In 2020, as a pandemic raged throughout the globe, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took to social media to enchantment to his lots of of hundreds of followers on Fb.
The son of the late U.S. Lawyer Common and New York Sen. Bobby Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, the youthful Kennedy mentioned he was searching for mother and father whose kids had been vaccinated towards a unique 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 studies on security. A federal courtroom created to compensate individuals injured by vaccines additionally had already rejected an analogous declare, citing “insufficient proof” that the vaccine was behind the plaintiff’s well being points.
However in his posts, Kennedy mentioned that he and lawyer Michael Baum – whom Kennedy calls “considered one of my closest associates” — believed there was nonetheless a path ahead. The households might sue the producer Merck in civil courtroom claiming advertising fraud – allegations Merck denies.
“You probably have been injured by Gardasil, name us,” Kennedy wrote on Fb, posting a toll-free quantity invoking his well-known initials “RFK.”
In line with monetary disclosure paperwork launched final week, Kennedy’s major supply of earnings prior to now yr had been giant sums of referral charges from a number of legislation 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 would possibly wield his energy because the nation’s subsequent well being secretary – a job meant as an neutral overseer in public well being – whereas in line for potential payouts from a significant pharmaceutical firm.
“This disclosure exhibits that RFK Jr. made hundreds of thousands off of peddling harmful anti-vaccine conspiracies,” mentioned Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who’s a Democratic member of the Senate Finance Committee that may 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 a press release 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 legislation companies, together with Wisner Baum, and that if confirmed he would not 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 is just not 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 proportion 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 had 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 not use his identify.
A spokesperson for Kennedy declined to touch upon the report.
Baum mentioned on Monday that Kennedy was “instrumental” within the Gardasil case, however has not acquired any compensation associated to the lawsuit to this point.
“Till he started working for president, he was co-counsel, not simply referring counsel,” Baum wrote in an e mail. “His accumulation of science articles and connections to skilled scientists keen to work on the Gardasil case was instrumental to establishing a foundation and path for litigating Gardasil induced harm instances.”
He is also pushing again towards strategies that the the lawsuit is “anti-vaccine.” Baum mentioned Merck didn’t correctly warn sufferers of potential unwanted effects.
In a press release on the civil lawsuit, Merck mentioned “an amazing physique of scientific proof, together with greater than 30 years of analysis and growth together with actual world proof generated by Merck and by unbiased investigators, continues to help the security and efficacy of our HPV vaccines. The plaintiff’s allegations don’t have 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 prior to now, mentioned referral charges are pretty commonplace in relation to private harm claims.
Kennedy has been a “galvanizing pressure” 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 purchasers is a pure extension of that work, he mentioned.
“It isn’t typically you might have a star try this,” Krakow mentioned of Kennedy’s work to search out purchasers who declare vaccine accidents. “However there’s nothing inherently improper with recruiting individuals for referral charges.”
Reuters was first to report Kennedy’s in depth function within the Gardasil vaccine lawsuit.
As a result of Kennedy’s monetary association was allowed by ethics officers, it is not clear whether or not the problem shall be a sticking level for Republicans desirous to align with Trump. In line 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 Companies Division determines the case does “not contain america as a celebration and through 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 desires extra research, based on one individual accustomed to the discussions.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Well being and Human Companies (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 Occasions/Bloomberg through Getty Photos
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 a long time 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 advised a neighborhood New Hampshire tv station in 2023.
Nonetheless, public well being specialists and plenty of senators — a number of of them sufficiently old to recollect severe outbreaks of measles and polio within the Nineteen 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 doubtlessly face an enormous well being hazard, possibly particularly for our youngsters,” mentioned Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who’s the highest Democrat on the Senate Well being, Training, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Sanders, who had been seen as somebody who would possibly be capable to discover frequent 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 Companies Division, Kennedy could be accountable for the Meals and Drug Administration, which regulates the promoting and advertising 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 opinions FDA information on vaccines.
Kennedy additionally might alter how info is used from CDC’s public reporting system often called “VAERS” that permits anybody to flag potential hostile reactions from vaccines. The studies 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 skilled in authorized points on vaccinations, mentioned handing over that course of to somebody with Kennedy’s observe report 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.
