Scrutinizing Robert F. Kennedy, Jr: What Do His Statements Mean?

August 16, 2025

When listening to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Donald Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), we sometimes feel that we have gone “Through the Looking Glass.”  This is because Kennedy often uses phrases that are completely at variance with the scientific consensus on an issue.  Also, he often describes his actions as exactly the opposite of what he is doing.  In addition, Kennedy regularly spreads falsehoods about medicine, especially about vaccines. In this post, we parse a series of RFK Jr.’s stock phrases and try to determine what they mean when coming from Kennedy. 

Figure 1: As Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. repeatedly issues false statements about public health issues in the U.S.

I: “I Am Not Anti-Vaccine:”

This phrase is repeated by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in every public appearance or in every book where vaccination is discussed.  Not only is this claim false, but RFK Jr. also works tirelessly (and dishonestly) to sow doubt about the safety of vaccines.  For example, when testifying before Congress or trying to allay fears that he will campaign against vaccines, Kennedy frequently says “I’m not anti-vaccine, my children are all vaccinated.”  However, in a 2020 podcast from Kennedy’s former organization Children’s Health Defense, Kennedy told his audience “What would I do if I could go back in time and I could avoid giving my children the vaccines that I gave them? I would do anything for that. I would pay anything to be able to do that.”  And Kennedy has also claimed that he frequently urges people not to vaccinate their children.  “I see somebody on a hiking trail carrying a little baby and I say to him, ‘Better not get him vaccinated.’”  This is obvious proof that RFK Jr. is anti-vaccine; also, that he lies when he publicly denies this fact. 

To illustrate the power of childhood vaccinations, in Fig. I.1 we show the number of measles cases in the U.S. from 1962 to 2023.  In 1963 the measles vaccine was released, and cases of measles in the U.S. dropped precipitously after a high of about 500,000 cases per year.  After an outbreak of measles in 1989, a second dose of the measles vaccine was recommended.  The number of measles cases then dropped so that in 2000, it was declared that endemic measles had been exterminated.  The only occurring measles cases in the U.S. were introduced by people who had traveled in foreign countries. 

Figure I.1: Measles cases in the U.S. from 1962 – 2023.  The measles vaccine was introduced in 1963; after an outbreak in 1989 a second dose was recommended.  Measles was declared eliminated in 2000.  From 2015 through 2024, no measles deaths were recorded in the U.S.

Figure I.2: Measles cases in the U.S. from 2000 – 2025.  After only 6 months of 2025, the number of measles cases has reached a 30-year high.  Measles outbreaks, including the largest that started in West Texas, are continuing.  If measles cases do not cease by the end of 2025, the U.S. will no longer be able to claim that it is free of measles.  

In early 2025 Kennedy was undergoing confirmation hearings for his appointment as head of HHS.  In answer to a direct question from Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, a gastroenterologist, Kennedy pledged that he would not alter the childhood vaccine schedule.  However, since his confirmation as HHS Secretary, Kennedy has postponed meetings of key committees that determine vaccine schedules and research.  Kennedy then fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  Members of ACIP are typically experts in vaccines or public health, and their selection follows a rigorous process.  In the past, ACIP candidates would be vetted for a period of up to two years before they could be named to this panel. 

Every two years, new members were added to the panel as the terms of some members came to an end.  This ensured that the ACIP panel retained an institutional memory of its prior actions.  However, in June 2025 RFK Jr. fired all 17 members of ACIP.  He then appointed 8 new members, one of whom rapidly resigned.  There was no significant vetting process for the new committee members, who were apparently appointed by Kennedy himself.  One of the reasons cited by Kennedy for firing all members of the ACIP panel was that the committee had been “plagued with persistent conflicts of interest.”  Here, RFK Jr misrepresents the situation with conflicts of interest (COI).  In many situations, and certainly with ACIP panels, it is not possible to completely avoid COI.  In those cases, the best solution is for members to disclose any conflicts of interest, and then develop a plan to manage the COI, ensuring that these conflicts have a minimal effect on their recommendations.  This is how the ACIP panel dealt with conflicts of interest. 

But with RFK Jr’s 7-person ACIP panel, no COI or ethics forms were released prior to the June 2025 panel meeting.  At present, ethics and financial disclosure information is available only for a few of the panel members.  At least two of the new panel members appear to have served as paid witnesses in anti-vaccine trials, and some new appointees had expressed opposition to vaccines, particularly vaccines developed using mRNA techniques.  Although Kennedy promised that the new panel would be far more “balanced” and transparent than the old ACIP committee, many experts in public health have expressed their fears that RFK Jr. is “unraveling the system that kept vaccines safe.” 

Firing the existing ACIP 17-person panel and replacing them with 7 members hand-picked by Kennedy dramatically decreased the experience of the committee.  On average, the new panelists authored 78% fewer vaccine-related papers than the preceding panelists.  Four of the new members had no vaccine-related papers.  According to an article in Medpage Today, “the fired panelists produced, on average, 49 vaccine papers each, compared with just 11 for the committee’s new members.”  

Figure I.3: New York Times headline of Aug. 7, 2025, noting that RFK Jr.’s stance on vaccines is dramatically at odds with the consensus of the scientific community. 

Kennedy’s first actions as HHS Secretary show his deep anti-vaccine bias.  As he was confirmed, a measles epidemic was raging in West Texas.  That outbreak has slowed, nevertheless there have been 1,356 cases of measles in the U.S. as of August 5, 2025, as shown in Fig. I.2.  Of those, 92% of victims were unvaccinated or with unknown vaccination status, 13% of people who contracted measles were hospitalized and 3 have died.  Compare this with 2024, when the U.S. had 285 total cases, 40% of those were hospitalized and none died.  Herd immunity against measles spread in a community is attained only when at least 93% of inhabitants are vaccinated against measles. In his first press conference as HHS Secretary, Kennedy said that the West Texas measles outbreak was “nothing unusual,” despite the fact that two people had already died (three, as of August 14, 2025), compared with no U.S. measles deaths in the preceding decade.  Also, at this press conference Kennedy said nothing about vaccination to prevent the spread of the disease. 

