In 2020, as a pandemic raged throughout the globe, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took to social media to attraction to his lots of of 1000’s of followers on Fb.
The son of the late U.S. Lawyer Common and New York Sen. Bobby Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, the youthful Kennedy stated he was in search of mother and father whose youngsters had been vaccinated in opposition to a special virus — human papillomavirus or HPV — and later grew sick.
Public well being researchers and docs stated there was no proof that the vaccine, Gardasil, was linked to the well being issues he cited, noting 160 favorable studies on security. A federal court docket created to compensate folks injured by vaccines additionally had already rejected an identical declare, citing “insufficient proof” that the vaccine was behind the plaintiff’s well being points.
However in his posts, Kennedy stated that he and lawyer Michael Baum – “one in all my closest pals” — believed there was nonetheless a path ahead. The households might sue the producer Merck in civil court docket claiming advertising and marketing fraud – allegations Merck denies.
“If in case you have been injured by Gardasil, name us,” Kennedy wrote on Fb, posting a toll-free quantity invoking his well-known initials “RFK.”
In accordance with monetary disclosure paperwork launched final week, Kennedy’s main supply of earnings up to now yr have been giant sums of referral charges from a number of regulation corporations, together with Baum’s workplace, whose civil lawsuit in opposition to Merck’s Gardasil vaccine went to trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court docket final week.
Kennedy’s main function in constructing a case in opposition to Merck is now elevating questions on how he would possibly wield his energy because the nation’s subsequent well being secretary – a job meant as an neutral overseer in public well being – whereas in line for potential payouts from a serious pharmaceutical firm.
“This disclosure reveals that RFK Jr. made tens of millions off of peddling harmful anti-vaccine conspiracies,” stated Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a member of the Senate Finance Committee, which can oversee Kennedy’s nomination.
“Even worse, if he’s confirmed, his funds will nonetheless be tied to the outcomes of anti-vaccine lawsuits — whilst he’d be tasked with regulating them as well being secretary. These are outrageous conflicts of curiosity that endanger public well being,” Warren stated in a press release offered to reporters.
Kennedy, who is anticipated to testify for the primary time Wednesday earlier than the Senate panel, stated he has resigned his work with a number of regulation corporations, together with Wisner Baum, and that if confirmed he wouldn’t be concerned in authorized circumstances.
However in a plan greenlit by federal ethics officers, Kennedy stated he plans to retain his proper to 10 % of charges awarded in contingency circumstances with Wisner Baum as long as the circumstances do not contain the U.S. authorities. The federal authorities isn’t a celebration within the civil lawsuit in opposition to Merck.
“I’m entitled to obtain a portion of future restoration in these circumstances based mostly upon the set share as set forth within the referral settlement,” he wrote.
Kennedy disclosed one other $856,559 in earnings from Wisner Baum referral charges, though the paperwork don’t say which authorized circumstances have been tied to these charges. Different earnings included $8.8 million from his agency Kennedy & Madonna. Kennedy stated he was terminating his relationship with the agency, which might now not use his identify.
A spokesperson for Kennedy declined to touch upon the file on the Wisner Baum payouts and ongoing lawsuit. Baum didn’t reply to a request for remark.
In a press release on the civil lawsuit, Merck stated “an awesome physique of scientific proof, together with greater than 30 years of analysis and growth together with actual world proof generated by Merck and by impartial investigators, continues to assist the security and efficacy of our HPV vaccines. The plaintiff’s allegations don’t have any benefit, and we stay dedicated to vigorously defending in opposition to these claims.”
Robert Krakow, a New York lawyer who focuses on vaccine damage circumstances and has labored with Kennedy up to now, stated referral charges are pretty commonplace in relation to private damage claims.
Kennedy has been a “galvanizing drive” when it got here to questioning vaccine security, offering a particular contact when speaking to households as a result of “he was very honest and listened to folks,” Krakow stated. Utilizing social media platforms to recruit shoppers is a pure extension of that work, he stated.
“It isn’t typically you might have a star do this,” Krawkow stated of Kennedy’s work to seek out shoppers who declare vaccine accidents. “However there’s nothing inherently flawed with recruiting folks for referral charges.”
Reuters was first to report Kennedy’s intensive function within the Gardasil vaccine lawsuit.
As a result of Kennedy’s monetary association was allowed by ethics officers, it is not clear whether or not the difficulty shall be a sticking level for Republicans desirous to align with Trump. In accordance with the settlement launched final week, Kennedy can maintain the charges from Wisner Baum as long as the impartial ethics workplace on the Well being and Human Companies Division determines the case does “not contain america as a celebration and by which america doesn’t have a direct and substantial curiosity.”
Kennedy additionally has insisted in non-public conferences with senators that he’s not “anti-vaccine,” however solely needs extra research, based on one particular person aware of the discussions.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Well being and Human Companies (HHS) nominee of President-elect Donald Trump, arrives to the sixtieth presidential inauguration within the rotunda of the Capitol, Jan. 20, 2025.
Kenny Holston/The New York Occasions/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photos
The messaging aligns with what Kennedy has stated publicly. Kennedy typically notes he was vaccinated as a baby and opted to vaccinate his personal youngsters many years in the past. His work as chair and chief litigator of the Youngsters’s Heath Protection, which opposes the beneficial schedule of vaccines for youngsters, didn’t start till round 2015.
“What I’ve stated is I am pro-science and pro-safety,” he advised an area New Hampshire tv station in 2023.
Nonetheless, public well being consultants and plenty of senators — a number of of them sufficiently old to recollect critical outbreaks of measles and polio within the Nineteen Fifties — have expressed critical considerations about his function in eroding confidence in vaccines even when he says he will not outright block entry to them.
“We probably face an enormous well being hazard, perhaps particularly for our youngsters,” stated Sen. Bernie Sanders, the highest Democrat on the Senate Well being, Schooling, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Sanders, a Vermont Democrat who had been seen as somebody who would possibly be capable of discover widespread floor with Kennedy on environmental and meals coverage, stated the priority with the incoming administration was that “we might revert again to these horrible days when so many youngsters died” earlier than age 3.
As head of the Well being and Human Companies Division, Kennedy can be accountable for the Meals and Drug Administration, which regulates the promoting and advertising and marketing of vaccines, and the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, which collects information on vaccines to situation public well being suggestions which are intently adopted by docs.
If confirmed, he might insist upon appointing vaccine skeptics to the impartial group that opinions FDA information on vaccines.
Kennedy additionally might alter how info is used from CDC’s public reporting system often called “VAERS” that enables anybody to flag attainable adversarial reactions from vaccines. The experiences are unverified however used to search for potential patterns that may be investigated.
Well being officers say signs reported in VAERS are sometimes discovered to be unrelated from an individual’s immunization historical past.
Dorit Reiss, a professor at UC Regulation San Francisco and knowledgeable in authorized points on vaccinations, stated handing over that course of to somebody with Kennedy’s monitor file can be unprecedented.
“Kennedy has been a dedicated anti-vaccine activist for a very long time. I’ve seen no indication that his views have modified,” Reiss stated.
ABC’s Sony Salzman and Will McDuffie contributed to this report.
