RFK Jr promises vaccine sceptics they have a ‘friend at the White House’

The US Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, has promised anti-vaccine activists that they have a "steadfast friend at the White House", using a headline speech to bolster doubts about childhood immunisations while a deadly measles outbreak spreads.

Addressing a Washington conference organised by Children’s Health Defense – the group he led for nearly a decade – Kennedy defended his plans to overhaul the way the government monitors vaccine safety. He assured the audience that President Donald Trump is fully committed to the cause, saying he had been directed to "pursue answers to strengthen vaccine safety".

The speech comes amid the worst US measles outbreak in decades. The disease recently killed four people in Pennsylvania, following three deaths last year in Texas and Arizona.

Kennedy addressed the outbreak only once during his nearly 90-minute speech, arguing that vaccine side effects do not receive the same attention as infectious diseases.

"We care about every child who dies from measles. They get headlines," Kennedy said. "I’d ask you to care about children who are dying or suffering or being injured by vaccine injuries."

In his speech, Kennedy repeated several long-standing claims of the anti-vaccine movement. He argued that routine childhood shots might be responsible for chronic conditions like asthma, allergies, diabetes, and autism, and claimed the US vaccine schedule had expanded from three doses when he was a child to 94 doses today.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the actual figure is much lower: a child following the full recommended schedule up to age 18 receives about 33 doses of 18 or 19 vaccines.

Kennedy also claimed that only the Covid-19 vaccine had been subjected to a randomised controlled trial. The American Academy of Pediatrics says this is false, noting that childhood vaccines undergo multiple phases of clinical trials, including randomised trials with placebo or comparison groups, before they are approved.

The conference highlighted how closely the new administration’s health leadership is aligned with figures who were once on the fringes of public health.

Among the speakers was Andrew Wakefield, the British former doctor who was struck off the medical register after fabricating research that linked the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism. Wakefield told the audience he could not have imagined two years ago that Kennedy would be running HHS, or that Trump would be suggesting splitting the MMR vaccine into three separate injections.

The Children’s Health Defense group used the event to outline its future plans, which include lobbying against state-level school vaccine mandates and campaigning against the rollout of 5G and 6G mobile phone towers over fears about electromagnetic fields.

Kennedy told his supporters to be patient as he works to make permanent changes to health agencies, which he said must be done legally to last.

"We are doing this one day at a time," he said. "I’ve spent 40 years in these battles... I intend to stay in this fight as long as I’m able."