Having held the title of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services for only four months, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has repeatedly expressed statements about vaccines, raising questions about their safety and questioning the integrity of the long-established protocols used to assess them. Unfortunately, many of his statements harbor inaccuracies. For instance, in a broadcast that aired on June 12, 2025, Secretary Kennedy informed viewers that a staggering 97% of federal vaccine consultants had conflicts of interest. During the same piece, he stated that children are obligated to take 92 injections. He also emphatically stated that only vaccines developed for COVID-19, and none of the vaccines used by both adults and children, were tested against placebos. He further suggested that the safety of regular vaccines is largely unknown.
As a medical practitioner specializing in infectious diseases and maintaining an extensive database of controlled vaccine trials with a participation count exceeding 6 million, I have a profound understanding of the abundance of research conducted on vaccine safety over the years. Considering these statements come from the official who is currently responsible for the entities tasked with safeguarding the health of Americans, I find it necessary to clarify the misconceptions.
Flashback to 1986, the vaccination schedule for children consisted of approximately 11 doses safeguarding against seven diseases. Today, the regimen comprises roughly 50 shots that prevent 16 ailments. Local school admission laws typically demand children to have 30 to 32 shots to protect against 10 to 12 diseases. There are no statewide orders mandating vaccination against COVID-19. The source or context of Secretary Kennedy’s claim that children are required to receive 92 shots remains ambiguous. However, the reality is, the actual number is significantly less.
More significant than the quantity of vaccinations administered, is the concern of whether the diverse vaccines on today’s schedule could overwhelm a child’s immune system. The fact is, they do not. Advanced vaccine technological enhancements over the past few decades have drastically minimized the number of antigens present in each dose.
Antigens, the key compounds in vaccines that provoke an immune response, serve to fortify the immune system’s ability to recognize specific pathogens. Some vaccines also include tiny doses of aluminum salts as an adjuvant, an ancillary ingredient that amplifies the quality and durability of the immune response, thereby enhancing the protective efficacy of lesser antigen quantities.
The 11 doses administered in the 1986 vaccine schedule delivered over 3,000 antigens and 1.5 milligrams of aluminum across an 18-year span. By contrast, the current vaccine regimen offers about 165 antigens, representing an impressive 95% reduction, and an intake of 5-6 milligrams of aluminum over the same period. Interestingly, a simple smallpox vaccination in 1900 would have exposed a child to more antigens than the entire current vaccination series.
Since the reforms of 1986, the U.S. has continually introduced and incorporated vaccines for various diseases, including Haemophilus influenzae type b, hepatitis A and B, chickenpox, pneumococcal disease, rotavirus, and human papillomavirus, each presenting a stride in lifesaving advancements.
The introduction of these new vaccines has significantly impacted public health. Haemophilus influenzae type b, a bacterium contributing to pneumonia, meningitis, and other major diseases, has seen a 99% reduction in cases amongst infants. Cases of pediatric hepatitis have decreased by over 90%, and hospitalization due to chickenpox has seen an equal decline. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the vaccination of children born between 1994 and 2023 will help prevent 508 million illnesses and save over 1,129,000 lives from premature death.
Secretary Kennedy has consistently promoted the notion that only vaccines developed for COVID-19 have been subjected to stringent safety trials that involve testing against placebos. This claim is unequivocally untrue.
In our database of 378 controlled trials, 195 of them have compared the subjects’ responses to a vaccine versus a placebo. Of these, 159 trials administered only saline solution or other inert substances to validate the reactions. Additional 36 trials administered just the adjuvant – without any viral or bacterial content – to categorize any side effects that might arise from the antigen itself or the induced injection. The antigen from each routine childhood vaccination is represented in at least one such study.
Once a vaccine is deemed effective and licensed, ethical guidelines mandate that newer iterations be compared with the approved standard. This is so, as it would be unethical to deny children the protection of proven vaccines.
Although Secretary Kennedy has repeatedly remarked that there is a lack of understanding regarding vaccine safety profiles, in our database housing 378 trials, the substantial majority have disclosed comprehensive safety outcomes.
Beyond controlled trials, the U.S. operates systems such as the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, the Vaccine Safety Datalink, and the PRISM network to rigorously monitor millions of vaccine doses for rare complications. These systems have previously allowed health officials to recall the introduction of the first rotavirus vaccine in 1999 due to its link to bowel obstruction, and limit the use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in 2021 following rare clotting events. There are only a few classes of drugs that are under such scrutiny and prompt responsive action when actual risks become evident.
On June 9, Secretary Kennedy enacted an unprecedented measure, disbanding the vetted members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which serves to advise the CDC on national vaccine policies. He has repeatedly claimed that a vast majority of the committee members, 97%, had considerable conflicts of interest owing to their ties with the pharmaceutical industry. However, an investigation revealed that 97% of the disclosure forms merely housed routine clerical errors such as misplaced information or missing initials, with no evidence of concealed financial affiliations.
Kennedy has repeatedly warned about what he refers to as ‘immune deregulation’ caused by vaccines, a term that lacks validation in the field of immunology. The actual function of vaccines is to train the immune system, with the diseases they prevent posing the real threats to immune functionality.
Diseases such as measles can completely erase immune memory, thereby leaving children susceptible to other infections for years. COVID-19 can set off multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, and chronic hepatitis B can trigger immune-mediated organ damage. Avoidance of these conditions through vaccination safeguards individuals from immune system damage. Modern-day vaccines do more than just protect against infections; they also decrease doctor visits and hence, lessen the probability of needless prescriptions for precautionary antibiotics. This essentially translates to physicians like myself offering more benefits with lesser biological load than what was possible four decades ago.