti-vaccine advocate since President Trump nominated him as secretary shortly after the election.
Marks’s ouster brings to a head a series of developments that seem to bolster concerns about the agency’s direction.
HHS reportedly has tasked a major player in the anti-vaccine community to conduct a study looking for the autism link that Kennedy insists is real, despite hundreds of studies showing otherwise.
In response to a rapidly growing measles outbreak in Texas, Kennedy has only tepidly supported vaccination while promoting fringe treatment ideas like vitamin A and cod liver oil, while also downplaying the severity of a measles infection.
Kennedy told NewsNation in a recent interview he wants to prioritize the creation of a new office within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to specialize in “vaccine injuries.”
HHS is also planning to fire 10,000 employees as part of a major reorganization, including every person working in the vaccine promotion and HIV prevention office.
Richard Besser, CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a former acting director of the CDC, said Kennedy is moving quickly to shape HHS in his image.
“Each of these actions alone would be unsettling. Putting them together, they indicate a clear, dangerous pattern of behavior, and to see incredible talent like Dr. Peter Marks leaving the FDA will increase the risk further,” Besser said.
“[Marks’s] departure from the FDA is a very worrisome signal that this administration is moving forward in a real way with Secretary Kennedy’s agenda to undermine trust in vaccines, and that is something that will gravely affect the health of people around the country,” Besser added.
Kennedy speaks often about following the “gold standard” of science, but experts — echoing Marks — say he is doing the opposite.
His refusal to acknowledge the data showing there is no link to autism is particularly troubling, experts said, since both he and Trump have repeatedly promoted it.
Kennedy is “talking out of both sides of his mouth,” said Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. “They’re going to spend money, time and effort doing something that’s not going to be useful, regardless of what the results are.”
Some Republican senators pressed Kennedy on his unfounded claims about vaccines during his confirmation hearing in January, but ultimately voted to support him.
Trump on social media has promoted figures that showed an inflated spike in autism among American children and cited them again during an address to a joint session of Congress in late February.
“Our goal is to get toxins out of our environment, poisons out of our food supply, and keep our children healthy and strong. As an example, not long ago, and you can’t even believe these numbers, 1 in 10,000 children had autism. … And now it’s 1 in 36. There’s something wrong, 1 in 36,” Trump said.
Trump also put Kennedy in charge of a new “Make America Healthy Again” presidential commission, which Kennedy said will scrutinize the childhood vaccine schedule as a potential cause of the country’s chronic disease epidemic, including conditions related to autism.
When Kennedy was confirmed, outside stakeholders and experts said they hoped other more “mainstream” health agency directors could act as a check on his influence.
Yet some of those top health officials have similarly refused to acknowledge that the science is settled on vaccines and autism, leaving open the idea that a government-funded study could prove a link.
Jay Bhattacharya, the newly confirmed National Institutes of Health director, told senators during his confirmation hearing he is “convinced” there is no link between the measles vaccine and autism.
But he also said he’d be open to conducting a study regardless, noting there’s been a “sharp rise” in the rates of children diagnosed with autism.
“I would support a broad scientific agenda based on data to get an answer to that,” he said.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) argued diverting limited agency resources to “keep plowing over ground that has been plowed over, knowing you can never prove a negative” doesn’t make any sense.
“There’s people who disagree that the world is round. … People still think Elvis is alive,” Cassidy said, adding that some people’s disagreements with science don’t justify a study into the links between vaccines and autism.
Yet Kennedy insists the science remains unsettled, mimicking his longtime playbook as head of the Children’s Defense Fund, an anti-vaccine advocacy group.
“There’s always a place for further testing, further understanding,” said Wendy Parmet, director of Northeastern University School of Law’s Center for Health Policy and Law.
“But there’s a real difference and a danger from moving to that kind of scientific process, to moving to a kind of nihilism, where nothing has any meaning.”
Sean O’Leary of the American Academy of Pediatrics said he fears the continued focus on vaccine injuries and autism will be harmful to the general public, who potentially can’t distinguish cherry-picked data from real results.
“It is perpetuating a myth that has been widely debunked for more than a decade, and suggesting that perhaps someone’s been hiding something,” O’Leary said. “No one’s been hiding anything.”
