{"id":22090,"date":"2025-02-12T19:12:19","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T20:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=22090"},"modified":"2025-02-12T20:23:03","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T20:23:03","slug":"behind-kennedys-vow-to-follow-the-science-on-vaccines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=22090","title":{"rendered":"Behind Kennedy\u2019s Vow to \u2018Follow the Science\u2019 on Vaccines"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spent the first day of his back-to-back confirmation hearings deftly avoiding questions about his views on vaccines. On the second day, when a prominent Republican senator insisted there was no link between vaccines and autism, Mr. Kennedy shot back that a new study \u201cshowed the opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to follow the science,\u201d Mr. Kennedy declared.<\/p>\n

Following the science has been a familiar refrain for Mr. Kennedy, whose confirmation as health secretary appears all but assured in a vote expected Thursday. But the exchange in the Senate raises questions about just what type of science Mr. Kennedy is consulting. It foreshadows how, if confirmed, Mr. Kennedy could continue to sow doubts about vaccines.<\/p>\n

Academics have pounced on the study that Mr. Kennedy cited<\/a> during the hearing, shredding it as methodologically faulty<\/a> and biased<\/a>. The study emanated from a network of vaccine skeptics who share some of Mr. Kennedy\u2019s views \u2014 an ecosystem that includes the author of the study, the editor of the journal that published it and the advocacy group that financed it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe authors were delighted and honored that R.F.K. Jr. referred to our work in his confirmation hearing,\u201d the study\u2019s lead author, Anthony Mawson, said in an email. A spokeswoman for Mr. Kennedy did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Dr. Mawson, an epidemiologist, said he first met Mr. Kennedy at an autism conference in 2017. Mr. Kennedy cites Dr. Mawson\u2019s research 33 times in his 2023 book, \u201cVax-Unvax: Let the Science Speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

His study was rejected \u201cwithout explanation\u201d by several mainstream medical journals, Dr. Mawson said. So he turned for advice to Andrew Wakefield, the author of the 1998 study, now retracted, that sparked the initial furor over vaccines and autism. Mr. Wakefield encouraged him to submit the study to a new journal called Science, Public Health Policy and the Law.<\/p>\n

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spent the first day of his back-to-back confirmation hearings deftly avoiding questions about his views on vaccines. On the second day, when a prominent Republican senator insisted there was no link between vaccines and autism, Mr. Kennedy shot back that a new study \u201cshowed the opposite.\u201d\u201cI just want to follow the science,\u201d Mr. Kennedy declared.Following the science has been a familiar refrain for Mr. Kennedy, whose confirmation as health secretary appears all but assured in a vote expected Thursday. But the exchange in the Senate raises questions about just what type of science Mr. Kennedy is consulting. It foreshadows how, if confirmed, Mr. Kennedy could continue to sow doubts about vaccines.Academics have pounced on the study that Mr. Kennedy cited during the hearing, shredding it as methodologically faulty and biased. The study emanated from a network of vaccine skeptics who share some of Mr. Kennedy\u2019s views \u2014 an ecosystem that includes the author of the study, the editor of the journal that published it and the advocacy group that financed it.\u201cWe authors were delighted and honored that R.F.K. Jr. referred to our work in his confirmation hearing,\u201d the study\u2019s lead author, Anthony Mawson, said in an email. A spokeswoman for Mr. Kennedy did not respond to a request for comment.Dr. Mawson, an epidemiologist, said he first met Mr. Kennedy at an autism conference in 2017. Mr. Kennedy cites Dr. Mawson\u2019s research 33 times in his 2023 book, \u201cVax-Unvax: Let the Science Speak.\u201dHis study was rejected \u201cwithout explanation\u201d by several mainstream medical journals, Dr. Mawson said. So he turned for advice to Andrew Wakefield, the author of the 1998 study, now retracted, that sparked the initial furor over vaccines and autism. Mr. Wakefield encouraged him to submit the study to a new journal called Science, Public Health Policy and the Law.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22092,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22090"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22093,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22090\/revisions\/22093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}