Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is spending tens of millions of dollars on a secret research project aimed at fueling skepticism about vaccines, according to a report.
President Donald Trump’s health and human services secretary is reportedly launching a behind-the-scenes campaign within federal health agencies to try to prove his long-debunked belief that vaccines can cause a range of medical conditions and diseases, including autism.
Kennedy, one of the country’s highest-profile vaccine skeptics, is spearheading the project in secret after the White House urged him to tone down his public distrust of vaccines, fearing it could hurt Republicans in November’s midterm elections, The New York Times reported.
The cost of the vaccine project, based on work conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention alone, is estimated at between $40 million and $50 million.
As part of the project, Kennedy is asking government scientists to re-examine claims of a link between vaccines and children later developing autism—a disputed theory the health and human services secretary has promoted for decades.
Kennedy also hopes to further scrutinize thimerosal and question how harmful it may be.
The mercury-based ingredient has already been removed from almost all vaccines in the U.S. following an order from Kennedy last year, although it is still used in some flu shots.
There is no scientific consensus suggesting that thimerosal is dangerous or linked to autism, but it has long been a target of anti-vaccine campaigns and sentiment.
Kennedy also wants the project to examine the health outcomes of vaccinated children compared with those who have never been vaccinated.
However, as noted by the Times, such comparisons could lead to skewed outcomes and misinterpreted data. Vaccinated children are more likely to receive regular medical care than unvaccinated children, and therefore may also be more likely to receive diagnoses that could then be incorrectly attributed to vaccines.
Daniel Jernigan, who oversaw vaccine safety at the CDC until resigning in August, told the paper that he fears Kennedy may be spending millions of dollars trying to validate his own views on vaccines rather than relying on existing scientific research.
“It just demonstrates that no matter what the general tone is about vaccines, whether we talk about them or not, the secretary is going to continue to try and look at the data and analyze it in a way that will help support the conclusions that he’s already made,” Jernigan told the Times. “And that, to me, is a real problem.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Health and Human Services for comment.
