Experts Debunk RFK Jr. Claims About Childhood Vaccines Safety

After the firing of the CDC’s entire vaccine advisory committee and the ensuing replacement of some of these folks by anti-vaccine advocates, it’s no secret that vaccines in this country are under attack by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and others in the Trump administration.

In many, many interviews, Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist, has repeated false claims about vaccines, their side effects and their safety.

During a recent Fox News interview in which Kennedy tried to justify his firing of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee, he further sowed vaccine distrust by repeating inflammatory statements.

In the interview, Kennedy said children only needed 11 vaccines in 1986 and now need “between 69 and 92 vaccines before they’re 18.” He claims this high number of mandatory vaccines (which doctors say is wrong) also includes the multiple doses needed for certain vaccines, such as the polio vaccine, which is a four-series shot — meaning, kids need four shots to be fully protected.

Kennedy’s misinformation didn’t stop there, though. He went on to say that, other than the COVID-19 shot, vaccines for kids aren’t safety tested, so the “risk profiles are unknown.” This is not the first time Kennedy has questioned the safety of vaccines, even though there is actually nothing to question there. Vaccines are perfectly safe. (More on that below.)

Pediatricians say his statements are deeply misinformed and important to correct. Here’s what they told HuffPost:

In the Fox News clip, Kennedy said it’s mandatory in many states for children to get between 69 and 92 vaccines before they turn 18. This is flat-out wrong.

“I’m a part of a group that did one analysis, and we saw 54 to 58 range for most children, depending on which combination vaccines they get, and that’s if you get all of them,” said Dr. David Higgins, a pediatrician and preventive medicine specialist at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

Not all kids get the flu shot or COVID shot each year, which decreases the number of overall shots to about 35 shots over 18 years, said Dr. Mona Amin, a pediatrician in Florida.

“Not only are the numbers…