Later, Kennedy grudgingly admitted that vaccination was the best step to prevent measles outbreaks, but he had previously praised remedies such as cod liver oil (a source of vitamin A) and corticosteroids as potential treatments for the disease.  Neither of these products has ever been shown to prevent measles cases.  Kennedy also continued to claim that vaccination should be a personal choice.  The measles outbreaks spreading through the U.S. could have been completely prevented if nearly all children had received the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccines. 

Kennedy was also involved in earlier incidents of vaccine denial.  In 2017, two nurses in Samoa mistakenly mixed MMR vaccines with a muscle relaxant instead of water; this mistake caused the deaths of two children.  After Samoan anti-vaxxers claimed that this incident showed the dangers of vaccines, by 2019 vaccination rates in Samoa had dropped from 74% to around 33%.  At that point, a measles epidemic infected 5,700 people and caused 87 deaths, the majority of which were children four years and younger.  Kennedy’s response was to co-author a letter to the Samoan prime minister suggesting that the measles vaccine may have “failed to produce antibodies” in vaccinated mothers; also, they speculated that the vaccine may have caused “the evolution of more virulent measles strains.”  They had the gall to blame the measles vaccines for causing the deaths in Samoa!  Samoa’s top health official characterized Kennedy’s remarks about the 2019 measles epidemic in that country as “a complete lie,” as discussed in an Associated Press article whose headline is shown in Fig. I.4.  

Figure I.4: Feb. 3, 2025 headline to an AP article pointing out that RFK Jr. misled the US Senate regarding his role in the 2019 measles epidemic in Samoa.

Another of Kennedy’s dubious initiatives as HHS Secretary was the announcement of a new NIH study of whether vaccines are associated with autism.  This was a head-scratcher, as scores of studies conducted around the world covering more than a million children (e.g., in Holland and Denmark), have conclusively shown that there is no correlation between vaccines and autism.  Kennedy has publicized claims that minute quantities of thimerosal, an ethylmercury product that has been added to multi-use vials of vaccines to prevent the growth of bacteria and fungi, is a cause of autism.  Thimerosal has never been used in the MMR vaccine, and since 2001 it has been removed from nearly all vaccine products in the developed world.  Robust clinical studies show no relationship between thimerosal and autism; however, RFK and his associates at Children’s Health Defense (CHD) continue to claim a connection (a  paper from CHD references 25 papers by the notorious anti-vaxxers Mark and David Geier, who are shown in Fig. I.5). Thus, a new study of a potential vaccine-autism link was completely unnecessary.  But in a shocking development, HHS has appointed David Geier to conduct this study.  David Geier (called a “discredited vaccine skeptic” in a New York Times article) is completely unfit to head a study on vaccines and autism.  You can find a more detailed review of the Geiers in our blog post on Vaccinations. 

Figure I.5: Dr. Mark Geier (L) and his son David Geier.  The Geiers are discredited researchers who published many articles claiming vaccine injury.  HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has chosen David Geier to head a study searching for a correlation between vaccines and autism, despite the fact that David Geier has no medical degree and many robust clinical studies have shown no such correlation. 

Kennedy has also made nonsensical public claims about other vaccines that have saved millions of lives. A New York Times article published during RFK Jr.’s confirmation hearings reiterated some of his baseless claims about the polio vaccine, one of the greatest medical achievements of the 20th century: “he has suggested that after the vaccine was first introduced, it might have caused a wave of cancers ‘that killed many, many, many, many, many more people than polio ever did.’ And he has said the idea that the vaccine resulted in a drastic decline in polio cases is ‘a mythology’ that is ‘just not true.’” And on COVID-19 Kennedy testified to a November 2021 Louisiana House oversight hearing that the data “confirms that this is the deadliest vaccine ever made.” How did he come to this conclusion? By claiming that the vaccine itself caused every single U.S. death recorded for eight months after people received COVID vaccinations!

Kennedy’s style in books such as Vax – Unvax is to begin with the statement “I am not anti-vaccine,” followed by 80 pages of vaccine denial, and then to end by repeating the same statement.  People should not be fooled by this claim – Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is a confirmed vaccine denier.  He attempts to deny the great benefits of vaccination, he makes numerous false statements about vaccine injury, and he pushes the results of sloppy and discredited studies to “prove” that vaccines injure more people than they help. 

II: “Let the Science Speak”:

This is the sub-title of at least two books co-written or edited by RFK Jr. (here and here).  Figure II.1 shows the cover of the book Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak, edited by Kennedy.  The book claims to show a correlation between the use of the ethylmercury compound thimerosal in vaccines and various conditions, including autism.  Those claims are rebutted by robust clinical studies.  But RFK is not interested in a dispassionate review of scientific data in controversies, as shown by his following actions:

Figure II.1: The book Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak, Edited by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  The book references many dubious studies that claim to show a correlation between the ethylmercury substance thimerosal and various serious conditions, including autism.  No robust clinical studies have shown a correlation between thimerosal and these conditions; after thimerosal was removed from nearly all childhood vaccines, rates of autism showed no decrease.

  • He cites papers that have been retracted or never published; and from authors who have been discredited (e.g., Andrew Wakefield, the Geiers).  Kennedy cites sloppy research, and even references research that involves “re-analyzing” studies whose conclusions contradict his prejudices. 
  • RFK Jr. never cites robust clinical studies that contradict his prejudices.  This behavior might be OK for a defense attorney but is completely antithetical to evidence-based science.  For example, RFK Jr claims evidence that vaccines cause autism, but he ignores studies involving millions of children (e.g., Holland, Denmark) that show the opposite. 
  • He discusses “controversies” that have been completely settled.  For example, in his 2021 book The Real Anthony Fauci, RFK devotes nearly 100 pages to the question “does HIV cause AIDS?”  That question was of paramount importance in the 1980s, when people first began dying of AIDS.  However, after the HIV virus was first isolated in 1983 and continuing through the roll-out of highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) in 1995, it was understood that HIV caused AIDS.  It has now been over 40 years since HIV virus was first isolated, and 30 years since the advent of HAART.  RFK widely cites Berkeley biologist Peter Duesberg, who still insists that HIV does not cause AIDS.  However, it is now absolutely certain that HIV causes AIDS (evidence from virology, immunology and epidemiology all support this); but Kennedy does not mention the research demonstrating this fact. The antiretroviral HAART cocktails taken by people with HIV can reduce the level of HIV so that it cannot be detected, it can’t be transmitted to others (or from mothers to babies), and people with HIV never develop AIDS.  Despite this, RFK Jr. implies falsely that these anti-retroviral therapies kill far more people than they heal. 

