Kennedy fans vaccine injury concerns at anti-vaccine event

Kennedy fans vaccine injury concerns at anti-vaccine event

Returning to the anti-vaccine group he long chaired on Thursday, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert. F. Kennedy Jr. Used his keynote address to reinvigorate concerns about vaccine injuries .

© Jacquelyn Martin, Associated Press file

Speaking at an event hosted by Children’s Health Defense, reiterated many of his oft-mentioned arguments, including that he “never heard” of conditions like autism, peanut allergies, eczema and asthma.

The secretary often repeats this anecdote to support his claims that a synthetic factor must be inducing these conditions in children.

He has long supported the claim that vaccines could be linked to autism, though decades of research have yet to establish a clear connection . Critics push back on this claim, arguing detection methods for these conditions have become more sophisticated over time.

“We have a very bad vaccine adverse event reporting system. The only surveillance system that we really rely on to make to add candidates to this list is broken,” Kennedy said. “In fact, CDC’s own study of that system in 2010 — you can look it up, it’s called the Lazarus study — Found that fewer than one percent of vaccine injuries are reported. That means more than 99 percent are not reported.”

The study Kennedy cited did not conclude that 99 percent of vaccine injuries go unreported. The study noted that “fewer than 1% of vaccine adverse events are reported” as context explaining the limitations of a self-reported system like the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.

In his address, Kennedy took credit for helping “preserve individual choice without federal mandates.” While the federal government makes vaccine recommendations and has previously enacted requirements for certain, broad vaccination requirements for the general public do not exist.

“Let me be clear. You have a strong and steadfast friend at the White House,” Kennedy added.

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