Kennedy tells anti-vaccine group he previously led that he’ll ‘stay in this fight’

By Jen Christensen, CNN

(CNN) — Amid the worst measles outbreak in the US in decades, a surge that’s been driven largely by unvaccinated people, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. received a standing ovation Thursday at the conference of the anti-vaccine advocacy group Children’s Health Defense, where he gave the keynote.

It would’ve been an unthinkable appearance for past health secretaries, and it was a striking moment for Kennedy, who was a founder of the organization but stepped away to run for the presidency.

Kennedy’s speech came between those of the president of the MAHA Institute, Mark Gordon, who called himself the “boldest antivaxxer at an antivax conference,” and Andrew Wakefield, a British gastroenterologist and filmmaker who authored a now-infamous 1998 study that linked neurodevelopmental disorders in children, such as autism, with vaccination. Wakefield’s original study was retracted in 2010, and he lost his license to practice.

For nearly 40 minutes, Kennedy spoke about everything but vaccines: how the Trump administration is fighting chronic disease by limiting food dyes and access to ultraprocessed foods in government programs, emphasizing regenerative farming and even funding studies into health harms of electromagnetic fields and chemtrails — a line that drew applause.

When the HHS secretary eventually turned his focus to vaccines, he praised President Donald Trump’s embrace of vaccine skeptics, telling the conference attendees, “you have a strong and steadfast friend at the White House.”

“President Trump will not allow the government to treat parents who question vaccine orthodoxies as lepers,” he said. “We have not taken vaccines away from anyone. We have preserved access, but we have started asking the questions that you and millions of American parents have been asking for years.”

Kennedy, a lawyer who pledged at his confirmation hearing and on social media that he would not restrict access to vaccines, spoke critically Thursday about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines and vowed to fight for those who shared his views.

Kennedy helped found Children’s Health Defense and led its work to file dozens of lawsuits challenging state and federal vaccine policies and public health mandates, and championing “medical freedom” bills while producing films that cast doubt on vaccine safety.

The group offers baby onesies that say “No Vax No Problem” and “Unvaxxed Unafraid” on its website, and at the conference, attendees could enter a contest to win a signed copy of Kennedy’s book on the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, “The Real Anthony Fauci,” or pick up a free copy of his book “The Wuhan Cover-Up.”

On Thursday, Kennedy labeled the federal government system through which adverse vaccine-related events are reported “very bad” and said that it’s likely that many many vaccine injuries are probably “very rare,” but “we don’t know, and anybody who tells you that is not talking about science.”

“In our country, we care about rare illnesses and deaths. We care about every child who dies from measles. They get headlines. We should care about the children — shouldn’t we, I’d ask you, care about children who are dying or suffering or being injured by vaccine injuries?” Kennedy added. It was Kennedy’s only mention of measles, which was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000 but has now surpassed 3,200 cases in the US this year as vaccination rates have declined. There have been four measles-related deaths in Pennsylvania this year, including two infants and an 18-year-old.

Experts say vaccines are highly safe and effective, and vaccine injuries are extremely rare. A 2021 review of 338 studies reported in 518 publications found that vaccines are “safe across populations with serious adverse events being rare, consistent with other recent systematic reviews of vaccine safety.”

As HHS secretary, Kennedy has enacted some of the biggest changes to US vaccine policy in decades.

Last year, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention narrowed its Covid-19 vaccine guidance, saying patients must consult a healthcare provider to get the vaccine.

In October, Kennedy created a working group outside the traditional advisers to the CDC to assess the safety, effectiveness and timing of vaccines for children and adolescents.

Major medical groups have opposed his initiative to remove vaccines for six of 17 diseases from the recommended childhood vaccine schedule without providing any medical evidence that such a move was necessary. A federal judge paused the changes in March after the American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups filed a lawsuit.

The judge also ruled that Kennedy’s move in June 2025 to replace the CDC’s panel of independent vaccine advisers did not follow federal legal procedures.

In the March ruling, US District Judge Brian E. Murphy wrote that “of the fifteen members currently on ACIP, even under the most generous reading, only six appear to have any meaningful experience in vaccines.” Many of Kennedy’s handpicked replacements have published or publicly aired anti-vaccine views.

HHS appealed the decision and has asked for an expedited review.

In his speech Thursday, Kennedy urged Children’s Health Defense members to have patience with the pace of change within the government.

“We need to measure our success based upon what happens to our kids. That work is far from finished. We’re going to continue to face resistance. Powerful institutions and entrenched interests do not surrender power easily,” Kennedy said. “They will fight change and the people who are demanding it. They will continue to sue us and try to slow us down. I spent 40 years in these battles. I didn’t come to Washington to protect institutions from uncomfortable questions. I came to make those institutions answer those questions, and I intend to stay in this fight as long as I am able.”

Kennedy claimed that his efforts will restore trust in public health agencies, build a health system that puts prevention at the center of health and end chronic disease.

He recounted telling early Children’s Health Defense members that he “would be in this fight and that I would die with my boots on.

“And that’s what I intend to do.”

CNN’s Izzy Lippolis contributed to this report.

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