Regarding the recent statement NR received from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about my article critical of his vaccine stances, I have a few final points to make.
First, I want to admit to one mistake, which does not materially or factually affect much of my argument against RFK Jr. I made a mistake on the dates of the TV interview with Joe Scarborough, which in fact happened in 2005, not 2011. I confused two different interviews, and that is my fault.
Aside from that: RFK states that I distorted the scientific discussion around vaccines, but frankly, I actually was very reserved in my criticisms, and could have gone much further.
Virtually every mainstream scientific outlet has ridiculed RFK’s positions on vaccines for years. In 2017, Scientific American published a scathing article that denounces RFK far more than I ever did, and can be read here. In 2019, members of Robert F. Kennedy’s own family made similar comments regarding his views on vaccines. Although he states he researched the science on the topic, he has done so carelessly. From the letter:
First, in my 2005 interview with Scarborough –– which Shanker cites –– I specifically said that I reached my opinion after reading “hundreds and hundreds of studies,” which I had by then listed on my websites –– as well as the extensive conversations I had with leading scientists and federal health regulators. In 2014, I published a comprehensive digest of these and other studies in a book, Thimerosal: Let The Science Speak, which I wrote with Dr. Martha Herbert of the Harvard Medical School and fifteen-time New York Times bestseller Dr. Mark Hyman. That book summarizes some 450 studies and offers over 1,400 references supporting my position on the dangers of thimerosal in vaccines.
The problem with this is RFK continues to misrepresent relevant scientific opinion. To illustrate this, let us look at his recent interview with Joe Rogan.
Kennedy for years has accused the CDC of hiding a study that the CDC commissioned finding that the thimerosal in vaccines causes autism. No such study exists. He then goes on to say there is a global conspiracy to hide this evidence, and the powers-that-be conspired at a conference called Simpsonwood to cover it up.
Numerous authors have investigated the events surrounding the Simpsonwood conference, going as far as interviewing many of the major players involved, and never found a single shred of evidence for Kennedy’s accusation. David Gorski, M.D., Ph.D., wrote an extensive rebuke of this entire conspiracy theory in 2014. Once again, Kennedy takes a small, out-of-context tidbit, and tries to build a worldwide conspiracy out of it.
Kennedy’s entire gimmick is simple: He tries to show correlation as causation (one of the most basic mistakes in science) and then when better, more-intensive studies show that his initial hypothesis is wrong, he ignores the new data as fraudulent, or a conspiracy to hide the truth that only he can decipher.
As for thimerosal, it has been largely removed from the children’s-vaccine market for 20 years, starting in 2001, but almost completely by January 2003, when the last thimerosal-containing children’s vaccine was removed from the marketplace.
Throughout the Nineties, Kennedy and other anti-vax advocates argued it was thimerosal that was causing ever-increasing rates of autism. However, what happened after it was all but removed from the marketplace? Autism rates have continued to increase. If thimerosal were the trigger factor, the rates should have either plateaued or decreased, but that is not in fact what happened.
Kennedy’s problem is compounded by the fact that many of the studies he cites ultimately conclude the opposite of what he claims.
The most famous of these was a study by CDC epidemiologist Thomas Verstraeten, M.D., and colleagues, which initially seemed to indicate an elevated risk of autism. This 2003 study presented preliminary findings at the Simpsonwood conference that I referred to above. At that time, the findings hinted that there may be an increase of autism following vaccinations. This is the point at which Kennedy stopped his analysis, and made his final conclusion, which he appears to have kept unchanged to this very day. However, in further analyses before publication of their final draft, once the researchers eliminated confounders, the risk of all neurological issues continued to fall until it completely disappeared, thus showing no link to autism whatsoever. From the study:
In phase I at HMO A, cumulative exposure at 3 months resulted in a significant positive association with tics (relative risk [RR]: 1.89; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.05-3.38). At HMO B, increased risks of language delay were found for cumulative exposure at 3 months (RR: 1.13; 95% CI: 1.01-1.27) and 7 months (RR: 1.07; 95% CI: 1.01-1.13). In phase II at HMO C, no significant associations were found. In no analyses were significant increased risks found for autism or attention-deficit disorder.
A second example is from a 2005 study that examined the comparison of mercury levels in the brains and bloodstreams of monkeys. The study is somewhat scientifically esoteric, but is important to understand, because Kennedy makes an assertion that the authors never do. The authors are studying two types of mercury (Hg): methylmercury (MeHg, the mercury that is found as a poison in the environment, and regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency); and thimerosal-based ethylmercury, the type found commonly in vaccines before 2001. In the Joe Rogan interview, RFK suggests that the reason mercury levels dropped in the bloodstream following administration of thimerosal-containing vaccines is that the mercury crossed out of the bloodstream at a high rate after intermuscular (“im”) vaccine administration, across the blood-brain barrier, and then rapidly accumulated in the brain. However, the data from the study actually show that thimerosal had lower concentrations of mercury in both the blood and brain than environmental mercury did. From the paper (bold added):
An important consequence of the difference in blood half-lives is the remarkable accumulation of blood Hg during repeated exposure to MeHg. Although the initial blood Hg concentration (at 2 days after the first dose) did not differ between the MeHg and thimerosal groups, the peak blood Hg concentration in the MeHg-exposed monkeys rose to a level nearly three times higher than in the thimerosal monkeys after the fourth dose. Furthermore, the blood clearance of total Hg is 5.4-fold higher after im thimerosal than after oral MeHg exposure. The results indicate that for an equivalent level of chronic exposure, the area under the curve of total blood Hg concentrations in human infants receiving repeated im injections of thimerosal-containing vaccines will be significantly lower than that in those exposed chronically to MeHg via the oral route.
A much lower brain concentration of total Hg was observed in the thimerosal monkeys compared with the MeHg monkeys, that is, a 3- to 4-fold difference for an equivalent exposure of Hg. Moreover, total Hg is cleared much more rapidly from the brain after thimerosal than after MeHg exposure (24 vs. 60 days).
In short, this study undermines Kennedy’s argument. It shows that serum mercury levels originating from thimerosal were cleared from the body faster than environmental mercury was. Kennedy is getting the science totally backwards. The authors themselves debunk a theory that RFK continues to argue: that all mercury can be treated as having the same risk. Again, from the original article (bold added):
“The key findings of the present study are the differences in the disposition kinetics and demethylation rates of thimerosal and MeHg. Consequently, MeHg is not a suitable reference for risk assessment from exposure to thimerosal-derived Hg. Knowledge of the biotransformation of thimerosal, the chemical identity of the Hg-containing species in the blood and brain, and the neurotoxic potential of intact thimerosal and its various biotransformation products, including ethylmercury, is urgently needed to afford a meaningful interpretation of the potential developmental effects of immunization with thimerosal-containing vaccines in newborns and infants. This information is critical if we are to respond to public concerns regarding the safety of childhood immunizations.”
The fact that Kennedy misunderstands the findings of these papers should greatly diminish his credibility. Furthermore, the fact that he published a book full of similar claims does not make his argument any stronger.
Simply put, the evidence against Kennedy’s theories is immense. One could easily spend a thousand pages of research undermining his shoddy theories and unscientific arguments. But I think you get the idea.