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 Basic and New York Sen. Bobby Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, the youthful Kennedy mentioned he was in search of dad and mom whose kids had been vaccinated towards a special virus — human papillomavirus or HPV — and later grew sick.
Public well being researchers and docs mentioned there was no proof that the vaccine, Gardasil, was linked to the well being issues he cited, noting 160 favorable research on security. A federal courtroom created to compensate individuals injured by vaccines additionally had already rejected an analogous declare, citing “inadequate proof” that the vaccine was behind the plaintiff’s well being points.
However in his posts, Kennedy mentioned that he and lawyer Michael Baum – “certainly one of my closest buddies” — believed there was nonetheless a path ahead. The households might sue the producer Merck in civil courtroom 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 keeping with monetary disclosure paperwork launched final week, Kennedy’s main supply of earnings up to now 12 months have been massive sums of referral charges from a number of regulation companies, together with Baum’s workplace, whose civil lawsuit towards Merck’s Gardasil vaccine went to trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court docket final week.
Kennedy’s main function in constructing a case towards Merck is now elevating questions on how he may wield his energy because the nation’s subsequent well being secretary – a job supposed as an neutral overseer in public well being – whereas in line for potential payouts from a significant pharmaceutical firm.
“This disclosure reveals that RFK Jr. made thousands and thousands off of peddling harmful anti-vaccine conspiracies,” mentioned 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 — at the same time as he’d be tasked with regulating them as well being secretary. These are outrageous conflicts of curiosity that endanger public well being,” Warren mentioned in an announcement offered to reporters.
Kennedy, who is anticipated to testify for the primary time Wednesday earlier than the Senate panel, mentioned he has resigned his work with a number of regulation companies, together with Wisner Baum, and that if confirmed he wouldn’t be concerned in authorized instances.
However in a plan greenlit by federal ethics officers, Kennedy mentioned he plans to retain his proper to 10 % of charges awarded in contingency instances with Wisner Baum as long as the instances do not contain the U.S. authorities. The federal authorities shouldn’t be a celebration within the civil lawsuit towards Merck.
“I’m entitled to obtain a portion of future restoration in these instances 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 instances have been tied to these charges. Different earnings included $8.8 million from his agency Kennedy & Madonna. Kennedy mentioned 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 an announcement on the civil lawsuit, Merck mentioned “an amazing physique of scientific proof, together with greater than 30 years of analysis and improvement together with actual world proof generated by Merck and by unbiased investigators, continues to help the protection and efficacy of our HPV vaccines. The plaintiff’s allegations haven’t any advantage, and we stay dedicated to vigorously defending towards these claims.”
Robert Krakow, a New York lawyer who focuses on vaccine harm instances and has labored with Kennedy up to now, mentioned referral charges are pretty normal in the case of private harm 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 individuals,” Krakow mentioned. Utilizing social media platforms to recruit shoppers is a pure extension of that work, he mentioned.
“It is not typically you’ve got a star try this,” Krawkow mentioned of Kennedy’s work to seek out shoppers who declare vaccine accidents. “However there’s nothing inherently incorrect with recruiting individuals 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 isn’t clear whether or not the difficulty will likely be a sticking level for Republicans desirous to align with Trump. In keeping with the settlement launched final week, Kennedy can preserve the charges from Wisner Baum as long as the unbiased ethics workplace on the Well being and Human Providers Division determines the case does “not contain america as a celebration and during which america doesn’t have a direct and substantial curiosity.”
Kennedy additionally has insisted in personal conferences with senators that he’s not “anti-vaccine,” however solely needs extra research, in accordance with one particular person acquainted with the discussions.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Well being and Human Providers (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 Instances/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photographs
The messaging aligns with what Kennedy has mentioned publicly. Kennedy typically notes he was vaccinated as a toddler and opted to vaccinate his personal kids many years in the past. His work as chair and chief litigator of the Kids’s Heath Protection, which opposes the really helpful schedule of vaccines for youngsters, didn’t start till round 2015.
“What I’ve mentioned is I am pro-science and pro-safety,” he informed an area New Hampshire tv station in 2023.
Nonetheless, public well being specialists and lots of senators — a number of of them sufficiently old to recollect severe outbreaks of measles and polio within the Fifties — have expressed severe issues about his function in eroding confidence in vaccines even when he says he will not outright block entry to them.
“We probably face a large well being hazard, perhaps particularly for our youngsters,” mentioned 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 may be capable to discover widespread floor with Kennedy on environmental and meals coverage, mentioned the priority with the incoming administration was that “we might revert again to these horrible days when so many kids died” earlier than age 3.
As head of the Well being and Human Providers Division, Kennedy could 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 challenge public well being suggestions which can be carefully adopted by docs.
If confirmed, he might insist upon appointing vaccine skeptics to the unbiased group that evaluations FDA information on vaccines.
Kennedy additionally might alter how info is used from CDC’s public reporting system generally known as “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, mentioned handing over that course of to somebody with Kennedy’s observe file could 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 mentioned.
ABC’s Sony Salzman and Will McDuffie contributed to this report.