Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to know why a controversial vaccine study has vanished from a scientific journal's pages. The Health and Human Services secretary has written to Lawrence H. Lash, editor-in-chief of Toxicology Reports, seeking a detailed explanation for the removal of a 2021 paper that analyzed reports of sudden infant death following vaccination, per the Hill. The study, by vaccine skeptic and self-described "medical research journalist" Neil Z. Miller, relied on the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, and said reports of sudden infant death after vaccination were "statistically significant," while also stating it didn't prove a causal link.
In its removal notice, publisher Elsevier said the study's conclusions weren't supported by its methods, citing the limitations of passive reporting systems like VAERS and the risk of misleading data. Kennedy, whose former lawyer cited the study while urging changes to the childhood vaccine schedule, wrote that retracting flawed work can be justified but should come with a "transparent and full explanation." He's asking for details on the review process, experts consulted, and criteria used to discredit the paper, and he wants answers by June 25. The journal and publisher haven't publicly responded.
Some public health advocates are pushing back on Kennedy's pushback, per the Guardian. "If he is trying to use his position to bully a journal, he is stepping close to violating their First Amendment rights," says Dorit Reiss of UC Law San Francisco. Surgical oncologist David Gorski adds his own zinger, noting that he thought Kennedy "was pro-free speech. Yet here he is, apparently using the power of his position, to threaten the editor of a journal for an editorial decision by a private publisher. To antivaxxers, it's free speech for me, but not for thee." The Guardian reports on two other studies supported by RFK Jr. and his allies that are also being scrutinzied.
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