RFK Jr. Launches Federal Vaccine-Injury Research Initiative at NIH, Revamping Injury Reporting System
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has launched an agency-wide initiative to study and document health problems reported after vaccination, the department announced Thursday, in the latest and most concrete step of his long-running effort to reshape federal vaccine policy.
The centerpiece is a new vaccine-injury research clinic at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, which Kennedy unveiled Monday during a visit to NIH, where he met with patients who say they were injured by vaccines. The department said the program will also overhaul how suspected injuries are reported and studied: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will update its Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), electronic health records will be required to capture vaccine-related adverse events, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has proposed a new billing code so doctors can be reimbursed for filing reports of serious suspected side effects.
"We must listen to patients and families who report vaccine injuries — not dismiss or gaslight them," Kennedy said in Thursday's press release. "President Trump and I are building a health system that takes them seriously, follows the evidence, and uses what we learn to make vaccines safer."
The initiative has stoked concern among public health advocates. The American Academy of Pediatrics says childhood vaccines are studied in placebo-controlled and comparison-group trials and monitored for safety after approval, and the CDC notes there is a "very remote chance" of vaccines causing serious reactions. The federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program — a no-fault system in which claimants file against the government, not manufacturers — lists 14 compensable injuries across 16 vaccine types and has awarded roughly $5 billion across about 12,300 injury and death claims since 1988.
The push comes as Kennedy faces legal challenges over his moves to alter the childhood vaccination schedule and as public health experts warn of falling immunization rates. Measles has resurged in the United States this year, with the CDC reporting 4,080 confirmed cases as of October 8 — and experts say the official count likely understates the true toll.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: James Gathany 摄（CDC），公有领域（Wikimedia Commons）
