BURSTWith Robert F. Kennedy Jr. having served as Health and Human Services secretary for about a month and a half, the Wall Street Journal's editorial board said he is already "vindicating" his critics through his far-reaching actions.
In an editorial published Sunday, the Journal wrote that his recently announced plan of reducing the "bloated" Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) by 20,000 jobs was not "radical."
But the Journal's board wrote that "what is disturbing are news reports that Mr. Kennedy has tapped David Geier, a longtime vaccine critic, to assist with a CDC study of vaccines and autism."
"Mr. Geier has spent decades spreading the discredited theory, embraced by Mr. Kennedy, that thimerosal in vaccines causes autism and neurological damage in children," the Journal wrote.
"Mr. Geier has also accused the CDC of concealing vaccine safety data and claimed that better nutrition and hygiene—not vaccines—are responsible for the disappearance of deadly infectious diseases," they added. "If Mr. Kennedy truly wants an independent, impartial review of vaccine data, Mr. Geier is the wrong man for the job. The study’s results look preordained."
The Journal's board expressed concerns that Kennedy's actions would result in a brain drain at HHS, citing the abrupt departure on Friday of Peter Marks, who led the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER).
They further wrote that hopes among Senate Republicans that other Trump appointees like Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary would keep Kennedy in check have not panned out, noting that grants involving mRNA technology are now required to be directly reported to Kennedy's office.
"Mr. Kennedy rightly criticized the Biden Administration’s Covid responses for ignoring science, but he won’t restore public confidence if he feeds skepticism about vaccines that have saved countless lives," they wrote. "Our worst fears about Mr. Kennedy are coming true."