Health
Behind R.F.K. Jr.’s Vow to ‘Follow the Science’ on Vaccines
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spent the first day of his back-to-back confirmation hearings deftly avoiding questions about his views on vaccines. On the second day, when a prominent Republican senator insisted there was no link between vaccines and autism, Mr. Kennedy shot back that a new study “showed the opposite.”
“I just want to follow the science,” Mr. Kennedy declared.
Following the science has been a familiar refrain for Mr. Kennedy, whose confirmation as health secretary appears all but assured in a vote expected Thursday. But the exchange in the Senate raises questions about just what type of science Mr. Kennedy is consulting. It foreshadows how, if confirmed, Mr. Kennedy could continue to sow doubts about vaccines.
Academics have pounced on the study that Mr. Kennedy cited during the hearing, shredding it as methodologically faulty and biased. The study emanated from a network of vaccine skeptics who share some of Mr. Kennedy’s views — an ecosystem that includes the author of the study, the editor of the journal that published it and the advocacy group that financed it.
“We authors were delighted and honored that R.F.K. Jr. referred to our work in his confirmation hearing,” the study’s lead author, Anthony Mawson, said in an email. A spokeswoman for Mr. Kennedy did not respond to a request for comment.
Dr. Mawson, an epidemiologist, said he first met Mr. Kennedy at an autism conference in 2017. Mr. Kennedy cites Dr. Mawson’s research 33 times in his 2023 book, “Vax-Unvax: Let the Science Speak.”
His study was rejected “without explanation” by several mainstream medical journals, Dr. Mawson said. So he turned for advice to Andrew Wakefield, the author of the 1998 study, now retracted, that sparked the initial furor over vaccines and autism. Mr. Wakefield encouraged him to submit the study to a new journal called Science, Public Health Policy and the Law.
That publication is led by some notable vaccine critics, including three who headlined a Washington rally in 2022 with Mr. Kennedy to protest Covid vaccine mandates.
As the nation’s health secretary, Mr. Kennedy “would have wide powers to advance his favored research studies, publications, or scientific data,” according to Lawrence O. Gostin, a public health law expert at Georgetown University. Mr. Kennedy’s critics fear that the public will have neither the time nor the training to sort through a war that seems to pit one study against another, and that the result will be a rapid decline in confidence in vaccines.
“The Mawson paper epitomizes Kennedy’s consistent inability to distinguish junk science from reliable information,” said Dr. John P. Moore, professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College, who said that study and some of the others Mr. Kennedy has cited in the past are published by “fringe journals.”
Mr. Kennedy has said that he is not anti-vaccine, but rather in favor of vaccine safety.
“I support the measles vaccine. I support the polio vaccine,” Mr. Kennedy said on the first day of his confirmation hearings. “I will do nothing as H.H.S. secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking it.”
Mr. Kennedy’s insistence that more research is necessary when it comes to vaccine safety has drawn support from some Republicans, who say they welcome his skepticism.
“I don’t understand why my colleagues all of sudden say we can’t question science,” Senator Markwayne Mullin, Republican of Oklahoma, said during one of Mr. Kennedy’s hearings. He added, “When you start looking at the rise of autism, why wouldn’t we be looking at everything?”
But Michael T. Osterholm, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota who has advised administrations of both parties, said Mr. Kennedy’s demands for additional data go too far when they concern vaccines and autism. Mainstream scientists say the issue is settled.
“That’s the equivalent of me saying until Newton comes back and shows me that apple falling from the tree, I do not believe gravity exists,” Dr. Osterholm said.
Doctors who have examined the way Mr. Kennedy uses scientific research say he also has a tendency to cherry-pick particular findings from prominent researchers, as he did during a podcast in 2022.
During that appearance, he cited a study published in the journal Pediatrics in 2000 to suggest that improvements in sanitation and hygiene — and not vaccines — fueled a drop in deaths from infectious diseases during the first half of the 20th century. That is true. But Mr. Kennedy failed to note that the study also reported that vaccines introduced in the second half of the 20th century had “virtually eliminated” deaths from diseases including polio and measles.
During one of his confirmation hearings, Mr. Kennedy cited work by a well-known vaccine scientist, Dr. Gregory Poland, to suggest Black people should follow a different vaccine schedule because they needed fewer antigens, the vaccine components that provoke an immune response.
