After Spending Hours On Capitol Hill Last Week, RFK Jr. Raises Fresh Ethics Concerns With New Filings Suggesting He Would Enrich Family Through Anti-Vaccine Litigation
Over the weekend, headlines made it clear that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s disastrous confirmation hearings have placed his nomination to serve as Secretary of Health & Human Services (HHS) in deep jeopardy. Senators and commentators alike have grown increasingly worried about Kennedy’s conflicts of interest and potential ethical concerns after he released a revised ethics form showing that he and his family still stand to profit from ongoing anti-vaccine litigation he would have direct influence over. The American people know that Kennedy’s nomination poses a grave threat to the health and well-being of the public. During the hearings, Kennedy doubled down on his anti-vaccine views, refusing to disavow past comments linking vaccines to autism, calling Lyme disease a military bioweapon, proposing that Black Americans should be on a different vaccine schedule, and much more. Kennedy’s anti-vaccine views, financial ties, and history of pushing misinformation – not to mention his complete lack of qualifications and experience to lead HHS – continue to loom over his nomination.
IN THE NEWS
The Washington Post: Democrats Call To Slow RFK Jr. Nomination As He Revises Ethics Form.
- “Senate Democrats on Friday called to slow the confirmation process for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is seeking to become the nation’s top health official, after Kennedy said he would amend his ethics forms following questions about a potential conflict of interest. The issue centers on questions about Kennedy’s financial stake in litigation against a manufacturer of a vaccine that protects against the human papillomavirus, known as HPV. Kennedy played a key role in ongoing litigation that alleges Merck did not sufficiently explain the risks of the vaccine and that some recipients have been harmed. Merck has defended the safety of its vaccine, which has been widely administered to adolescents and can prevent cervical cancer, and dismissed the allegations as baseless. Kennedy on Friday said he was moving to modify his ethical disclosures to the Senate and divest his financial stake in the case. Senators said they had not received Kennedy’s amended form and asked for additional time to consider his nomination, saying his new statements raised more questions about his potential conflicts of interest.”
NBC News: Democratic Senators Say They Have ‘Grave Concerns’ Over RFK Jr.’s Potential Financial Conflicts.
- “The senators called on Kennedy to make a series of commitments in writing to address their concerns about financial conflicts, including that he would recuse himself from vaccine-related decisions and communications, recuse himself from HHS matters that involve cases or litigation that he or his family have an interest in, and pledge not to litigate cases involving vaccines or have a financial interest in litigation for four years after he leaves the post. Kennedy was roundly criticized last week after his financial disclosures were filed, with Warren pointedly asking him whether he would pledge that for four years after he leaves his post as health and human services secretary he would not profit from his actions in government. Kennedy would not do so.”
Bloomberg: US Lawmakers Ask RFK Jr. to Stay Away From Vaccine Decisions.
- “Democratic lawmakers in the US are asking Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to stay away from all vaccine-related decisions if confirmed as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services because his family could benefit from anti-vaccine litigation. ‘These conflicts, combined with your decades-long career casting doubt about the safety and efficacy of life-saving vaccines, give us grave concern about your fitness to serve as Secretary,’ Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote in a letter to Kennedy dated Feb. 2.”
Mother Jones: RFK Jr. Refuses to Disclose to Senate Details of Two “Misconduct” Cases He Settled.
- “On Friday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., responding to written questions from Senate Democrats, revealed information about his personal history that was not yet part of the public record: He had settled at least one case in which he had been accused of ‘misconduct or inappropriate behavior.’ Kennedy also acknowledged that he had been party to at least one non-disclosure agreement. But in that reply Kennedy provided no details about these allegations. He only offered a one-word reply when asked if he had ever been accused in such a fashion: ‘Yes.’ Consequently, Senate Democrats followed up with another written query to Kennedy, the anti-vaxxer and conspiracy theorist who has been nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. […] The Senate Democrats had asked for the total amounts of the settlements, and Kennedy did not provide that information. Nor did this response indicate what ‘misconduct or inappropriate behavior’ had been alleged.”
