Issues | Is RFK Jr an anti-vaxxer?

RFK Jr has faced widespread criticism for his views on vaccines, often being labeled as an anti-vaccine advocate or “anti-vaxxer.” This article presents RFK Jr’s stated position on vaccines, highlighting his call for increased safety measures, repealing liability protections for vaccine manufacturers, and safeguarding individual choice in medical decisions. From his recent video statements, public interviews, and documented examples, RFK Jr’s perspective is contextualized within broader discussions on public health, corporate accountability, and personal freedoms. His position is framed not as opposition to vaccination but as a demand for transparency, responsibility, and informed consent.

RFK Jr has been repeatedly denounced as an anti-vaxxer and promulgator of vaccine misinformation. Here are some examples:

• Anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. challenging Biden for presidency in 2024 —CBS News, 2023
• Have Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and His Anti-vax Conspiracies Found a Home? —Vanity Fair, 2023
• RFK Jr wasn’t campaigning as an anti-vaxxer – until Rogan controversy —BBC News, 2023
• How the 2024 Presidential Race Could Embolden the Anti-Vaccine Movement —TIME, 2023
• RFK Jr. spent years stoking fear and mistrust of vaccines. These people were hurt by his work —AP, 2023
• Bad Takes: Robert Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine claims aren’t just bullshit, they’re dangerous bullshit —San Antonio Current, 2023
• The anti-vax candidate? How is Robert F Kennedy’s long record of spreading anti-vaccine misinformation impacting on his bid to be elected US President in 2024? —BBC News, 2024
• Bill Maher Batters His Buddy RFK Jr. Over Anti-Vax Claims —Daily Beast, 2024
• Anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy secures spot on Utah’s 2024 presidential ballot —Salt Lake Tribune, 2024
• RFK Jr. Launches Independent 2024 Run: Here Are All the Conspiracies He Promotes—From Vaccines To Mass Shootings —Forbes, 2024
• RFK Jr: How anti-vaccine misinformation has shaped his ‘truth-teller’ candidacy —BBC News, 2024
• “And anti-vaccination groups pounced on the circumstances. Most notably, the deaths were picked up by the Children’s Health Defense, run by the prominent anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.” —Ars Technica, 2019
• “Kennedy’s anti-vaccine message has brought him close to many leading figures who have attacked the nation’s democratic norms and institutions.” —AP, 2021
• “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is no stranger to FactCheck.org. He is a prominent anti-vaccine advocate who has been on our radar for years, primarily as the founder of Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit that spreads anti-vaccine misinformation.” —FactCheck.org, 2023
• “The Samoan government temporarily suspended the vaccination program, and anti-vaccine advocates — including Kennedy and his nonprofit — flooded the area with misinformation.” —FactCheck.org, 2023
• “All of this evidence has not stopped anti-vaccine activists like Kennedy from holding steadfast to their false claims, with each successive refutation being met with an excuse. … Kennedy’s brand of extreme anti-vaccine activism can have deadly consequences.” —TIME, 2023
• “He is a hardcore anti-vaccine and misinformation peddler.” —Alastair McAlpine, cited and quoted in The Guardian, 2024
• “The Samoan incident showed us how disinformation can kill,” said American paediatrician Dr Paul Offit, who has followed Kennedy’s anti-vaccine activism since 2005.” —The Guardian, 2024
• “Mr. Kennedy has denied that he is against vaccination, styling himself as a vaccine safety activist who questions corporate influence on science. His critics say he has promoted conspiratorial ideas about a public health intervention widely viewed as one of the most important advances in modern medicine.” —New York Times, 2024
• “The temporary suspension prompted Kennedy and his anti-vaccine nonprofit Children’s Health Defense to reportedly spread various falsehoods about vaccinations…” —The Guardian, 2024
• “Kennedy, a leading anti-vaxxer who had visited the Pacific island nation a few months before the outbreak…” —Mother Jones, 2024

Occasionally, the media reports that RFK Jr doesn’t consider himself opposed to vaccines — instead, he wants to make them safer. For example, the New York Times quoted him from a 2023 speech at Hillsdale College. “I’m not anti-vaccine, although I’m kind of the poster child for the anti-vax movement.” RFK Jr had also told the New York Times in a statement in 2019: “I am not anti vaccine. I want safe vaccines with robust safety testing.”

