WASHINGTON — The potential elevation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the nation’s largest health agency could be detrimental to the government’s goal of preventing cervical cancer through vaccination.

That’s because Kennedy has a long history of making misleading claims about and being involved in legal challenges to the human papillomavirus vaccine, which experts credit with saving hundreds of thousands of lives by preventing HPV infections that can cause cervical, head and neck cancer.

During his time as a vaccine injury attorney, Kennedy launched complaints and lawsuits against Merck, the maker of Gardasil, which was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2006.

And in his role as chairman and chief legal counsel of an anti-vaccine group, he used his platform to spread misinformation on social media, claiming Gardasil is “dangerous and defective” and could actually increase the risk of cervical cancer in vaccinated age groups.

If confirmed as Health and Human Services secretary, Kennedy, whose confirmation hearings have not yet been announced, would have a megaphone to spread those claims to the broader public — even as the federal government works to increase HPV vaccination rates among teens.

“He’s a dangerous man. He puts people in this country at unnecessary risk,” said Paul Offit, a pediatrician and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

“He’s a virulent anti-vaccine activist that puts out one piece of misinformation after another with the clear goal of reducing vaccine uptake,” Offit said.

Kennedy’s statements run counter to the government’s own goal of getting 80% of adolescents vaccinated against HPV by 2030. As of 2023, only about 61% are up to date on the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC recommends the HPV vaccination for everyone through age 26.

That’s an initiative Kennedy would likely be in charge of if confirmed.

“Lives could be on the line because of this. And I think that’s pretty nerve-wracking for people who are in public health and really want to save lives,” said Nathan Boonstra, a pediatrician in Iowa who has tried to combat false claims about vaccines. He said Kennedy cherry-picks data points that fit his narrative to sow distrust in vaccines.

Scientific evidence

Studies have shown the vaccine is safe and effective and reduces the incidence of cervical cancer in both women and men. One study predicts increasing HPV vaccination in girls globally will avert more deaths per person vaccinated than any other immunization.

And a study released last year in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, found no cases of cervical cancer detected in women born between 1988 and 1996 in Scotland who were fully vaccinated against HPV between the ages of 12 and 13.

But Kennedy has seized on anecdotes from individuals who claimed they became sick after receiving the vaccine.

While vaccine injuries do happen, they are rare, experts say. Kennedy uses those cases to cast wider doubt about the vaccine.

“That one-person narrative is so much more powerful than data from a million people,” said Tara Smith, a professor at the College of Public Health at Kent State University, where she has studied health misinformation. “And that’s just one of the unfortunate issues with epidemiology, is we want to look at large populations, but that doesn’t resonate with the average person like one story from an individual does.”

She said there has not been a high-quality study that has found links between chronic health conditions and the HPV vaccine.

In a book Kennedy authored in 2021, “The Real Anthony Fauci,” he dedicated an entire chapter to the HPV vaccine, writing that Gardasil’s data shows it could “dramatically raise risks of cancer and autoimmunity in some girls.”

Kennedy has been involved with several cases representing people who claim to have been injured by Gardasil, arguing Merck “overemphasized” the health risks of HPV and fast-tracked the vaccine’s approval despite limited evidence of efficacy “to scare the public into agreeing to mass vaccinations of the Gardasil vaccine.”

As of April 2024, Kennedy said he was representing “hundreds of young women and men” impacted by the vaccine.

A Kennedy spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether he was still involved in those cases.

That includes his work through Children’s Health Defense, which he has stepped down from, and personal injury law firms, which financial disclosures show he has consulted with.

One of those firms, Wisner Baum, dubs itself the “top Gardasil lawyers in America.”

Kennedy’s amended financial disclosures from his presidential run, filed in 2024 and posted by the Washington Examiner, show he received $326,000 from Children’s Health Defense, where he did much of his vaccine work. As a consultant with Wisner Baum, the forms showed he received nearly $743,000 in “payment of referral fees on contingency fee cases,” though he also appeared to work on other types of cases. Filings from 2023, posted by Politico, showed $1.6 million from Wisner Baum.

According to the 2023 report, he also received $62,500 from another firm, Morgan & Morgan, also involved in Gardasil lawsuits — for “referral fees for firm development and obtaining clients and cases.”

Kennedy is still listed as a co-counsel in cases that are part of multidistrict litigation filed against Merck.

“We have seen a weaponization of the courts against vaccines,” said Richard Hughes, a health lawyer at Epstein Becker Green, who advocates for vaccines and has worked at drug companies including Merck.

Kennedy has used lawsuits he is involved in to bolster his social media claims that the vaccine is unsafe, of “doubtful efficacy and dangerous.” He often takes these claims to social media like Facebook and Instagram, where his group, Children’s Health Defense, was suspended in 2022 for promoting disinformation.

In lawsuits and social media posts, Kennedy has sought to downplay the risk of cervical cancer. He argues in most cases it can be prevented through regular pap smears and points out that less than 1% of women will get that cancer, which is highly treatable.

However, public health experts say it’s best to just prevent cancer head on.

“The procedures to get rid of precancerous lesions or cancer after it’s detected through a pap smear are not easy, and have their own costs associated with them,” Smith said.

Smith said she is part of the generation before the vaccine was available, and while she got regular pap smears, her OB-GYN found precancerous lesions that had to be removed.

The procedure can pose pregnancy complications, which added stress during her pregnancy.

“So it is so much better just to prevent it in the first place with vaccination.”

Children’s Health Defense also had an impact on HPV vaccines outside of the courts, lobbying against state efforts to include it as one of the vaccines kids must get before going to school.

Only three states — Hawaii, Rhode Island and Virginia — and the District of Columbia have those requirements, in part because of those efforts, according to KFF, a health think tank.

Influence

As HHS secretary, Kennedy could do more than amplify his views about the HPV vaccine. He could influence the Food and Drug Administration to revoke approval of the vaccine, though that would likely be met with legal challenges.

Kennedy would also be responsible for making nominations to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which makes recommendations to the CDC about what vaccines states and insurers should cover and what vaccines kids should get. Those recommendations must receive approval from the CDC director. Trump’s choice for CDC director is also a vaccine skeptic.

Changing what vaccines ACIP recommends could also impact insurance coverage, which could in turn erode vaccine uptake.

“If his desire is to disrupt vaccines, he has a lot of tools at his disposal,” though many actions will likely face lawsuits, Hughes said.

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