III: “___ Is a Deadly Chemical”:

A critical flaw in RFK Jr.’s understanding of science is that he does not understand that substances that are toxic in large doses can have beneficial effects in very small doses.  This fact should be obvious to anyone who takes meds.  For example, if you take a Xanax tablet it can relieve anxiety; however, if you take an entire bottle of Xanax at once, it will quite likely kill you.  Here are examples where RFK’s lack of understanding of this fact leads him astray. 

  • Vaccines.  The ethylmercury compound thimerosal has been used in vaccines when multiple doses are taken from the same vial.  Thimerosal prevents the growth of bacteria and fungi that could contaminate the vaccine, either during the manufacturing process or when used in multi-dose vials.  Thimerosal has been removed from nearly all childhood medicines in the U.S., and there are no studies that show any adverse health effects from thimerosal in vaccines.  However, in Third World countries, lack of access to sources of refrigeration can require the use of multi-dose vials of vaccine.  The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases reports that no peer-reviewed studies have found any evidence of harm from thimerosal in vaccines.  Methylmercury compounds can accumulate in the body and cause harm at high levels; this has been the source of mercury poisoning from fish.  However, ethylmercury is cleared from the body much more rapidly than methylmercury, and hence it is much less likely to accumulate and cause health problems. 

Another substance that is used in some vaccines is aluminum.  It serves as an adjuvant (i.e., an adjuvant helps vaccines work by boosting the immune response to the vaccine).  Adjuvants have been used for 90 years, and they appear to be very safe.  Aluminum is used in vaccines given to newborns.  Infants receive about 4.4 milligrams (mg) of aluminum in the first six months of life.  Breast-fed infants ingest about 7 mg, infants fed formula receive about 38 mg, and infants fed soy-based formula ingest about 117 mg of aluminum in their first six months.  At present, researchers are investigating reports that brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease may be caused by accumulation of aluminum in brain tissue.  However, studies have not revealed a distinct causation between aluminum accumulation and Alzheimer’s disease.  In 2022 a paper suggested an association between aluminum in vaccines and the development of asthma.  Studies of this potential effect are ongoing. 

  • Fluoride in drinking water.  In the U.S. as of 2022, 72% of the population drinks water that has added fluoride compounds.  Cochrane reviews estimate that fluoridated water reduces cavities by 35% in baby teeth and 26% in permanent teeth.  The decrease in the number of cavities is considered a dramatic health benefit.  The World Health Organization (WHO), World Dental Federation, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention all endorse fluoridation as safe and effective at recommended levels (the level of fluoride in drinking water in the U.S. is 0.7 milligrams/liter).  Figure III.1 shows the equivalent of the fraction of fluoride added to drinking water to similar ratios in distance, time and money. One claim is that adding fluoride to public drinking supplies tends to narrow the gap in oral health between rich and poor citizens.  Research shows that fluoridation of water reduces cavities in children, while the efficacy of fluorine in water is smaller for adults. 

Figure III.1: A poster from the US Health and Human Services Administration (before RFK Jr.) pointing out how small 0.7 mg of fluoride per liter of water is (this is the level of fluoride added to U.S. water systems), relative to measures of distance, time and money. 

Opponents of fluoridation of the water supply question all of the reported benefits of fluoride.  They deny that fluoridation decreases the rate of cavity formation, they argue that fluoridation causes serious health problems, and libertarians argue that fluoridation of water by governments violates the civil rights of citizens.  Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has been an outspoken critic of fluoridation of water supplies.  Kennedy claims that fluoride is a “dangerous neurotoxin” and “industrial waste.”  This is consistent with his inability to distinguish between tiny and large amounts of a chemical.  He claims that fluoridated water leads to increased cases of arthritis, bone cancer, thyroid disease, neurodevelopmental disorders, and lower IQ in children.  He claims that fluoride in drinking water is so dangerous that immediate action should be taken to remove it.  RFK Jr. has asked the CDC to stop recommending fluoridation in drinking water.  In May, 2025 the state of Utah became the first in the nation to ban fluoride in drinking water.  A study by the National Toxicology Program of research in five countries concluded that drinking water with more than 1.5 mg/liter was associated with lower IQ in children.  This amount is more than twice as large as that in U.S. drinking supplies, and the analysis combined studies from the different countries.  The analysis suggested that these high fluoride levels were likely to decrease the IQ of children in these regions by 2 to 5 IQ points. 

However, the American Dental Society (ADS) pointed out that drafts of the paper in 2019 and 2020 were sharply criticized by peer reviewers from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, who stated that those drafts “would not survive scientific scrutiny without major revision.”  The ADS suggested that the published paper likely suffered from many of the same shortcomings in the earlier drafts.  So, one should treat this paper with considerable skepticism.  However, Secretary Kennedy was willing to take the most negative view of fluoride on the basis of this paper, combined with his prejudice that fluoride was a “dangerous neurotoxin.” 

  • AZT (zidovudine): 

We have briefly discussed Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s many false statements about HIV, AIDS and antiretroviral therapy.  Here, we will discuss this issue in more detail.  Zidovudine, also known as azidothymidine or AZT, was the first antiretroviral medication that was used to treat HIV.  AZT is part of the class of nucleoside analog reverse-transcriptase inhibitors or NRTI.  Figure III.2 shows the chemical structure of AZT.  HIV uses enzyme reverse transcriptase to make DNA; since AZT inhibits this process, it stops the HIV virus from replicating.  Furthermore, AZT does not affect the function of uninfected cells. The introduction of AZT, together with some other drugs, caused levels of HIV to drop rapidly.  With these antiretroviral therapies, eventually the levels of HIV would decrease to a point where HIV was no longer detectable.  At these low levels, HIV would never develop into AIDS.  Furthermore, HIV could not be transmitted to others and women with HIV could not transmit the virus to their babies. 

Figure III.2: Chemical structure of zidovudine, also known as AZT, an ingredient in antiretroviral therapy for HIV. 

