Hans Pennink/AP

Daniel Payne reports on how the health industry and Washington influence and impact each other. He joined STAT in 2025 after covering health care at POLITICO. You can reach Daniel on Signal at danielp.100.

WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. downplayed his past criticism of vaccines as he sought to become the nation’s health secretary.

Now, just two months after winning confirmation, he’s frequently returning to rhetoric from his time as perhaps the most prominent vaccine critic in the U.S.

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In recent interviews and appearances, Kennedy has suggested without evidence that some vaccines are risky, argued that others don’t work at all, promoted fringe treatments for a vaccine-preventable disease, called the FDA a “sock puppet” for the industries it regulates, called the state of a key U.S. vaccine safety system “outrageous,” and moved to study — and, by September, potentially determine — the causes of rising rates of autism, which he has previously blamed on vaccines.

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