The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board ripped into Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over “disturbing” new reports that he pushed out a top vaccine expert and instead tapped an anti-vax lawyer to lead a national study on vaccines and autism.
On Wednesday, news broke that Kennedy had appointed David Geier—who doesn’t even have a medical degree—to oversee a new study commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) searching for a link between autism and vaccines. In 2012, Maryland’s state Board of Physicians disciplined Geier with a $10,000 fine for practicing medicine without a license.
Geier has long peddled the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism and neurological damage in children. He has written dozens of studies claiming to have found a link, none of which passed legal or scientific muster, according to the Journal.
“If Mr. Kennedy truly wants an independent, impartial review of vaccine data, Mr. Geier is the wrong man for the job,” the editorial board wrote. “The study’s results look preordained.”
Kennedy also forced Peter Marks, a top official at the Food and Drug Administration who helped accelerate the agency’s approval of the Covid-19 vaccine, to either resign or be fired. In this resignation letter on Friday, he wrote that he was willing to work with Kennedy to address his “concerns regarding vaccine safety and transparency.”
But, he added, “It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.”
Kennedy has also downplayed a measles outbreak in Texas and instructed the National Institutes of Health to report any grants or contracts involving mRNA technology, which was used to develop the Covid-19 vaccine and has the potential to treat other deadly diseases, including cancer.
The former environmental lawyer has long been vocal about his discredited beliefs that vaccines cause autism, but congressional Republicans who confirmed his appointment had hoped other top health officials would keep Kennedy in check.
Instead, he is creating a brain drain at the department he oversees, according to the Journal.
“Mr. Kennedy rightly criticized the Biden Administration’s Covid responses for ignoring science, but he won’t restore public confidence if he feeds skepticism about vaccines that have saved countless lives,” the editors wrote. “Our worst fears about Mr. Kennedy are coming true.”