Dr. Poland did not respond to requests for comment. But he told National Public Radio that his work did not support Mr. Kennedy’s assertion.
Mr. Kennedy and Dr. Mawson have long aired similar concerns about vaccines.
In an appearance before the Mississippi legislature in 2009, Dr. Mawson called for more vaccine safety research and “a more flexible approach to vaccination requirements for school attendance.” In a 2011 lawsuit, Dr. Mawson said the testimony had cost him his job as an epidemiologist at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
In 2017, Dr. Mawson published a pilot study comparing vaccinated to unvaccinated children.
The study relied on a survey of parents who home-schooled their children and found higher rates of autism among vaccinated children, compared with those who had not been vaccinated. The study was funded in part by Generation Rescue, a nonprofit associated with Jenny McCarthy, a television personality who has promoted claims of a link between vaccines and autism.
Dr. Mawson by that time had established the Chalfont Research Institute, a charity that operates out of his home in Jackson, Miss. The institute reported revenue of just $57 in 2021, the most recent figures available.
In 2019, it received charitable contributions of $160,000, tax records show. The bulk of that money, $150,000, came from the National Vaccine Information Center, a group whose mission includes supporting research on “vaccine-associated deaths, injuries and chronic illness.”
Like Mr. Kennedy, the group’s president and co-founder, Barbara Loe Fisher, has long called for research comparing “total health outcomes” including the risk of autism, in vaccinated and unvaccinated children. When Dr. Mawson approached her group with a proposal, she said, the center reviewed his pilot study of 2017, approved his plan and provided $150,000 in funding.
That money paid for the paper Mr. Kennedy cited at the hearing, during an exchange with Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana and a doctor.
The journal that published the study, Science, Public Health Policy and the Law, advertises itself as peer-reviewed, meaning its research is evaluated by anonymous independent experts before publication. Dr. Mawson said his paper had undergone review by two such experts.
Some people associated with the journal are also associated with Mr. Kennedy.
James Lyons-Weiler, the journal’s editor in chief, described himself as a longtime ally of Mr. Kennedy’s in a yearslong “fight across 20 states” for vaccine exemptions.
“Honored to call him my friend,” he wrote on social media last year.
The journal’s editorial board includes the chief executive and the chief scientific officer of Children’s Health Defense, the nonprofit that Mr. Kennedy led until he began his presidential campaign in 2023.
The board also includes members who sell products or services for people who are concerned about vaccines. One of its editorial board members offers $2,350 telehealth appointments for “post-vaccine syndrome.” Another sells $90 “spike detox” supplements marketed for “vaccine injury syndrome” that is meant to get “you back to that pre-Covid feeling.”
The study by Dr. Mawson that Mr. Kennedy cited at the hearing focused on about 47,000 children enrolled in Florida Medicaid from 1999 to 2011 and looked at billing data to determine their vaccination status.
The study found very few billing records for unvaccinated children with autism — eight who were born prematurely and 54 overall. It concluded that vaccination was significantly associated with higher rates of neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism, particularly in infants who were born prematurely.
By contrast, large-scale studies in respected medical journals, including an analysis of five studies involving more than 1.2 million children, have found no association between vaccines and autism.
But even as Dr. Mawson’s research took shape, problems emerged. The paper notes that researchers lost access to the database they used to perform the study. Dr. Alex Morozov, an expert on clinical trial design who met with Dr. Mawson to discuss the study, said he viewed that as a red flag.
Dr. Morozov also said the study had a “fundamental flaw”: It failed to account for the possibility that vaccinated children might have more encounters with the medical system than unvaccinated children, whose illnesses would not be captured by billing data.
The study also failed to account for factors like family history of autism, the child’s gender (boys are diagnosed with higher rates of autism than girls) or the possibility that children might have been vaccinated outside the Florida Medicaid system, said Bertha Hidalgo, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Dr. Mawson strongly defended the work, noting that the study “carefully documents both its strengths and limitations,” but contending that critics focused only on the limitations. “Nevertheless,” he said, “further research is needed to replicate the findings and to unravel the mechanisms involved.”
At the Senate hearing, Mr. Cassidy pressed Mr. Kennedy to accept that the vaccines and autism debate was settled. He reminded Mr. Kennedy that he had been shown the study of 1.2 million children that found no link between the two.