STAT: RFK Jr. Is Giving His Son Any Fees He Earns From Gardasil Vaccine Litigation.
- “Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, is giving away the fees that he could earn from litigation over Merck’s HPV vaccine Gardasil — to one of his sons.”
- “Kennedy has referred ‘many hundreds of cases’ to the law firm Wisner Baum, including related to Gardasil, according to a written response Kennedy gave to the Senate Finance Committee. Kennedy is entitled to 10% of the fees that the personal injury law firm earns from those cases, whether by settlement, judgement, or otherwise. Kennedy made $856,559 in referral fees from Wisner Baum from the beginning of 2023 through Dec. 21, according to his financial disclosures.”
Associated Press: Pro-RFK Jr. Letter To The Senate Includes Names Of Doctors Whose Licenses Were Revoked Or Suspended.
- “A letter submitted to the U.S. Senate that states it was sent by physicians in support of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination as secretary of Health and Human Services includes the names of doctors who have had their licenses revoked, suspended or faced other discipline, The Associated Press has found. The letter was meant to lend credibility to Kennedy’s nomination, which has faced strenuous opposition from medical experts due to his two decades of anti-vaccine activism. […] The AP found that in addition to the physicians who had faced disciplinary action, many of the nearly 800 signers are not doctors. The letter with the names of those who signed was provided to the AP by Sen. Ron Johnson’s office after he entered it into the Congressional Record on Wednesday during the first of Kennedy’s two confirmation hearings.”
The Washington Post: RFK Jr. Confirmation Could Hinge On His Embrace Of False Vaccine-Autism Link.
- “Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a leading proponent of the false assertion that vaccines cause autism, would not acknowledge the overwhelming evidence that dispels that theory when he faced senators during his confirmation hearings this week. Instead, he insisted the research is mixed, citing as evidence a poorly researched study funded by an anti-vaccine group published in an online journal led by anti-vaccine activists. The observational study has been blasted by medical experts. The debunked connection has emerged as a critical point of contention as Kennedy’s longtime anti-vaccine advocacy complicates his path to becoming secretary of the mammoth Department of Health and Human Services.”
Axios: RFK Jr. Elusive Answering Senators’ Vaccine Questions.
- “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave a series of vague or elusive answers to written questions from senators probing his vaccine views, refusing to walk back several previous controversial positions. Why it matters: Decision time is quickly approaching for senators who must vote on whether to confirm Kennedy as Health and Human Services secretary, and he’s certainly not making the vote easy for the handful who are on the fence.”
CNN: Fact Check: RFK Jr. Denied Saying Things He Did Say.
- “Over and over at a confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Democratic senators confronted Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about controversial comments they said he had made in the past. And over and over, President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services either denied having said those things or said he wasn’t sure he had said them. So CNN reviewed his comments in context — listening to full recordings of his interviews and poring over one of his books. We found that Kennedy did make some of the comments he denied making or claimed not to remember whether he had made, though there was at least one case in which his Wednesday denial was accurate.”
HuffPost: RFK Jr.’s Stunning Claim About Black People And Vaccines Sparks Concern From Medical Experts.
- “From COVID-19 conspiracy theories to confusion on the facts about Medicare and Medicaid to refusing to say that vaccines aren’t linked to autism, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation hearings this week on Capitol Hill were anything but smooth for someone who is hoping to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. While his history of anti-vaccine remarks was a major talking point throughout the hearings, his beliefs were also front and center during a heated exchange in which Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) brought up a comment that Kennedy once made about vaccinations and the Black community. In 2021, Kennedy had said, ‘We should not be giving Black people the same vaccine schedule that’s given to whites, because their immune system is better than ours.’ Alsobrooks asked Kennedy to explain what he meant by that remark, and he went on to reference a ‘series of studies’ while saying research shows that ‘Blacks need fewer antigens.’ (For the record, experts say that this is not true.)”
