Rfk Jr. Should Handpick Vaccine Scientists, Former Adviser Says

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. should recruit scientists who want to seek proof that vaccines cause autism, one of his past advisers said at a POLITICO event Wednesday.

Del Bigtree, who was Kennedy’s communications director during his presidential campaign and now leads a group promoting Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement, dismissed widely replicated studies finding no link to autism because he alleged that they were conducted by scientists who wanted to find that result.

“Get scientists who say, ‘I think I can prove vaccines do cause autism,’” he added. “If they can’t pull that off, now you have a true safety profile.”

Bigtree’s comments were part of a full-throated assault on regulatory agencies he painted as servants of “Big Ag, Big Food and Big Pharma.”

During POLITICO's First 100 Days: Health Care event, Bigtree said the regulatory system Kennedy now leads as secretary of Health and Human Services has long approved “poisons” produced by industry for public consumption. He urged Kennedy to root out corporate influence at HHS.

That would defy long-standing Republican deference to private business. Bigtree said federal agencies should not be funded by industries, suggesting Kennedy’s advisers are pushing for major reforms to the current user fee system at the HHS agency that oversees food and drugs, the FDA.

“Finally we have someone at the head of HHS not owned by these corporations,” Bigtree said of Kennedy. “I think he’s looking for the right type of people.”

During Kennedy’s confirmation hearings, he refused to disavow his past statements drawing the autism link, telling senators he would not take away anyone’s vaccines, but would pursue research and “radical transparency” on vaccine science.

Bigtree said Kennedy should review HHS employees’ histories to see whether they worked for industry and also vet their views about the causes of chronic disease. Kennedy has said he believes unhealthy food and chemicals in the environment are responsible for increases in such conditions.

“Robert Kennedy Jr. has to sit down with the team and bring people and say, ‘What have you done over the last four years,’” he said. “If they’re not producing real results and good science, maybe there’s a better job for them somewhere else.”

Hiring scientists more skeptical of industry and of existing vaccine science would help restore the public’s flagging trust in the government’s health care bureaucracy, Bigtree said, adding that he thought Kennedy could safely downsize HHS’ 80,000-person staff.

The Trump administration, at the behest of Elon Musk and his government efficiency campaign, fired thousands of HHS workers last week. Bigtree said he didn’t think Kennedy had provided input into those decisions but suggested there was still more to do.

Bigtree, who founded a group that criticizes vaccines, the Informed Consent Action Network, endorsed Kennedy’s comments Tuesday to HHS staff that nothing was off limits for review.

Though Bigtree isn’t part of the administration, he serves as a powerful leader of the MAHA movement. Its broad grassroots base put pressure on senators to confirm Kennedy, jamming Senate phone lines and filling confirmation hearings.