Report: RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine agenda curbed as GOP realizes it’s unpopular

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s relentless anti-vaccine agenda is getting reined in as Republicans warn that further attacks on lifesaving vaccines could harm the party during the midterms, according to a report by The Washington Post.

“Health Secretary Robert F”

Ars Technica

The Post reported Wednesday that Kennedy’s hand-selected committee of vaccine advisors—who share his anti-vaccine views—have abruptly abandoned plans to attack mRNA vaccines in an upcoming meeting.

Ars Technica

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is scheduled to meet March 18–19; a Federal Register notice stated that the meeting would include discussion of “COVID-19 vaccine injuries,” and may include a vote to change the CDC’s vaccine recommendations.

Sources close to the committee told the Post that Kennedy’s advisors have been looking for ways to remove mRNA COVID-19 vaccines entirely from federal recommendations.

According to clearly stated goals in a meeting of Kennedy’s anti-vaccine allies earlier this week, the long-term goal is to eliminate all childhood vaccine recommendations and remove the shots from the market.

Ars Technica

Kennedy has long railed against mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and mRNA vaccine technology in general.

“Health Secretary Robert F”

Ars Technica

He has falsely claimed that COVID-19 vaccines have killed children and that the vaccines are the “deadliest vaccine[s] ever made.”

In May of last year, Kennedy unilaterally restricted the use of COVID-19 vaccines in children and during pregnancy.

The decision conflicts with scientific evidence and was made without consulting ACIP, which at the time was populated by esteemed vaccine experts.

In June, Kennedy fired all 17 ACIP members and began installing anti-vaccine allies.

In August, he unilaterally terminated nearly $500 million in funding for the development of mRNA vaccines that could thwart future pandemic threats.

Ars Technica

In September, Kennedy’s new ACIP nixed the CDC’s general recommendation for COVID-19 vaccines and replaced it with guidance that people aged 6–64 get vaccinated based on “shared clinical decision-making.”

One of the new ACIP members who heads a working group on COVID-19 vaccines, Retsef Levi—whose expertise is operations management—has publicly stated that he believes COVID-19 vaccines should be taken off the market.