Used by itself, prolonged usage of AZT could lead to the HIV virus evolving to develop resistance to the medicine.  However, when AZT was combined with other medications, this would prevent the development of resistance.  When AZT was combined with two other inhibitors, this produced what was termed highly active antiretroviral therapy, or HAART.  Figure III.3 shows deaths from AIDS (blue curve, left axis), and the number of people living with HIV (red curve, right axis) in thousands, in the U.S. as a function of time.  The vertical line represents 1995, the year that HAART was introduced.  The number of AIDS deaths drops precipitously immediately after the advent of HAART; also the number of people living with HIV increases rapidly. 

Figure III.3: Number of deaths from AIDS (blue curve, left axis), and number of people living with HIV (red curve, right axis) in thousands.  The vertical line is from 1995, when highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) was introduced.  The number of AIDS deaths dropped precipitously immediately after the introduction of HAART.

Figure III.3 shows the dramatic effect of antiretroviral therapy containing AZT.  Today, millions of people around the globe are living relatively healthy lives although they have HIV.  AZT has now been replaced in antiretroviral therapies by another drug such as tenofovir.  Together with other drugs, tenofovir substantially reduces the risk of HIV infection following the first exposure to the HIV virus; this therapy is called post-exposure prophylaxis or PEP. 

The development of antiretroviral therapies against HIV has proven to be exceptionally effective.  Nevertheless, AZT is a strong medication and it has a number of side effects, particularly at higher doses.  These include anemia, cardiomyopathy and myopathy.  When dosages are decreased, the most common side effects are nausea, vomiting and acid reflux.  But because Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. does not comprehend the difference between large doses and minute ones, he is fixated on his characterization of AZT as a “deadly substance,” rather than a component of highly effective therapies against HIV and AIDS. 

In his book “The Real Anthony Fauci,” Kennedy spends nearly 100 pages referring to claims that HIV does not cause AIDS.  Much of this involves statements that were made before it was determined that HIV causes AIDS.  But RFK Jr. also provides many quotes from Berkeley biologist Peter Duesberg.  Duesberg, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and shown in Fig. III.4, has for decades claimed that HIV does not cause AIDS.  There are very few scientists who give credence to Duesberg’s claims, and there are by now many proofs that HIV causes AIDS.  However, Kennedy treats Duesberg as one of his “medical freedom heroes” for Duesberg’s totally false assertions. 

Figure III.4: Berkeley biologist Peter Duesberg.  Duesberg is one of the only scientists who still claim that HIV does not cause AIDS, despite decades of research proving conclusively that HIV causes AIDS. 

South African president Theo Mbeki appointed Duesberg to a committee to determine AIDS policies.  Because of pressure from Duesberg and his associates, between 2000 and 2005 South Africa refused to utilize antiretroviral therapy and other drugs to treat HIV patients.  Instead, South Africa utilized folk remedies like garlic and beetroot.  It is estimated that over 300,000 South Africans died needlessly because of these policies.  Despite these entirely preventable deaths, Kennedy continues to praise Duesberg’s false assertions.  One section of Kennedy’s book The Real Anthony Fauci asks “Is AZT Mass Murder?” 

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s antipathy towards HIV/AIDS antiretroviral therapies suggests that he might use his power to halt research on AIDS prevention, or even to have current antiretroviral therapies re-classified as dangerous drugs.  After the great strides that have been made to allow people with HIV to live a long and relatively healthy life, and never to develop AIDS, any restrictions in the research and treatment for this condition would be disastrous. 

IV: “I promise Radical Transparency:”

RFK Jr. made this promise throughout his campaign for president, during his confirmation hearings, and he frequently invokes this when making decisions as Secretary of Health and Human Services.  Kennedy’s promise of radical transparency is part of an attack on the American medical system.  He claimed that medicine in this country had been co-opted by Big Pharma and the Vaccine Lobby.  Decisions about medications and medical procedures, he claimed, were being made to maximize profits; this resulted in unproven and dangerous practices.  To the average American, the promise of “radical transparency” seemed to guarantee that decisions made by HHS under Kennedy would be explained in great detail, with a transparency that had been lacking under his predecessors. 

 However, here are some examples of RFK Jr.’s “radical transparency” in action.  They show that, in fact, the HHS under Kennedy is substantially less transparent than its predecessors.  In fact, Kennedy has carried out a number of practices based on his prejudices, in dramatic contradiction to the consensus of the medical/research community. 

  • ACIP (Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices):

As we have discussed earlier, RFK Jr. replaced all 17 members of the ACIP with a new group of 8 members (7 after one member rapidly withdrew).  Previously, members of ACIP were chosen after a vetting process that could last two years. This insured that members of ACIP were experts in vaccine policy.  The committee was made up of infectious disease specialists, pediatricians, and public health experts.  Plus, new appointments were staggered so that committee always maintained a mix of veteran and new members. 

In defending his decision to replace all members of ACIP, RFK claimed that the committee (in addition to nearly all federal health policy committees) was so filled with conflicts of interest (COI) that they were captives of Big Pharma.  But the purpose of COI measures is not to eliminate conflicts (in many cases, such as ACIP, conflicts can’t be eliminated), but to manage them.  On earlier ACIP committees, all members disclosed potential conflicts, and those conflicts were managed (for example, members with a conflict may recuse themselves on certain issues). 

Many new members of ACIP, apparently chosen personally by Kennedy and no one else, lacked qualifications in immunology, vaccinology, or public health.  In complete contradiction to Kennedy’s promise of “radical transparency,” no COI were disclosed, although some members had direct ties to anti-vax organizations.  Without prior vetting of the committee members, the public didn’t know about either expertise or COI.  Another jarring change from prior procedure was that the keynote address to ACIP was not from a CDC official with deep knowledge of vaccines & public health.  This time Lyn Redwood, a former leader of Kennedy’s Children’s Health Defense group (CHD), presented discredited claims about vaccine preservatives – citing as “proof” that thimerosal could cause “long-term consequences in the brain” a non-existent study that presumably resulted from using artificial intelligence (AI) in preparing her talk.