On August 22, 2024, RFK Jr posted a YouTube video explaining his position on vaccines:

In this video, RFK Jr’s position can be summarized by three central points:

1. Vaccines have side effects — and their safety needs to be studied more extensively.
2. Vaccine makers should be legally responsible for their products — but currently, they are not.
3. Individuals should be free to choose whether to get vaccinated — and government mandates are unethical.

RFK Jr has been frequently labeled an anti-vaxxer and a conspiracy theorist due to his criticisms of vaccine safety and mandates. He asserts that his concerns are mischaracterized and that he is, instead, a proponent of vaccine safety. He clarifies his stance in various interviews and public statements, citing personal experiences and medical evidence. This article highlights his position through his recent video statements, which seek to address what he sees as widespread misconceptions.

Before we proceed, a point of clarification (or confusion): Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines an anti-vaxxer as “a person who opposes the use of some or all vaccines, regulations mandating vaccination, or usually both.” By this standard, we can stop here and conclude that RFK Jr is an anti-vaxxer. The reality is that many people who are called anti-vaxxers are not opposed to vaccines but voice their concerns about vaccines. The more precise question: is RFK Jr opposed to vaccines on principle? As to the definition of conspiracy theorists and RFK Jr branded as one: “Since conspiracies are real and conspiracy theories can be true or false,” as Chris Masterjohn recently explained, “‘conspiracy theory’ cannot be used in the context of a rational discussion as a term of dismissal.” Onward.

“For over a decade, I’ve been attacked and labeled an anti-vaxxer and a conspiracy theorist,” RFK Jr contends, “for simply drawing attention to the serious side effects listed on every vaccine insert, and for advocating for the children who are suffering from these side effects.”

“Vaccines have side effects just like every other drug,” RFK Jr said. “This shouldn’t be controversial, but it is.” RFK Jr plays a couple of clips showing how he is typically confronted on the issue in the media:

RFK Jr says that oft-repeated statement comes from an interview with Lex Fridman where he was interrupted and didn’t get to complete his thought:

“What I was actually saying in that interview and what I’ve said for 20 years,” RFK Jr explains, “is that there is no such thing as a vaccine that is safe and effective for everyone [Buoninfante et al., 2024].” He continues:

NB: Bracketed references in quoted material from RFK Jr’s YouTube video refer to relevant links to the content displayed in the video.

RFK Jr then reads from an insert in the box with the hepatitis B vaccine (ENGERIX-B), which is injected into most babies within 24 hours of birth. He lists several serious adverse events in the document. (“ADVERSE REACTIONS” can be found in the linked ENGERIX-B document, pp. 6-9.)

RFK Jr then highlights a 2024 New York Times article, “Thousands Believe Covid Vaccines Harmed Them. Is Anyone Listening? All vaccines have at least occasional side effects. But people who say they were injured by Covid vaccines believe their cases have been ignored.” According to the article, vaccines can cause adverse reactions in some cases. The article advocates for more thorough research into reported injuries to develop better safety protocols.

Dr. Deborah Birx, former White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, supports this investigation. All vaccines can occasionally have side effects, but those claiming harm feel their experiences are overlooked. Dr. Birx, a former COVID task force leader, echoes this sentiment, calling for more transparency and urging people with adverse reactions to come forward [NewsNation, 2024]. She acknowledges that not all incidents may have been appropriately reported.

Similarly, Dr. Robert Redfield, former director of the CDC, critiques the lack of transparency among institutions like the CDC, NIH, and FDA, noting that dismissing concerns about vaccine side effects has eroded public trust [NewsNation, 2024]. RFK Jr raises the question of whether people like Dr. Birx, now openly advocating for a closer examination of vaccine safety, should be labeled as “anti-vaxxers.”

He also revisits a 2005 statement from Dr. Bernadine Healy, a former NIH head, who argued that failing to study potential susceptibility to vaccines among specific groups of children is a missed opportunity [CBS News, 2008]. Dr. Healy emphasized that identifying vulnerable groups wouldn’t undermine the value of vaccines but could improve their safety by tailoring schedules or exclusions for specific individuals. However, she criticized the government for being too quick to dismiss concerns about vaccine-autism links without conducting thorough research on affected populations.

