Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has already inflicted great damage upon America’s vaccine infrastructure, yet the health and human services secretary is only getting started. His next target is the system that makes vaccines economically viable.
Vaccines are expensive to develop, but for them to be effective, they must also be cheap so that large populations can access them. That means manufacturers must operate at slim margins, making them particularly vulnerable to expensive lawsuits.
In the 1980s, litigation was driving drug companies out of vaccine production. While immunizations save lives, they also inevitably come with rare and potentially serious side effects. That’s why, in 1986, Congress created a program to compensate people injured by shots at no risk to manufacturers, funded by a small tax on vaccines. While far from perfect, the arrangement has become the bedrock for American vaccine innovation.
In recent weeks, Kennedy fired four of the nine members on the little-known Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccinations (ACCV), which advises the government on which injuries should be eligible for compensation.
“HHS has the authority to make changes to advisory committee membership,” an HHS spokesperson told us. “Secretary Kennedy remains committed to a strong, transparent, and independent ACCV that brings the right expertise for this critical work.” The department will announce new members later.
Will he stack the committee with cranks who would bless efforts by Kennedy to allow compensation for autism, despite overwhelming evidence that vaccines do not cause the condition? This could lead to more than $100 billion in estimated awards. The current reserve is just $4 billion.
If the fund goes insolvent, or if special masters who review injury claims — known colloquially as the Vaccine Court — are not willing to go along, claimants would likely turn to civil court for their grievances. Those lawsuits might not succeed, but they would chill pharmaceutical innovation.
None of this is to say the system works perfectly. Even fierce defenders of vaccines agree that it takes too long to adjudicate injury claims, largely because federal law caps the number of special masters at eight who handle the program’s growing caseload.
Given Kennedy’s long history of attacking the Vaccine Court, it’s doubtful his real goal is to make it operate more efficiently. More likely, his objective is to return to the days when manufacturers saw immunizations as risky ventures. That would be a boon for Kennedy’s fellow trial lawyers, but it would make Americans sicker and more vulnerable to contagion.
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