A former CDC advisor described the 2025 ACIP meeting: “This was not a scientific meeting; this was a platform for misinformation dressed up as deliberation.”   Without reference to any new clinical studies, the new ACIP voted to recommend that all Americans (children, pregnant women, adults) receive only thimerosal-free (Th) flu vaccines.  Th is an ethylmercury compound used as a preservative in only a small minority of multi-dose flu vials.  No robust study has ever linked thimerosal to harm, and thimerosal is not even present in most US vaccines.  However, Th is vital to global immunization programs, because of the cost-saving role in multi-dose vials.  Also, many Third World countries do not have adequate refrigeration facilities, which makes Th vitally important in ensuring vaccination coverage to all citizens.  The ACIP vote could erode confidence in thimerosal-containing vaccines globally, disrupt supply chains, and drive up costs for low- and mid-income countries.  World-wide bans on thimerosal could jeopardize access to vaccines against flu, tetanus and diphtheria.  Regarding the precipitous action by the ACIP committee, infectious disease specialist Daniel Griffin stated: “No data.  No subject matter expert.  No working group. This has nothing to do with science or safety whatsoever.” 

  • The new ACIP committee apparently wants to review the entire childhood vaccine schedule, plus the hepatitis B vaccine given to newborns shortly after birth.  Anticipating what was coming from this committee, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) boycotted the ACIP meeting entirely.  The AAP vowed to issue its own evidence-based immunization recommendations going forward.  A CDC-authored document affirming Th safety was pulled from the public record with no justification.  At the 2025 meeting, the new ACIP members misunderstood or challenged basic scientific principles, including how vaccines were tested or monitored.  Six former ACIP chairs issued a joint statement: “the US is witnessing dismantling of the systems that develop, license, recommend and monitor vaccines.”  In another notable development, the new ACIP failed to convene the COVID-19 vaccine working group, or work on recommendations for fall flu season.  The next ACIP meeting will be held in October 2025, and at that meeting COVID-19 is not even on the agenda. 
  • Another unilateral directive from RFK, Jr. is that the US will renege on a $1.2 billion commitment to the world-wide group Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, whose logo is shown in Fig. IV.1.  Kennedy sent a pre-recorded video to a Gavi pledging summit in Brussels in June 2025, where he stated that the United States would cease funding Gavi until the organization “re-earns the public trust” and addresses concerns about vaccine safety.  In that video, Kennedy “accused Gavi of neglecting vaccine safety, making questionable recommendations around Covid-19 vaccines and silencing dissenting views.”  “When the science was inconvenient, Gavi ignored the science,” Kennedy alleged.

Figure IV.1: The logo of Gavi, the worldwide vaccine alliance. RFK Jr. recently reneged on a U.S. pledge to provide $1.2 billion to that group, for vaccinations around the globe.

In response to the video, Gavi said its “utmost concern is the health and safety of children.”  “Any decision made by Gavi with regards to its vaccine portfolio is made in alignment with recommendations by WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE), a group of independent experts that reviews all available data through a rigorous, transparent, and independent process,” the group said.  The loss of US funding could prove catastrophic to nations facing polio, measles, and other epidemic outbreaks.  Gavi leaders are hoping to raise enough funding to provide 500 million childhood vaccinations, which they estimate would save 8 million lives by 2030. But the combination of Kennedy’s false statements about vaccine safety and Donald Trump’s “America First” policies could lead to completely preventable childhood deaths in Third World countries. 

V: “We will only support Gold Standard Science:”

In May 2025, an executive order from Donald Trump ruled that all federal health agencies must adopt “gold standard science (GSS).”  The characteristics of GSS were that the science must be reproducible, transparent, communicative of error and uncertainty, accepting of negative results, and without conflicts of interest.  Federal agencies were required to submit plans to implement GSS by August 22, 2025.  Senior appointees of each agency were expected to evaluate and correct violations, and to discipline those who veer from the GSS framework.  The requirements for scientific work listed under the “gold standard science” criteria would seem on their face to be consistent with best scientific practices.  One might think that the federal government in the Trump era would adopt scientific issues with the greatest potential and proven performance.  However, one would be wrong!  Let us review why the “gold standard science” criteria under Trump would lead to political appointees overriding the consensus of the scientific community. 

  • The determination of “gold standard science” is to be made by the heads of various government agencies.  In the current administration, these are political appointees whose loyalty is to the President, rather than to the scientific community.  Thus, Gary Schwitzer, an adjunct associate professor at the School of Public Health of the University of Minnesota, stated that, “The executive order criticizes others for politicizing science when it brings politicization of science to an unprecedented new level.”  In an editorial in Science, David Michaels and Wendy Wagner stated that this executive order “Officially empowers political appointees to override conclusions and interpretations of government scientists, threaten their political autonomy, and undermine the scientific capacity of research and regulatory agencies.” 
  • We can explicitly look at Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s actions at HHS to see how this politicalization works for “gold standard science.”  Prof. Gordon Guyatt from McMaster University states that most individual components of GSS were already carried out some or most of the time; however in the Trump/Kennedy era “they want to make everything open to interpretation, where they can make their interpretation.”  For example, Guyatt said that many of RFK’s views and initiatives “would be completely discredited by the standards of evidence-based medicine.” 
  • The dangers of the Trump administration’s “gold standard science” can be seen by examining Project 2025, a blueprint for the current administration that was produced by the Heritage Foundation.  The current Trump administration has been closely following recommendations of Project 2025. According to this document, all science research and policy “must align with the priorities of the president.”  Here are two examples of science policy advocated for in Project 2025. “Unwinding policies and procedures that are used to advance radical gender, racial, and equity initiatives under the banner of science.”  And “The Biden Administration’s climate fanaticism will need a whole-of-government unwinding.”   As one can see, “gold standard science” is simply a catch phrase used to justify political interference into science policy.  Jennifer Jones, director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, described how “gold standard science” is being used by the president, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and many political leaders of government science agencies.  Jones said, “This administration are not about using science to advance this country. While they may talk about it, it is a completely empty political rhetorical promise.”

Figure V.1: A cartoon showing how messenger RNA, or mRNA, works in a vaccine.  When injected, the mRNA teaches the cells to identify a pathogen; when the pathogen is recognized, the body’s immune system attacks the disease cells.

