RFK Jr under fire for ‘bullying’ letter to scientific journal

US Health and Human Services secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. Photograph: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters View image in fullscreen US Health and Human Services secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. Photograph: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters RFK Jr under fire for ‘bullying’ letter to scientific journal Health advocates criticized Kennedy’s move demanding answers from journal that removed ‘flawed’ vaccine study Robert F Kennedy Jr , the US health secretary, is demanding answers from a medical journal that recently removed a paper suggesting a link between vaccines and infant death, saying their decision was “of great interest to me”. Public health advocates immediately criticized the move, and said Kennedy appeared to be trying to intimidate and influence the journal’s editorial process. The journal Toxicology Reports had removed the paper this spring after editors determined it was so seriously flawed it could harm patients and pose a risk to public health. The letter, which Kennedy on Monday posted on X, asked the journal editor to answer several questions about how it arrived at its decision about the paper, which suggested a link between vaccines and sudden infant death syndrome, or Sids, by 25 June. Among his questions, Kennedy asked the journal to identify the experts who conducted the investigation into the paper. “If he is trying to use his position to bully a journal, he is stepping close to violating their first amendment rights,” Dorit Reiss, an expert in vaccine law at UC Law San Francisco, wrote in reply to his post on X. Dr David Gorski, a surgical oncologist who has written extensively about the antivaccine movement, pointed out in a post that Kennedy has portrayed himself as pro-free speech, but that he was “apparently using the power of his position” to put pressure on an editorial decision by a private publisher. “To antivaxxers, it’s free speech for me, but not for thee,” Gorski wrote on X . Kennedy’s letter was dated one week after the Guardian published a story about the journal’s decision to take the rare step of removing the paper, which it said it did after an investigation had identified “serious methodological flaws”. It explained the decision in a five-paragraph notice it posted in place of the paper. It was one of three papers the Guardian highlighted that have been used by Kennedy and his allies to justify controversial changes to federal vaccine policy. In response to criticism that Kennedy was overstepping his authority, an HHS official said Kennedy did not direct the journal to publish, retract or revise any article. “Asking questions is not censorship. Seeking an explanation is not coercion,” the HHS official said. Three studies used by RFK Jr and allies to justify controversial vaccine policy changes facing new scrutiny Read more They said HHS would continue “working to restore trust in public health through increased accountability and open scientific inquiry, not by telling the public to accept decisions made behind closed doors”. The