“I’m a doc, trying to understand,” Mr. Cassidy said, adding, “Convince me that you will become the public health advocate, but not just churn old information so that there’s never a conclusion.”
To that, Mr. Kennedy replied, “I’m going to be an advocate for strong science. You show me those scientific studies, and you and I can meet about it. And there are other studies as well. I’d love to show those to you.”
Health
Single infusion of controversial drug changed severe depression symptoms within hours, study finds
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People experiencing severe depression with suicidal symptoms may not have to wait weeks for traditional antidepressants to take effect.
A recent review suggests that a single intravenous ketamine infusion can provide rapid relief for some patients.
Originally developed as an anesthetic, ketamine is a medicine that can reduce pain and, in some cases, help treat depression, but it can also be misused as a recreational drug, experts warn.
SINGLE DOSE OF POWERFUL PSYCHEDELIC CUTS DEPRESSION SYMPTOMS IN CLINICAL STUDY
Researchers from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine reviewed 26 clinical trials that included more than 1,100 patients. Approximately 626 received ketamine and 540 served as controls who did not take the drug.
Most of the trials included patients with major depressive disorder, but 11.5% included those with bipolar depression and 7.7% included people with both unipolar and bipolar depressive diagnoses.
A recent review suggests that a single intravenous ketamine infusion can provide rapid relief for some patients with treatment-resistant depression. (iStock)
Compared to a placebo, a single treatment significantly reduced depression in just four hours and dramatically lowered suicidal thoughts within 24 hours, the study found.
Patients reported fewer depressive symptoms after a week and reduced suicidal thoughts for up to a month after one ketamine infusion. Those who received repeated ketamine infusions showed a similar reduction of suicidal and depressive symptoms at the end of the treatment.
WHAT IS KETAMINE THERAPY? MORMON REALITY STARS TOUT CONTROVERSIAL TREATMENT
The most common adverse effects of ketamine – including headaches, numbness, dissociation (“out of body” experiences), nausea, dizziness and visual disturbances – were temporary and resolved within hours of the infusion.
Rarer, more serious side events included hospitalization, suicide attempts and suicide, but most were unrelated to ketamine, the review stated.
The analysis was published in May in JAMA Psychiatry.
Treatment-resistant depression
Major depressive disorder is a formal psychiatric diagnosis affecting approximately 280 million people globally, according to recent research.
Effective treatment involves a combination of therapy and medication, frequently antidepressants. However, for a few patients, symptoms do not respond to multiple therapies, a condition known as treatment-resistant depression, doctors say.
“When all existing treatment options fail, patients with severe depression could consider ketamine infusions.”
These patients are at a higher risk of very serious, sometimes tragic consequences, including suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts and death.
“When all existing treatment options fail, patients with severe depression could consider ketamine infusions,” lead author Taeho Greg Rhee, PhD, of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, told Fox News Digital. “This is still a safer option when compared to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).”
Compared to a placebo, a single treatment significantly reduced depression in just four hours and dramatically lowered suicidal thoughts within 24 hours, the study found. (iStock)
Traditional antidepressants stabilize mood by slowly elevating serotonin levels in the brain, but it can take weeks for the full effect to be achieved.
Ketamine, in contrast, works rapidly by blocking glutamate, a neurotransmitter that can impact emotions negatively when levels are too high in the brain, according to Cleveland Clinic.
Implications for care
The authors say their findings have two important potential clinical applications.
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First, ketamine’s rapid effects can be a life-saving treatment in the emergency room for patients presenting with suicidal ideation.
Experts caution that the medication should only be administered in closely monitored settings, such as clinics, to ensure safe treatment. (iStock)
Second, the effects of a single ketamine infusion are relatively short-lived – as almost all patients relapsed with depressive symptoms after a single infusion – so those with treatment-resistant depression will need repeated sessions.
“While intravenous ketamine is not yet FDA-approved for treating depression, it may still be used with off-label indications for those with severe depression and/or with a high risk of suicidal behaviors,” said Rhee.
Experts urge caution despite promise
Dr. Lama Bazzi, a psychiatrist in private practice in New York City, has had several patients receive ketamine infusions.
