RFK Jr. wants health data for his anti-vaccine clams, says Trump transition co-chair

PROVIDENCE, RI — A co-chairman of Donald Trump’s transition team said Trump supporter Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants access to federal health data so he can try to show that vaccines are unsafe and could lead to their removal from the market in a second Trump administration.

Lutnick’s comments are raising concerns among public health experts that giving influence to one of the world’s most prominent anti-vaccine activists could lead to what they say would be “serious health consequences” for Americans, especially children . The comments came days before the Nov. 5 election and as Trump, a Republican, and Democrat Kamala Harris battle to win over late-deciding voters.

Howard Lutnick repeated some of Kennedy’s debunked anti-vaccine talk in a CNN interview, including falsehoods about the vaccine schedule and the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism. Trump has often spoken about how Kennedy, who suspended his own presidential bid and endorsed him in Augustwill play a major role when the former president returns to the White House.

Although Lutnick said Kennedy would not be chosen as secretary of Health and Human Services, he was not specific about what Kennedy’s role might be. Lutnick made the comments Wednesday, the same day Kennedy told NewsNation that Trump asked him to “reorganize” agencies, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and some agencies under the Department of Disease Control and Prevention. Agriculture.

Lutnick, the CEO of the financial services company Cantor Fitzgerald, told CNN that Kennedy wants access to data “so he can say these things are unsafe” and that sales will stop.

“He says: if you give me the data, all I want is the data and I will take the data and show that it is not secure. And if you then withdraw product liability, the companies will immediately pull these vaccines off the market. So that’s his point,” Lutnick said.

It was unclear what data Lutnick was referring to as extensive data and research had been done on it safety of vaccines is publicly available.

The World Health Organization has estimated that global vaccination efforts have saved at least 154 million lives over the past 50 years.

In recent days, Trump has said he would “let go” of Kennedy on health, food and medicine. Kennedy has repeatedly said he plans to exert his influence on a wide range of policies if Trump wins, and said Trump had promised him control over health agencies and told him he wanted him to reorganize them.

Asked about Kennedy’s comments and his role in the Trump administration, Jason Miller, a senior adviser for the campaign, said all Trump and his campaign are focused on is winning on Nov. 5.

“Everything after that comes next, and President Trump has made it clear that Bobby Kennedy will play a major role,” Miller wrote.

It would be “extremely dangerous” to put Kennedy in a position of power where he could make decisions or have the ability to change regulatory policy, said Joshua Sharfstein, vice dean for public health practice at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“Removing vaccines from the market would lead to serious consequences for America’s health,” said Sharfstein, a former deputy commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “In our daily lives in the United States, we don’t worry about many preventable diseases like measles because of the protection the vaccines provide. But if there were a systematic effort to use the tools of the federal government to undermine vaccination, children will not be safe. Point.”

Even if Kennedy is given a smaller role where he provides input and commentary but has no control over policy, it could still be harmful, according to people who have served in public health in government.

“Advisers like Scott Atlas have demonstrated the significant influence they can exert without congressional oversight, raising fears of misinformation and harm,” wrote Trump’s own surgeon general, Dr. Jerome Adams, in an email, referring to Trump’s former pandemic adviser on COVID-19: a radiologist with no background in infectious diseases, who advocated the widely discredited herd immunity strategy.

Adams said he believed it was unlikely that Kennedy could be appointed to lead a major health care organization because because he has no medical expertise, it would likely be difficult for him to pass a background check for a top-secret clearance ​​and he would probably have no support in carrying out his research. Congress – although during his first administration Trump bypassed background checks and equipped his Cabinet with acting officials who had not received approval from Congress.

Kennedy’s anti-vaccine organization has an ongoing lawsuit against news organizations, including the Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy is on leave from the group but is listed as one of the attorneys in the lawsuit.

Republican lawmakers have long enjoyed — and reciprocated — support from pharmaceutical companies, even vowing to dismantle a law signed by President Biden that allows the government to negotiate the price of prescription drugs for Medicare enrollees. Republicans have argued that the law will hurt businesses and stifle innovation in the industry. But vaccine skepticism, which is growing across the country, has deepened among conservatives.

In addition to people’s health and well-being, the possibility that Kennedy’s influence would lead to reviving debunked ideas like a vaccine link to autism and wasting time, energy and money discouraged public health advocates.

“Trump helped bring the vaccine to market, and he took the vaccine. … I don’t know why he’s giving this person this mouthpiece,” said Amy Pisani, CEO of Vaccinate Your Family, noting that Trump’s Operation Warp Speed ​​helped bring the COVID-19 vaccine to market, even though Kennedy attacked mercilessly.

Vaccinate Your Family is a nonpartisan group co-founded by former First Lady Rosalynn Carter and former First Lady Betty Bumpers of Arkansas that has worked on vaccine programs with both Republican and Democratic presidential administrations over the past three decades.

“I don’t want to go back 30 years in the fight against the anti-vaccination movement,” Pisani said. “To go back in time and waste millions and millions of taxpayers’ money again on this witch hunt is simply unsustainable.”

Smith writes for the Associated Press. Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz in Washington contributed to this report.