  • On August 5, 2025, HHS Secretary RFK Jr. canceled nearly $500 million in grants and contracts for research on health applications of mRNA techniques.  Fig. V.1 shows how mRNA vaccines work by training the immune system to detect and to attack pathogenic cells. In defending his decision, Kennedy falsely stated that “mRNA technology poses more risks than benefits for these respiratory viruses.”  Invoking the “gold standard science” argument, Kennedy said that HHS would be shifting funding toward “safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate.”  RFK Jr. explicitly mentioned “whole-virus vaccines and novel platforms that don’t collapse when viruses mutate.” He claimed that mRNA viruses “encourage new mutations and can actually prolong pandemics as the virus constantly mutates to escape the protective effects of the vaccine.”  RFK Jr.’s statement was completely false.  All viruses mutate, regardless of whether vaccines exist for them.  If a virus mutates, mRNA vaccines can be re-designed to combat the mutated viral strain much faster than conventional vaccines.  And mRNA techniques have also shown great promise in treating cancer and other diseases.  

Jeff Coller of Johns Hopkins University has studied mRNA vaccines for 30 years.  He described Kennedy’s canceling research on mRNA vaccines as “a really reckless decision.”  Regarding RFK Jr.’s praise of attenuated-virus vaccines, Coller said that scientists “have abandoned these for the most part because they’re dangerous.”  Admiral Brett Giroir, who was HHS Assistant Secretary for Health in the first Trump administration said that “it’s a profound misjudgment to eliminate support for mRNA vaccines and to make unsupported claims that they’re not effective, and that they’re the most dangerous vaccines out there.” Giroir stated that mRNA vaccines “are our best rapid response platform and there is no substitute for it.”  According to Giroir, when it comes to vaccines “I have not seen [RFK Jr] make a single correct decision since he’s been in office.” 

  • In an Aug. 12, 2025 Washington Post op-ed, Jay Bhattacharya, current Director of the National Institutes of Health, tried to justify his boss’s mRNA decision by arguing that the funding was being ceased because such vaccines had “failed to earn the public’s trust.” In a clear attempt to politicize the science, he blamed the lack of trust on former President Biden’s policies, including the false claim that Biden issued “a mandate for all on the vaccine.”  In fact, as of April 26, 2023 69.4% of all adult Americans and 94.3% of the most at-risk Americans over 65 years of age had completed two doses of the original COVID vaccines, the vast majority using the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer or Moderna. What about those percentages suggests that Americans don’t trust the mRNA vaccines? Any mistrust has been largely driven by public statements from RFK, Jr. himself. But in any case, basing funding decisions for cutting-edge research on “public trust” about subjects they may not understand is hardly an example of “Gold Standard Science.”

VI: “I am Dubious About the Germ Theory of Disease” 

In his book The Real Anthony Fauci, RFK Jr. expresses his feeling that the germ theory of disease fails to account for many medical conditions, and that perhaps the “miasma theory” would better describe some diseases.  The idea behind miasma was that diseases were caused when people breathed polluted air.  Causes of pollution could be rotting corpses, exhalations of people already infected, sewage, rotting vegetation or the air around swamps.  Miasma theory was discussed in some of the earliest medical texts by Hippocrates and Vitruvius.  This theory remained popular into the 19th century.  Figure VI.1 shows an 1831 painting by Robert Seymour.  This painting uses a miasma theory to describe the spread of cholera.  A skeletal figure emits a black cloud; those who inhale air from the cloud are likely to contract cholera.   

Figure VI.1: A painting by Robert Seymour depicting a miasma theory for the spread of cholera.  A skeletal figure emits a poisonous black cloud; people who inhale the air from the cloud are likely to contract cholera.

The miasma or “bad air” theory of disease was rebutted by the 19th century British physician John Snow.  Snow realized that cholera was being transmitted by some poisonous material in water.  During the period 1860 – 1864, the great French scientist Louis Pasteur made great progress in advancing the germ theory of disease.  Pasteur showed that micro-organisms were responsible for spoiling liquids such as beer, wine and milk.  The miasma theory was dealt a death blow by the 1876 discovery by Robert Koch that anthrax was caused by the Bacillus anthracis bacterium. 

Since that time, it has been conclusively demonstrated that diseases are caused by bacteria or viruses.  These vectors of disease have been isolated, and it has been conclusively demonstrated that they cause various diseases.  We know that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has an exceptionally poor grasp of scientific principles.  But why would he endorse an ancient and thoroughly debunked theory of disease?  Here are some reasons for his willingness to endorse an alternative, highly dubious theory of disease.

  • First, what Kennedy calls “miasma theory” is actually something rather different.  In his definition, “Miasma theory emphasizes preventing disease by fortifying the immune system through nutrition and reducing exposures to environmental toxins and stresses.”  Historian Nancy Tomes says that “Miasma theory, as historians of medicine and science understand it, is not what he is saying it is, period.”  And Dr. Paul Offit points out that for RFK, Jr., ‘environmental toxins’ includes “Electromagnetic radiation, pesticides, vaccines.  Vaccines are, for him, a modern-day miasma.” 
  • Since Kennedy denies that vaccines are responsible for eliminating smallpox, polio, and for now childhood diseases such as measles, mumps and rubella, he needs some alternative explanation of why these diseases disappeared.  For example, he emphasizes that deaths from measles began to decline before the MMR vaccine was rolled out in 1963.  He attributes this to stronger immune systems.  However, the real reason for this is probably the introduction of modern antibiotics in the 1940s.  Most casualties of measles are young children; their bout of measles weakens them, and many infants then succumb to secondary diseases such as pneumonia.  But the use of antibiotics will prevent many of those with measles from developing deadly secondary infections. 
  • It is true that environmental actions can decrease the number of people who suffer from diseases.  The main source of cholera is from contaminated water.  Sanitization efforts to clean up water supplies can dramatically decrease the number of people who contract cholera.  In similar fashion, cleaning up swampy areas can reduce the breeding grounds for mosquitoes.  Since mosquitoes transmit the yellow fever virus, removing their breeding grounds can lower the number of people who contract yellow fever. 
  • It is also true that people with healthy immune systems may be better able to fight off the effects of disease.  However, it must be noted that cholera is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae.  If you don’t have that bacterium in your system, you will not develop cholera.  In similar fashion, yellow fever is caused by the yellow fever virus, which is transmitted by infected mosquitoes.  Measles is caused by the measles virus. And AIDS is caused by the HIV virus. If you don’t have those microorganisms, you won’t develop the disease. 
  • Vaccination is the procedure that safely and effectively protects people from these microorganisms by training the immune system to attack the invading germs.  Look at Fig. I.1, cases of measles over time.  If you ask “what is the relative effect of vaccination vs. healthy immune systems in wiping out endemic measles in the U .S.?”, it seems obvious that vaccination was by far the most important element.  But since Kennedy insists that vaccination harms as many or more people than it helps, he needs to invent some dubious explanation for our success in wiping out childhood diseases.  