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“For a small subset of patients in a major depressive episode or struggling with suicidal thoughts, intravenous ketamine can be genuinely lifesaving,” Bazzi, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital. “The relief they experience is almost immediate, offering them distance from the intensity of their emotions.”
However, she cautions that the medication should only be administered in closely monitored settings, such as clinics, to ensure safe treatment.
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Ketamine is not a panacea, Rhee agreed, warning of the potential risk of abuse and addiction.
“It should only be used medically,” he advised.
Ketamine’s rapid effects can be a life-saving treatment in the emergency room for patients presenting with suicidal ideation, some experts claim. (Getty Images)
Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, noted in previous comments to Fox News Digital that ketamine is increasingly being used to treat severe depression, but emphasized that it should be administered under careful medical supervision because of its potential risks.
Study limitations
Although the studies compared ketamine with a placebo, some patients may have realized they were receiving the drug. This could have influenced how they reported their symptoms and how effective they perceived the treatment to be, according to the researchers.
“It should only be used medically.”
Another limitation is the small sample size of the studies, which could make the effects seem disproportionately magnified.
Also, as this was a review of many different studies, it is challenging to apply the findings to the general population, the researchers noted.
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“While long-term outcomes have not been studied, I believe that when patients are severely depressed or suicidal, ketamine is sometimes the only choice that almost always works,” Bazzi added.
Anyone interested in exploring alternative depression treatments should first consult a doctor.
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Tick bite-related ER visits are at their highest seasonal levels since 2017 across most U.S. regions, raising concerns about increased Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses.
That’s according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Tick Bite Tracker, which monitors weekly emergency department visits associated with tick bites across the country.
For every 100,000 ER visits, approximately 71 were related to tick bites in April 2026, compared to a historical seasonal average of roughly 30 per 100,000.
DOCTORS REVEAL KEY SIGNS OF LYME DISEASE AS TICK SEASON INTENSIFIES ACROSS US
Some of the highest rates of tick-based ER visits were among children younger than 10 years and adults between 70 and 79 years.
A close-up shows a parasitic mite in motion on a human fingertip, highlighting the potential for disease transmission such as encephalitis. (iStock)
“Over the past three decades, the geographic range of the blacklegged tick has expanded significantly, and with it, the risk of Lyme disease and other Ixodes-transmitted infections,” Dr. Steven Goldberg, a family medicine physician who practices urgent care and family medicine at UofLHealth in Louisville, Kentucky, told Fox News Digital.
‘RABBIT FEVER’ CASES RISING IN US AS CDC WARNS OF ZOONOTIC BACTERIAL DISEASE
“The Ohio River Valley region is one of the most striking examples — Lyme disease cases in Ohio have increased roughly 10-fold over the past decade, likely driven by the convergence of Northeastern and Upper Midwestern tick populations meeting in that corridor.”
States like Virginia and West Virginia, as well as areas south of the traditional endemic zone, are reporting increasing tick abundance and disease cases, the doctor noted.
“Over the past three decades, the geographic range of the blacklegged tick has expanded significantly.”
“The lone star tick is also expanding its range northward beyond its traditional stronghold in the Southeast, which means diseases like ehrlichiosis and alpha-gal syndrome are appearing in regions where clinicians may not yet be thinking about them,” he warned.
Some climate studies predict that the blacklegged tick’s suitable habitat could expand by over 200% by the end of the century, Goldberg noted, including into Canada and across the central and southern U.S.
What’s driving the spike?
“Warmer, wetter conditions allow ticks to survive in habitats that previously would have been too cold,” said Dr. Suraj Saggar, chief of infectious disease at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, New Jersey. “Milder winters also extend the lifespan of both ticks and the animals they feed on, accelerating tick reproduction and shortening their life cycles.”
Areas that historically experienced longer, colder winters or significant snow cover are now more hospitable to ticks, the doctor noted.
COPPERHEAD SNAKE BITE LEAVES MAYOR’S WIFE IN ‘EXCRUCIATING PAIN,’ HE REVEALS
“As temperatures rise and precipitation patterns change, ticks are able to spread northward and thrive in new ecosystems,” he said.
Another contributing factor is increased land development and human expansion into wooded and grassy areas, as well as reforestation of formerly agricultural land.
