RFK Jr. demands journal explain removal of vaccine study used to support his childhood immunization changes

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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is demanding answers from a science journal on why a study regarding vaccination and sudden infant death was removed from the publication.

In a letter dated June 11, Kennedy wrote to Toxicology Reports Editor-in-Chief Lawrence H. Lash concerning a 2021 study titled “Vaccines and sudden infant death: An analysis of the VAERS database 1990–2019 and review of the medical literature.”

The study in question was authored solely by Neil Z. Miller and was among those cited by Kennedy’s former personal lawyer Aaron Siri in a presentation he gave before a federal vaccine panel in support of altering the childhood immunization schedule. Those alterations to the vaccine schedule, and the panel that approved them, have since been blocked by a federal judge.

Miller, who identifies as a “medical research journalist” in his author biography, is a prominent vaccine skeptic, having published numerous books questioning the safety and efficacy of immunizations.

“As you may know, research integrity and academic freedom have been important issues to me for decades in my private career and continue to be important to me in government service,” Kennedy wrote to Lash.

“Retraction, and even removal, of seriously flawed publications is appropriate in certain cases,” he added. “However, it should be accompanied by a transparent and full explanation of why such an action was carried out.”

The secretary asked that Lash explain how the decision was reached, what experts were consulted as part of the investigation that Toxicology Reports conducted into the study as well as the criteria used to discredit Miller’s study. Kennedy asked for the information to be sent by June 25.

In its removal notice, Elsevier, the publisher of Toxicology Reports, stated, “Given the inherent limitations of passive reporting systems, including the expected temporal clustering of events independent of causality, the conclusions presented in the article are not supported by the methodology employed.”

“In light of these concerns, and given the potential implications for medical practice, the Editor-in-Chief has decided that the article should be removed. The author disagrees with this decision and disputes the grounds for removal,” the publisher added.

The Hill has reached out to Lash and Elsevier for a response to Kennedy’s letter.

Miller’s study analyzed data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and concluded that the rate of sudden infant deaths occurring after vaccinations was “statistically significant,” determining there was less than a 1 in 100,000 chance that the findings were not related to some real effect.

The paper, however, also concluded that the research Miller conducted “does not prove an association between infant vaccines and sudden infant deaths.”

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

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