RFK Jr’s anti-vaccine obsession
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What controversy surrounded RFK Jr.'s confirmation as HHS Secretary?
I, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States.
When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as Health and Human Services Secretary, it made official one of President Trump's most controversial appointments. His confirmation came off the back of a fiery questioning from Democrats and Republicans alike about RFK Jr. 's record on vaccines. Mr. Kennedy, you have spent years pushing conflicting stories about vaccines. And under oath, RFK denied he was against them.
We need to move on. Senator, I support the measles vaccine. I support the polio vaccine. I will do nothing as HHS secretary. That makes it difficult or discourages people from taking either of those vaccines.
But since then, Kennedy has moved to do exactly what he promised not to. A Reuters investigation claims he considered scrapping the entire childhood vaccine schedule, discussed removing polio in MMR vaccines, and proposed spending $5 billion investigating the disproven link between vaccines and autism. I'm Daniel James, and you're listening to 7am. 7am. Today, we're bringing you an episode first published in February last year, just days after Kennedy was confirmed as Health Secretary. In it, Ruby Jones speaks to investigative journalist Brian Deer about Kennedy's two-decade anti-vaccine campaign and why Deer thinks he's the most prominent anti-vaccine campaigner in the world. It's Sunday, July 26.
This episode was originally published in February 2025.
So, Brian, for many of us, the first time that we heard of RFK was his failed presidential run.
And then, of course, last year he was chosen as Trump's pick for health secretary.
But you have been reporting on the anti-vaccine movement for more than two decades. So when did you first become aware of him? Well, I first got wise to him 20 years ago this July coming up when he suddenly popped up in American magazines trying to demonstrate the link between vaccines and autism. So he's been at it now for 20 years solid. He's not a particularly good campaigner, but he's got that magical name Kennedy, which plays so well in the United States. With his help, many causes have been brought to the forefront of public awareness, and his family's connections mean he has access to the highest levels of US government. So, Mr Kennedy, he's a product liability lawyer. What he tries to do is to get lawsuits going.
Kennedy made millions of dollars. Most of it was from his own law firm. He made about $9 million there. He also made money off book publishing.
People would be attracted by the campaigner and then moved over to the product liability lawsuits.
He gets these referral fees, sending essentially plaintiffs, people, families to other law firms. And he refers them so that they can sue on the grounds of, say, a vaccine lawsuit.
That's what he does, he sues people. Because one of the things about vaccine scares that people probably don't realise is that they begin as lawsuits and they're very, very lucrative for the lawyers who drive them. So he's experienced at campaigning against vaccines and in 2019 that took him and you to the Pacific island of Samoa. Can you tell me what the situation was like there when you arrived? Well, I arrived in December 2019 in the middle of an outbreak of measles, which was absolutely appalling in its extent. 83 people died, overwhelmingly children. In fact, on the day I arrived, the tally was 48 children dead. That was children aged four or under. And it was raging through the island unstopped.
The streets of Samoa are eerily quiet as the country deals with the fallout of an outbreak of measles that has claimed the lives of dozens.
Arriving at the airport, there were emergency supplies being brought in, ventilators, because you need special small-sized ventilators for children, were being hauled in from different parts of the world. And I set off talking to mothers who'd lost their children, and it was a really, really quite a striking experience, I can tell you. I remember it was in the wet season and there was rain just hammering on the roof in open-fronted housing.
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