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Kennedy Claims AAP’s Vaccine Recommendations are ‘Corporate Friendly’
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Key Takeaways
- Robert F. Kennedy accuses the AAP of being influenced by pharmaceutical companies, citing their financial ties to major vaccine manufacturers.
- The AAP's vaccine recommendations, including COVID-19 vaccines for children, diverge from CDC guidelines, raising concerns about corporate influence.
The comments came after the AAP announced its vaccine recommendations, which go against those of the CDC.
Secretary Kennedy believes that the AAP's vaccine recommendations are corporate friendly.
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The feud between HHS and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) continues.
Secretary Robert F. Kennedy issued a response to the AAP on Truth Social,1 where he claimed that the AAP’s connections to major pharma companies influence its decisions. Primarily, Kennedy is responding to a recent announcement that AAP is breaking from the CDC’s vaccine recommendations.
How did the AAP's vaccines recommendations break from the CDC's recommendations?
On Truth Social, Kennedy shared a screenshot of part of the AAP’s websites that lists the corporate donors the organization’s Friends of Children Fund. The image shows donors listed amongst the President’s Circle (meaning that they have donated $50,000 or more) and includes Merck, Moderna, Pfizer, and Sanofi.
Kennedy writes, “This is a screenshot from American Academy of Pediatrics’ webpage, thanking the organization’s top corporate donors. These four companies make virtually every vaccine on the CDC recommended childhood vaccine schedule. AAP is angry that CDC has eliminated corporate influence in decisions over vaccine recommendations and returned CDC to gold-standard science and evidence-based medicine laser-focused on children’s health.”
Kennedy continues, describing the AAP’s list of vaccine recommendations as being “corporate friendly.” He then explains that he believes in free speech and that the organization should be allowed to make its case to the people, but it should also disclose its conflicts of interest.
He writes that this includes, “(the AAP’s) corporate entanglements and those of its journal—Pediatrics—so that Americans may ask whether the AAP’s recommendations reflect public health interest, or are, perhaps, just a pay-to-play scheme to promote commercial ambitions of AAP’s Big Pharma benefactors.”
Kennedy concludes his post with a warning, writing, “AAP should also be candid with doctors and hospitals that recommendations that diverge from the CDC’s official list are not shielded from liability under the 1986 Vaccine Injury Act.”
AAP previously announced its updated set of vaccine recommendations, which includes COVID-19 vaccines for infants and young children. As previously stated, these recommendations go against those of the CDC, which is something that the AAP typically does not do. The Vaccine Integrity Project joined with the AAP in questioning the CDC’s vaccine recommendations.
In its announcement, a representative for the AAP wrote, “It differs from recent recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the CDC, which was overhauled this year and replaced with individuals who have a history of spreading vaccine misinformation.”
While Kennedy says that he is not anti-vaccine, he has long been associated with groups that can be described as anti-vax. Prior to joining the Trump administration, he’s claimed that vaccines caused autism and described the COVID vaccines as the deadliest vaccine ever made, according to a report from Politico.2 Kennedy chaired Children’s Health Defense, a prominent anti-vax group, until 2023 when he stepped down from the role.
HHS also recently announced that it was cutting nearly $500 million in contracts and projects related to the development and production of mRNA vaccines. At the time, Kennedy explained that the decision was made after reviewing the science and listening to experts. Medical experts, however, disagreed with Kennedy’s reasoning and criticized the decision. One expert was even quoted as saying that the funding cuts to mRNA vaccine projects was one of the worst public health decisions made in decades.
Sources
- Robert F. Kennedy Truth Social post. Truth Social. August 19, 2025. https://x.com/seckennedy/status/1957914911415153107
- Kennedy's 'MAHA transition team' includes anti-vax activists. Politico. November 11, 2024. Accessed August 20, 2025. https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/22/kennedy-anti-vax-activists-transition-team-00191306
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