The Washington Post: How RFK Jr.’s Assurances To Senators Contradict His Past Remarks.
- “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tried this week to distance himself from a long history of promoting conspiracy theories and false information as he parried questions from senators who are weighing whether to confirm him as the nation’s next health and human services secretary. During confirmation hearings Wednesday and Thursday, he repeatedly insisted he did not oppose vaccinations, despite founding an anti-vaccine organization years ago. A Washington Post investigation identified dozens of times in recent years when Kennedy disparaged vaccines, including his claims that immunizations ‘poisoned an entire generation of American children’ and that doctors have ‘butchered all these children’ by providing routine immunization.”
COMMENTARY
The Hill (Opinion): RFK Jr Says He’ll ‘Follow The Science.’ The Question Is, Whose Science?.
- “As the leader of the Department of Health and Human Services, Kennedy, a well-known vaccine skeptic with a history of pushing conspiracy theories, would wield immense power over our nation’s health system. Over two days of fiery hearings, senators grilled Kennedy over his past statements that vaccines cause autism, Lyme Disease was biologically engineered, support for abortion and more.”
The Houston Chronicle (Opinion): If You Think Healthcare Is Overwhelmed Now, Just Wait For RFK.
- “Are companies prepared for the loss in productivity as workers stay home to deal with illnesses preventable with a simple vaccine? They won’t have to wait long; children’s diseases including measles, mumps, rubella and pertussis are already in our communities, and the more unvaccinated children there are, the more prevalent they will become. Polio, diphtheria and typhoid are global scourges and won’t be far behind. Parents will have to take time off to care for sick children, sometimes for several weeks, as many of these childhood illnesses can run long courses, run sequentially through a family or have serious complications. […] If Kennedy is confirmed, the economic, societal, scientific and personal toll on American companies and the American people will be irreparable.”
Newsweek (Opinion): RFK Jr. Is Too Dangerous, Unqualified To Lead HHS.
- “President Donald Trump’s choice to nominate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to serve as secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and place the lives and health of every American in the hands of a conspiracy theorist, misinformation spreader, and science denier is the wrong one. […] In short, the stakes for nominating a secretary are life and death. Americans deserve a leader who is prepared, capable, and serious about protecting their health. Mr. Kennedy’s record, however, proves that he does not meet this standard.”
STAT (Opinion): Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Is Unfit To Lead HHS.
- “Now that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s two confirmation hearings have concluded on Capitol Hill, we have clear evidence that he is unfit to lead our nation’s largest health agency. Throughout the hearings there was a great focus on his years long efforts to undermine the public’s confidence in vaccines. His advocacy record against vaccines has been exhaustively examined and is clear, unequivocal and beyond dispute. But the hearings also made it clear to that he is unqualified well beyond his positions on vaccines. Kennedy’s testimony demonstrated that he has neither the training, management experience, judgment, or understanding of science to be our nation’s chief health official.”
The New York Times (Opinion): Our Health in the Hands of a Man Who’d Make Us Sick
- “Kennedy began to urge me to write about childhood vaccines, citing discredited arguments that they caused autism. I had read the vaccine research and considered his views uninformed, conspiratorial and dangerous, and his dogmatism soured me on his judgment in general. I decided it would be inappropriate to quote someone with such a mind-set. And if a person isn’t qualified to be quoted in a column, he probably isn’t the best choice to run America’s health programs.”
The Washington Post (Opinion): RFK Jr.’s Confirmation Hearings Were Even Worse Than Expected.
- “As senators deliberate, they should remember the core medical principle of ‘first do no harm.’ Whatever gains that could be made from chronic disease prevention would all be undone if previously eliminated infectious diseases such as measles and polio came roaring back, and if the United States faces another pandemic, as we very well could with the H5N1 avian flu. The question in front of them is whether Kennedy should be trusted with the health and safety of the American people. The answer cannot be clearer.”