Must read story below; reaction from Kayla Hancock, Director of Protect Our Care’s Public Health Project: “RFK Jr. has an abysmal track record of citing unsubstantiated sources and far-reaching conclusions to challenge vaccine safety that inevitably fall apart under scientific scrutiny. It should concern us all that the nation’s top health official is dictating federal vaccine guidance based on questionable research that needed to be retracted. A good rule of thumb: never take Kennedy’s claims at face value. That would help mitigate the spread of dangerous disinformation that leads to lower vaccination rates and more outbreaks of preventable disease.”
The Guardian: Three studies used by RFK Jr and allies to justify controversial vaccine policy changes facing new scrutiny
Michelle R Smith // June 4th, 2026
Three scientific papers that raised questions about vaccine safety and were used by the Trump administration to justify controversial changes to US vaccine policies have over the last two months been removed, retracted or placed under investigation by the journals that published them.
In some cases, the actions occurred years after scientists first raised alarms about the studies’ scientific merits.
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary who has been a leader in the anti-vaccine movement for decades, relied on two of the studies that are now facing scrutiny for a 2023 book he co-wrote that argued unvaccinated children were healthier than children who had been vaccinated. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cited one of the papers when it changed its long-held position that vaccines do not cause autism, cutting against the scientific consensus. And all three papers were cited by an anti-vaccine lawyer who called for changes to the childhood immunization schedule before an influential federal vaccine advisory panel.
It was not clear why the journals have not acted until now. Scientists who previously criticized the papers said the actions were a positive step, as public health officials and physicians across the US are reporting a rise in vaccine-preventable diseases such as whooping cough and measles. They argue that the three studies have been used by the anti-vaccine movement to plant seeds of doubt with parents, eroding confidence in the safety of life-saving vaccines.
“People and organizations intent on spreading vaccine misinformation have been very savvy in their misuse of scientific terms, such as ‘gold-standard science’”, and publishing flawed studies to give their claims the appearance of credibility and confuse the public, said Dr Karina Top, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Alberta. “These papers are poor science, it appears the authors are making the data fit their hypothesis that vaccines are harmful.”
The three papers shared a common theme: the idea that vaccinated children had a greater risk of health problems than unvaccinated children. But all three have been roundly criticized for using poor methodologies and analyses.
One, by Neil Z Miller, was published in 2021 in Toxicology Reports and suggested a link between vaccines and sudden infant death syndrome, or Sids. Another, published in 2020 by Sage Open Medicine and co-authored by Miller and Brian S Hooker, suggested vaccinated children had higher rates of certain health problems like developmental delays and asthma than did unvaccinated children. The third, by Carolyn M Gallagher and Melody S Goodman, was published in 2010 in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A, and found boys vaccinated for Hepatitis B in their first four weeks of life were more likely to be diagnosed with autism.
Some of the four researchers involved said they disagree with the journals’ decisions. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) did not return emails seeking comment.
Aaron Siri, who has previously acted as Kennedy’s lawyer, cited the three papers as evidence for a presentation he was invited to give to the federal vaccine advisory committee in December. In a statement to the Guardian, he compared the scrutiny the papers have come under by scientific journals to a “targeted assassination”. He also stood by his claim that there is no “available evidence” that vaccines are “safe and effective”, alleging his assessment relied on hundreds of other articles, reviews and trial documents.
Kennedy co-wrote the book Vax-Unvax: Let the Science Speak with Hooker, the first author on the Sage study that is now under investigation. That paper served as a crucial pillar in chapter 2 of the book, in which he and Kennedy attempted to show that vaccinated children have higher rates of health problems such as asthma, developmental delays and gastrointestinal disorders.
The book also revealed insights into how the paper got published, noting that five medical journals rejected the paper outright before Sage considered it. It also said Sage had trouble finding researchers willing to review it, and the peer review process took 11 months to complete with multiple rounds of revisions.
Kennedy and Hooker worked together for years when Kennedy was leading the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense, where Hooker now holds the title “chief scientific officer”.
An HHS spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether Kennedy would update his book.