The future of vaccination in the U.S. appears to be in ever-greater peril. Robert Kennedy Jr., who President-elect Donald Trump has nominated as the next head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has continued to signal that he and others in his camp, including his personal lawyer Aaron Siri, may attempt to remove certain vaccines from the market.
On Friday, the New York Times published an extensive article detailing Siri’s legal history advocating for RFK and the anti-vaccination movement in general. Chief among the tidbits is that Siri petitioned the government (specifically the Food and Drug Administration) to revoke the approval of the polio vaccine just two years ago, and that Siri has been personally advising RFK on potential positions to fill within HHS. While RFK’s nomination is not certain to succeed, these developments are the latest to suggest that vaccines could be on the chopping block should Trump get his man.
According to the Times, Siri has also petitioned the FDA to withdraw the hepatitis B vaccine from the market and to pause the distribution of 13 other vaccines. These petitions were made on behalf of the Informed Consent Action Network, a nonprofit organization that’s championed the anti-vaccination movement (the group claims to advocate for “medical freedom”) since its emergence in 2016. Siri has represented other clients who have attempted to tear vaccine-related regulations or laws as well.
Often, Siri has claimed that these vaccines were approved with little evidence of their safety and effectiveness. In the case of the polio and hepatitis B vaccine, he has argued that they should be removed until they’ve been tested in double-blinded, placebo-controlled randomized studies. While this type of research is considered the gold standard of evidence, the safety of these and other vaccines has been continuously upheld by many different studies over the years. And experts have noted that testing the polio vaccine against a placebo would actively harm people, given the known dangers of such infections, which can include fatal or lifelong paralysis.
“You’re substituting a theoretical risk for a real risk,” Paul A. Offit, a vaccine expert at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia told the Times. ”The real risks are the diseases.”
While Siri’s arguments may have made on behalf of his clients, he is also personally advising RFK on possible job candidates to staff HHS should RFK’s nomination sail through, the Times has reported. Both RFK and Siri have reportedly questioned candidates about their views on vaccines as well. And RFK has apparently floated the idea of having Siri serve as general counsel for the HHS, though Siri may prefer having an outside role instead.
Some Republican members of Congress have avoided fully supporting RFK and his views, while former Trump vice-president Mike Pence has urged his colleagues not to confirm RFK (albeit, only because he might be too pro-choice). So there remains at least a chance that RFK will not become the next head of HHS. But at this point, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether there will be enough dissenters. And if RFK is given a wide latitude to shape the country’s public health, the loss of some vaccines remains a real possibility.
In an interview conducted by Time Magazine released this week (Trump was selected as the magazine’s Person of the Year), Trump was non-committal on the issue of vaccination. He stated that he would have a “big discussion” about vaccines with RFK. And when asked point blank if his future plans could include getting rid of certain vaccines at RFK’s behest, he replied: “It could if I think it’s dangerous, if I think they are not beneficial, but I don’t think it’s going to be very controversial in the end.”