The overarching theme of the Times article and the comments by Birx, Redfield, and Healy are a call for greater openness, scientific investigation, and acknowledgment of possible risks to restore public confidence in vaccines while ensuring their safety for everyone. This is also effectively RFK Jr’s stance.

“I’m going to make sure that you are told the truth about every product, and that includes all the benefits and all the side effects that they know about,” he said. “And I’m going to fund our regulatory agencies to fix the problem instead of ignoring them. And I’m going to stop them from gaslighting and silencing the scientists, the physicians, and the individuals who want to talk about vaccine injuries [Daily Wire, 2024].”

RFK Jr underscores that all vaccines, like any medical intervention, can have side effects. He advocates for more extensive safety studies and increased transparency regarding adverse effects. He cites examples from vaccine inserts and medical literature to support his claim that acknowledging and addressing vaccine injuries is necessary to restore public trust and improve vaccine safety.

“Vaccine makers should be legally responsible for their products,” RFK Jr said in his video, “and, surprisingly, they are not.”

RFK Jr explains:

“As an attorney, I can assure you that once a company knows that they can be sued when their product is defective [Murphy, 2018], they work much harder to fix the issue themselves,” RFK Jr contends. “By repealing the 1986 Act, we can replace regulation with responsibility and accountability.”

RFK Jr critiques the 1986 Vaccine Injury Compensation Act, which shields vaccine manufacturers from legal liability. He argues that this lack of accountability discourages safety improvements and calls for repeal. He asserts that holding manufacturers legally responsible for their products would incentivize better safety standards and bolster public confidence in vaccines.

RFK Jr’s third and final point: “Freedom means having the right to choose.”

“If vaccines are working for somebody, I’m not going to take them away,” RFK Jr said during a November 6, 2024 interview with NBC News. “People ought to have choice, and that choice ought to be informed by the best information. So I’m going to make sure scientific safety studies and efficacy are out there, and people can make individual assessments about whether that product is going to be good for them.”

Here’s RFK Jr on NPR’s Morning Edition, speaking with host Steve Inskeep (also on November 6):

In his YouTube video, RFK Jr discusses President Biden signing executive orders in the Fall of 2021 requiring vaccination against COVID-19 for all federal executive branch workers. Biden also directed the Department of Labor to issue a rule requiring employers with more than 100 workers to implement either vaccine or testing requirements. “Four million more people got their first shot in August than they did in July, but we need to do more,” Biden said. “This is not about freedom — or personal choice — it’s about protecting yourself and those around you.”

“When President Biden passed the mandate during the pandemic to take away people’s jobs if they did not submit to the COVID vaccine [New York Times, 2021], he violated one of the central principles of freedom,” RFK Jr said. “If a person does not have the final decision of their own bodies, then they are owned by whoever does.”

RFK Jr continued:

RFK Jr defends personal freedom in vaccination decisions, opposing mandates that infringe on individual rights. RFK Jr argues informed consent is a cornerstone of medical ethics and should guide vaccination policies.

“So to sum it all up, despite what you may have heard, I’m not going to take away anybody’s vaccine who wants a vaccine; I’m just going to make them safer for everyone,” RFK Jr says in closing. “I’m going to make sure that the industry is responsible for their products, and I’m going to make sure that you are always free to choose what’s right for you.”

One commenter on RFK Jr’s video said, “Calling RFK Jr. anti-vax is like calling someone who criticizes pharma companies for the opioid crisis ‘anti-pain relief.’” In a 2017 interview with Science after RFK Jr had met with then President-elect Donald Trump, he was asked: “Rates of childhood infectious diseases have plummeted over the past half-century or so. Are you out to return us to the dark ages?”

RFK Jr answered:

RFK Jr does not oppose vaccines but calls for safer practices, corporate accountability, and respect for individual choice. He seeks to ensure transparency in vaccine development and administration while protecting the public from potential harm. RFK Jr contends that critics misrepresent his views and emphasizes that his advocacy aims to improve public health outcomes by prioritizing safety and trust. Through this approach, he envisions a system where vaccines remain accessible but are subject to rigorous scrutiny and ethical oversight.