RFK, Jr., Demanded Research on Vaccines and Aluminum Be Retracted—The Journal Stated No

RFK, Jr., Demanded a Vaccine Research Be Retracted—The Journal Stated No

By Rachel Fieldhouse & Nature journal

US well being secretary and vaccine sceptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr has known as for the retraction of a Danish examine that discovered no hyperlink between aluminium in vaccines and persistent illnesses in youngsters — a uncommon transfer for a US public official. Aluminium has been used for nearly a century to reinforce the immune system’s response to some vaccines. However some folks declare the ingredient is linked to rising charges of childhood issues comparable to autism.

Public-health officers in Kennedy’s place not often request that research be retracted, says Ivan Oransky, a specialist in educational publishing and co-founder of the media group Retraction Watch. By way of this request, “Secretary Kennedy has demonstrated that he needs the scientific literature to bend to his will”, says Oransky.

The examine in query, printed in Annals of Inside Drugs in July, is without doubt one of the largest of its form, taking a look at 1.2 million youngsters born over greater than twenty years in Denmark. The authors reported that no vital danger of growing autoimmune, allergic or neurodevelopmental issues was related to publicity to aluminium compounds in vaccines.

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In an opinion piece printed on TrialSite Information on 1 August, Kennedy known as into query the examine’s methodology, evaluation and outcomes. Since his appointment as head of the US Division of Well being and Human Companies, Kennedy has bypassed regular scientific evaluation processes to alter vaccine suggestions and terminated grants for initiatives on mRNA vaccines.

Annals of Inside Drugs says it stands by the examine and has no plans to retract it. Christine Laine, editor in chief for the journal, wrote in a touch upon the examine’s net web page on 11 August that “retraction is warranted solely when critical errors invalidate findings or there may be documented scientific misconduct, neither of which occurred right here”.

The Division of Well being and Human Companies stated that Kennedy’s article spoke for itself, and that the division didn’t have any additional remark in response to Nature’s questions on Kennedy’s request for a retraction.

Broadly used

Aluminium, within the type of salts, comparable to potassium aluminium sulfate, have been administered in vaccines — for illnesses starting from whooping cough to pneumonia — to tens of millions of individuals worldwide, and the vaccines have been extensively studied for issues of safety. Gary Grohmann, an impartial virologist in Canberra, says there is no such thing as a proof of serious negative effects attributable to the small quantity of aluminium in vaccines.

However in 2011, a examine printed within the Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry claimed to point out a causal relationship between rising autism diagnoses in youngsters and elevated publicity to aluminium-containing vaccines. In 2012, the World Well being Group’s International Advisory Committee on Vaccine Security stated the examine and one other by the identical authors have been “severely flawed” as a result of they used inappropriate examine designs, incorrect assumptions and questionable knowledge.

Since then, Grohmann says, the declare that aluminium in vaccines causes autism has been debunked “many times”. “If there was a mechanism of motion the place a specific vaccine precipitated autism, we’d see it in 80, 90, 100% of individuals receiving the vaccine, and we don’t,” he says. Any affiliation between autism and vaccines might be a coincidence of timing, he says. “In different phrases, vaccines may be given on the age of two, and autism genetically may also kick in on the age of two,” he provides.

Allen Cheng, an epidemiologist at Monash College in Melbourne, Australia, says the Danish examine provides to the proof that vaccines containing aluminium are secure.

Kennedy’s issues

Amongst Kennedy’s criticisms of the Danish examine are that the evaluation excluded youngsters who had died earlier than the age of two. In accordance with Kennedy, because of this the youngsters “most certainly to disclose accidents” related to aluminum publicity have been excluded.

Kennedy additionally criticized the truth that the authors didn’t examine vaccinated and unvaccinated youngsters to find out whether or not any aluminium publicity causes hurt, though they’d some knowledge on unvaccinated youngsters.

Different critiques posted on the journal web site overlapped with Kennedy’s criticisms, says Anders Hviid, the senior creator and an epidemiologist on the Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen, Denmark’s public-health company. Hviid says he and his colleagues addressed the critiques “one after the other”. He additionally printed a rebuttal of Kennedy’s article on TrialSite Information on 3 August.

In a single response on the examine’s webpage, the Danish researchers stated they didn’t use unvaccinated youngsters as a management group as a result of fully unvaccinated youngsters have been uncommon — only one.2% (15,200) of the 1.2 million youngsters within the examine didn’t obtain a vaccine containing aluminium earlier than age two. Such a small group would have made their statistical evaluation imprecise, the researchers stated. As a substitute, they in contrast the connection between the danger of growing childhood issues and the way a lot aluminium in vaccine youngsters have been uncovered to, starting from 0 mg to 4.5 mg, earlier than the age of two. However they acknowledged that the examine didn’t consider whether or not any publicity, whatever the complete, elevated the danger of childhood issues.

In one other response, the researchers stated they excluded youngsters who skilled outcomes or died earlier than age two to permit for the anticipated lag between symptom onset and analysis. They famous that the majority issues couldn’t reliably be identified earlier than age two. Their further evaluation of outcomes beginning at 14 months confirmed related outcomes to their important findings.

Kennedy’s article additionally refers to a secondary evaluation within the supplementary knowledge, which he claims “contradicts the examine’s conclusions”. The evaluation confirmed there was no general danger of growing neurodevelopmental issues with rising aluminium publicity, however Kennedy pointed on the market was a 67% elevated danger of Asperger syndrome for each 1 mg enhance in aluminium for youngsters born after 2007.

The authors stated that evaluation must be interpreted cautiously. They did not embody it of their important findings as a result of the underlying knowledge have been incomplete.

Hviid says Kennedy’s name for retraction has not fazed him. He and his colleagues introduced their preliminary knowledge, which confirmed related outcomes to these of the ultimate examine, to the US Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in 2023. “We have now put out a stable examine on an vital subject.”

This text is reproduced with permission and was first printed on August 22, 2025.