“As temperatures rise and precipitation patterns change, ticks are able to spread northward and thrive in new ecosystems,” an expert said. (iStock)
“The recovery and expansion of white-tailed deer populations — critical hosts for adult blacklegged ticks — has been a major driver,” Goldberg added. “Deer density is positively associated with Lyme disease incidence. Small mammal communities, particularly white-footed mice that serve as key reservoir hosts for Borrelia burgdorferi, also play a central role.”
Tick-borne diseases
Tick bites are known to transmit numerous illnesses, the most widespread of which is Lyme disease, a bacterial infection.
“Lyme disease cases alone have increased roughly two- to threefold over the past 20 years,” Saggar said. Approximately 476,000 Americans are diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease each year, per CDC surveillance data.
MOSQUITO-BORN DENGUE FEVER CASES SURGE AT POPULAR US VACATION DESTINATION
Also common are anaplasmosis and ehrlichiosis, two different types of bacterial infections, according to the doctor. Tick bites can also cause babesiosis, a malaria-like parasitic disease that infects and destroys red blood cells.
“Another growing concern is alpha-gal syndrome, a condition in which a (lone star) tick bite triggers a serious allergic reaction to red meat,” Saggar said. “In rare cases, people have died from anaphylactic reactions linked to alpha-gal syndrome following a tick bite.”
Some common symptoms of tick-borne illness include fever, chills, fatigue, headaches, muscle aches and joint pain. (iStock)
Ticks can also transmit viruses, including the Powassan virus, which can cause severe neurologic injury.
“Powassan virus disease is arguably the most concerning emerging tick-borne infection,” said Goldberg, who is also chief medical officer at HealthTrack. “It’s transmitted by the same blacklegged tick that carries Lyme disease, but unlike Lyme, it can be transmitted within minutes of tick attachment.”
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Powassan can cause severe encephalitis with a roughly 10% to 15% fatality rate, and more than half of survivors have lasting neurological deficits, Goldberg noted.
In the Rocky Mountain states, the Rocky Mountain wood tick (Dermacentor andersoni) transmits Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Colorado tick fever.
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“In the Southeast and South-Central U.S., the lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum) drives a different set of concerns: ehrlichiosis, tularemia, and two emerging viral threats — Heartland virus and Bourbon virus,” said Goldberg.
Symptoms to watch for
Some common symptoms of tick-borne illness include fever, chills, fatigue, headaches, muscle aches and joint pain, according to Saggar.
Another sign is the classic “bull’s-eye” rash associated with Lyme disease, known medically as “erythema migrans.”
“If you think you have been bitten by a tick, you should seek medical attention if you develop symptoms after a known tick bite or after spending time in tick-prone areas, especially during the spring, summer and fall.” (iStock)
“Because testing can sometimes be falsely negative early in the disease process, doctors may treat patients based on symptoms and exposure history rather than waiting for laboratory confirmation,” Saggar noted.
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“If you think you have been bitten by a tick, you should seek medical attention if you develop symptoms after a known tick bite or after spending time in tick-prone areas, especially during the spring, summer and fall.”
Preventing tick bites
As there are no vaccines currently available for any tick-borne disease in the U.S., prevention is the most effective strategy.
Goldberg shared the following recommended prevention strategies.
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- Use EPA-approved repellents, including DEET, picaridin, IR3535 or oil of lemon eucalyptus on exposed skin. Treat clothing and gear with permethrin (a synthetic insecticide and repellent) or purchase pre-treated clothing.
- Wear light-colored clothing (to spot ticks more easily), long sleeves and long pants tucked into socks when in wooded or grassy areas.
- After spending time outdoors, check your entire body, paying special attention to the scalp, behind the ears, armpits, groin and behind the knees, the doctor advised. It’s also recommended to shower within two hours of coming indoors.
- Tumble-dry clothing on high heat for at least 10 minutes to kill any ticks on clothing.
- Remove ticks promptly and properly. Using fine-tipped tweezers, grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible, and pull upward with steady, even pressure. Clean the bite area afterward.
Approximately 476,000 Americans are diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease each year, per CDC data.
“The longer a tick is attached, the higher the risk of disease transmission — for Lyme disease, transmission generally requires at least 36 hours of attachment,” Goldberg said. “The Powassan virus can be transmitted much more quickly.”
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