The gloves are off in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s feud with American doctors.
Hours after the American Academy of Pediatrics, the professional society for doctors who care for children, issued Covid-19 vaccine guidance contradicting that of the health secretary, Kennedy accused the group of engaging in a “pay-to-play scheme to promote commercial ambitions of AAP’s Big Pharma benefactors” in a post on social media platform X.
Kennedy cited donations from Covid mRNA vaccine drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna, among other pharmaceutical companies, to the pediatricians’ Friends of Children Fund, which backs projects promoting children’s health and health equity. Kennedy said the contributions constituted a conflict of interest and suggested they led to the group’s decision to recommend that young children, between 6 and 23 months old, receive Covid vaccines.
In May, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dropped its recommendation that all children 6 months and older get Covid shots. Kennedy at the time said the move was based on “common sense” and “good science.”
The AAP, however, said it had retained its guidance for young children to get the shots because they are still at risk of severe cases of the disease. “COVID-19 continues to result in hospitalization and death in the pediatric population,” the group said in a release explaining its recommendations, adding that “children younger than 2 years old are especially vulnerable to severe COVID-19 and should be prioritized for vaccination.”
The pediatric group did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment regarding Kennedy’s remarks.
Earlier Tuesday, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon accused the pediatricians of “freelancing its own recommendations, while smearing those who demand accountability” in a statement to POLITICO.
AAP President Susan J. Kressly defended her group’s guidance in response, saying they were “based only in the science, the needs of children, and the care that pediatricians have for the children in every community.”
Despite the disagreement over vaccination of young children, both the new CDC guidance and the pediatricians continue to recommend shots for children with underlying conditions that could put them at risk for severe disease. Both have also scaled back recommendations for healthy children older than 6 months, saying that parents of children without underlying conditions should decide on vaccination in consultation with their pediatrician.
Why it matters: The pediatricians’ split with the CDC underscores the depth of the distrust between the medical establishment and Kennedy — a longtime vaccine skeptic who once said the Covid vaccine was “the deadliest vaccine ever made” in defiance of scientific consensus.
Before Kennedy’s arrival, the agency and the pediatricians agreed on vaccine recommendations, but Kennedy’s efforts to overhaul federal vaccine policy have upset the relationship. Earlier this summer, he ousted all the members of the expert panel that advises the CDC on vaccines, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, tapping new members with a history of vaccine skepticism. Most recently, Kennedy rescinded $500 million earmarked for research into mRNA technology, which was used to develop the Moderna and Pfizer Covid vaccines.
And his latest post isn’t the first time he’s criticized doctors. The May report from his Make America Health Again Commission assessing the causes of chronic disease in children was laced with accusations that doctors are influenced by the pharmaceutical industry to overprescribe certain medications and fail to treat the root causes of disease.
The split also comes as children return to school and the annual fall vaccination campaign for Covid and the flu is beginning.
Kennedy suggested that the pediatric group could be exposing its member doctors to liability in his X post, stating that “AAP should also be candid with doctors and hospitals that recommendations that diverge from the CDC’s official list are not shielded from liability under the 1986 Vaccine Injury Act.”
The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which that law created, doesn’t cover Covid vaccines, but Kennedy has said he wants to overhaul the system for compensating people who experience serious side effects from vaccines. He would likely need Congress’ assent to change it.