VII: Summary

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is a disaster as the Secretary for Health and Human Services.  He shows no understanding of how science works.  He does not understand the power of robust clinical trials of various hypotheses; instead, Kennedy places his faith in shoddy research and discredited researchers who support his prejudices.  He denigrates the tremendous record of vaccines in combating some of the deadlier viruses that have preyed on humans.  He falsely claims that vaccines injure more people than they help.  He even questions the germ theory of disease. 

Kennedy has a remarkable ability to misunderstand several of our most important public health advances.  For over 100 years, vaccination has been one of the most impressive and efficient public safety methods ever developed.  Hundreds of millions of people around the world have had their lives saved due to vaccination; we have wiped out smallpox across the globe, one of the most deadly diseases of all time, and we are very close to eradicating polio.  The antiretroviral therapies that have been developed to treat people with HIV have helped millions of people live with HIV.  They are able to drive levels of HIV so low that they cannot be detected; people with HIV on antiretroviral therapies never develop AIDS, and they cannot transmit HIV to others. 

Fluoridation of drinking water has decreased the number of cavities in the teeth of citizens.  Dental bills have decreased, and people have avoided oral diseases because of fluoridated water.  mRNA vaccines were developed in record time to combat the SARS-CoV-2 virus (one year, compared to about four years with conventional vaccines).  These vaccines are estimated to have saved 14.4 million lives worldwide in one year after they were released.  However, RFK Jr. called the COVID-19 vaccines “the deadliest vaccine ever made,” based on the number of reports to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.  But the VAERS system explicitly states that the number of unvetted reports should not be used to determine the safety of any particular vaccine. 

Kennedy also praises people like biologist Peter Duesberg, who still refuses to admit that HIV causes AIDS.  Kennedy himself refuses to acknowledge this fact, and he has suggested that a major compound used in antiretroviral therapy against HIV/AIDS may be causing “mass murder.”  In fact, antiretroviral therapy is a medical miracle: therapies today allow millions of people with HIV to decrease the HIV in their systems to undetectable levels. 

Kennedy himself is a scientific illiterate. But our main concern is that the American people will suffer from Robert F. Kennedy’s lack of knowledge of science, and his inability to distinguish between the results of robust clinical trials and sloppy or discredited research.  Other countries will carry on research on applications of mRNA methods.  Kennedy’s unfounded attacks on vaccines will cause people to refuse to vaccinate their children; this will lead to totally avoidable epidemics of measles, chickenpox, diphtheria, whooping cough and other diseases.  Conspiracy theories about healthcare will flourish on social media, and it will be difficult to distinguish between scientifically accurate statements and misleading or downright false claims. 

Unfortunately, the term “gold standard science” that has been adopted by many agencies in the Trump administration has been perverted to mean “whatever Donald Trump (and/or Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.) believes.”  RFK Jr. uses the phrase to justify his campaign against vaccines and in particular mRNA methods.  Political appointees in agencies like the EPA, NASA and NOAA use the phrase to denigrate efforts to alleviate global climate change.  There is no doubt about it – science is under attack by the Trump administration, and with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. heading up Health and Human Services, life-saving health procedures such as vaccination, fluoridation, mRNA methods, and treatments for HIV/AIDS will be subjected to political interference that will greatly increase the number of unnecessary deaths. In conclusion, as Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is one of the greatest threats to public health in the U.S.   

Source Material:

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Children’s Health Defense TV, June 1, 2020 https://live.childrenshealthdefense.org/chd-tv/shows/truth-with-robert-f-kennedy-jr/children8217s-health-epidemics-vaccine-injuries–more/

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. HFfH TV, https://rumble.com/vwxeqx-hffh-podcast-the-state-of-health-freedom-with-robert-f.-kennedy-jr..html

Meredith Wadman, RFK Jr.’s Purge of CDC Vaccine Advisers Prompts Outrage, Science Policy, June 10, 2025  https://www.science.org/content/article/rfk-jr-s-purge-cdc-vaccine-advisers-prompts-outrage

Apoorva Mandavilli, On Vaccines, Kennedy Has Broken Sharply With the Mainstream, New York Times, Aug. 7, 2025 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/07/health/kennedy-vaccines-mrna-trump.html

Mary Kekatos and Liz Neporent, Experts Warm RFK Jr. is Unraveling the System That Kept Vaccines Safe, ABC News, June 24, 2025 https://abcnews.go.com/Health/experts-warn-rfk-jr-unraveling-system-vaccines-safe/story?id=123154860

Martin Enserink and Meredith Wadman, The Members of RFK Jr.’s New Vaccine Committee Have Published Little on Vaccines, Science News, June 13, 2025 https://www.science.org/content/article/members-rfk-jr-s-new-vaccine-committee-have-published-little-vaccines

Shannon Firth, Kennedy and Miasma Theory, MedPage Today, June 18, 2025 https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/features/116139

Tim Londergan and Steve Vigdor, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Conspiracy Theorist, Debunking Denial, Aug. 2, 2023 https://debunkingdenial.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr-conspiracy-theorist/

Charlotte Graham-McClay, RFK Jr. Misled the US Senate on Measles Deaths, Samoa’s Health Chief Says,  AP News Feb. 3, 2025 https://apnews.com/article/rfk-jr-samoa-measles-kennedy-vaccines-pacific-42a9cb583c71f165699b16710884c474

Janice Hopkins Tanne, MMR Vaccination and Autism: No Indication For an Association, National Library of Medicine, Nov. 16, 2002 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1124634/

Janice Hopkins Tanne, MMR Vaccine is not Linked With Autism, Says Danish Study, National Library of Medicine, Nov. 16, 2002 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1124634/

Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak, edited by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Skyhorse Publishing, Aug. 2014, https://www.amazon.com/Thimerosal-Supporting-Immediate-Mercury-Neurotoxin/dp/1632206013

Children’s Health Defense, Mercury/Thimerosal/Autism, https://childrenshealthdefense.org/known-culprits/mercury/thimerosal-history/research-critiques/

Anne M. Hurley et al., Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines and Autism: A Review of Recent Epidemiologic Studies, National Library of Medicine, July 2010 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3018252/

Christina Jewett, Emily Baumgaertner Nunn and Sheryl Gay Stolbert, Kennedy Turns to a Discredited Vaccine Skeptic for Autism Study, New York Times Mar. 27, 2025 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/health/rfk-jr-autism-vaccines.html

Tim Londergan and Steve Vigdor, Vaccinations, Debunking Denial, https://debunkingdenial.com/vaccinations-part-iii/

Christina Jewett and Sheryl Gay Stolberg, What Kennedy Has Said About the Polio Vaccine in Recent Years, New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/17/health/robert-f-kennedy-jr-polio-vaccines.html

Samantha Putterman, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Stated that ‘The COVID-19 Vaccine is the “Deadliest Vaccine Ever Made’,” Politifact Dec. 10, 2021 https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/dec/10/robert-f-kennedy-jr/no-covid-19-vaccine-not-deadliest-vaccine-ever-mad/

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Brian Hooker, Vax-Unvax: Let the Science Speak, Skyhorse Publishing, Aug. 2023.  https://www.amazon.com/Vax-Unvax-Childrens-Health-Defense-Kennedy/dp/1510766960

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., The Real Anthony Fauci, Skyhorse Publishing, Nov. 2021 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_Anthony_Fauci

Wikipedia, Peter Duesberg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Duesberg

Molly Stellino, USA Today: Fact Check: Research Proves HIV is the Cause of AIDS, Contrary to Viral Claim, https://ihv.org/news/2023/usa-today-fact-check-research-proves-hiv-is-the-cause-of-aids-contrary-to-viral-claim.html

Thimerosal and Vaccines, National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, https://www.nfid.org/resource/thimerosal-and-vaccines/

CDC Vaccine Safety, Adjuvants and Vaccines, Dec. 20, 2024 https://www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safety/about/adjuvants.html

Matthew F. Daley et al., Association Between Aluminum Exposure From Vaccines Before Age 24 Months and Persistent Asthma at Age 24 to 59 Months, Acad. Petiatr. Jan. 2023, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36180331/

Paul Offit, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Comments on Aluminum and Asthma, July 29, 2025 https://www.chop.edu/parents-pack/evaluating-information/why-scientific-info-different/no-study-does-not-prove-what-you-think-it-does/comments-other-studies

Wikipedia, Water Fluoridation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_fluoridation

RFK Jr. Will Tell CDC To Stop Recommending Fluoride in Drinking Water, PBS News, Apr., 8, 2025  https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/rfk-jr-will-tell-cdc-to-stop-recommending-fluoride-in-drinking-water

Wikipedia, Zidovudine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zidovudine

Julie S. Eggleton and Shivaraj Nagalli, Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART), National Library of Medicine, July 3, 2023 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK554533/

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, The Cost of South Africa’s Misguided AIDS Policies, May 2009 https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/spr09aids/

Global Biodefense, Hijacking Vaccine Policy: RFK Jr.’s Handpicked ACIP Undermines Science in Historic CDC Meeting, June 29, 2025 https://globalbiodefense.com/2025/06/29/rfk-jr-acip-vaccine-policy-crisis-cdc-meeting-2025/

Meg Tirrell, Presentation for CDC Advisers Appears to Cite Nonexistent Study to Support Claims About Risk of Vaccine Preservative, CNN Health, June 24, 2025 https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/24/health/cdc-vaccine-adviser-thimerosal-presentation

Grace Lee et al., Six Former CDC Vaccine Advisory Committee Chairs Warn: U.S. Risks Losing Access to Life-Saving Immunizations, STAT Public Health, https://www.statnews.com/2025/06/20/acip-cdc-vaccine-advisory-committee-chairs-warn-threats-immunization-science-licensure/

Claudia Chiappa, RFK Jr. Says US Won’t Donate to Global Vaccine Effort, Politico June 25, 2025  https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/25/rfk-vaccine-donations-gavi-00422705

Gavi, Response to Comments Made by the US Secretary of Health and Human Services on June 25, 2025 https://www.gavi.org/news/media-room/statement-response-25-june-2025

Rachel Robertson, Experts Skeptical of Trump’s So-Called ‘Gold Standard Science’, MedPage Today, June 30, 2025 https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/features/116310

David Michaels and Wendy Wagner, Fool’s Gold, Science News, June 19, 2025 https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.adz3920

Project 2025: Mandate for Leadership, The Heritage Foundation, 2024 https://static.heritage.org/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf

Paul Dempsey, How Trump’s ‘Gold Standard Science’ is Dangerously Undermining Global Leadership Integrity, Byline Supplement, June 11, 2025 https://www.bylinesupplement.com/p/how-trumps-gold-standard-science

Madeline Halpert, RFK Jr Cancels $500m in Funding For mRNA Vaccines For Diseases Like COVID, BBC News, Aug. 5, 2025   https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c74dzdddvmjo

Han Sun et al., mRNA-Based Therapeutics in Cancer Treatment, National Library of Medicine, Feb. 13, 2023  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9964383/

Kristina Fiore, Pulling the Plug on mRNA Vaccine Development is ‘Reckless,’ Experts Say, MedPage Today, Aug. 6, 2025  https://www.medpagetoday.com/washington-watch/washington-watch/116862

Jay Bhattacharya, Why the NIH is Pivoting Away From mRNA Vaccines, Washington Post, Aug. 12, 2025 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/08/12/nih-mrna-vaccines-jay-bhattacharya/

Preeti Vankar, Percentage of adults 65 years and older in the United States with at least one dose or were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of April 26, 2023, Statista Nov. 29, 2023 https://www.statista.com/statistics/1254250/share-of-older-us-adults-fully-or-partially-vaccinated-against-covid/

Wikipedia, Germ Theory of Disease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germ_theory_of_disease

Wikipedia, Miasma Theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miasma_theory