The first week of August 2025 marked a turning point in the turbulent tenure of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as United States Health and Human Services Secretary. Amid a tragic shooting at the Centers for Disease Control, Kennedy issued a controversial demand. He wanted a peer-reviewed paper on vaccine safety published in the Annals of Internal Medicine retracted. The editors behind the renowned academic medical journal refused the request.
At the center of the controversy is a Danish study that followed more than 1.2 million children born between 1997 and 2020. Researchers headed by Anders Hviid measured cumulative exposure to aluminum in vaccines and compared it with risks of autoimmune, allergic, and neurodevelopmental disorders using national registry data. Their conclusion found no evidence linking aluminum adjuvants to chronic childhood disease.
Kenney refused to accept the findings and called for the retraction of the paper in an opinion piece published on 1 August 2025 on the medical-oriented online publication called TrialSite News. He argued that excluding children who died before age two obscured potential risks and criticized the lack of direct comparison between vaccinated and unvaccinated groups. Note that Kennedy has launched a crusade against vaccines since assuming office.
The authors of the study provided a direct response. They stated that the arguments of the Health Secretary disregarded the methodological realities of vaccine research in highly vaccinated populations. The researchers emphasized that unvaccinated cohorts in Denmark were too small to provide meaningful comparisons. This makes longitudinal analysis across shifting vaccine formulations the most scientifically rigorous design available.
Annals of Internal Medicine refused the retraction request. Editor-in-Chief Christine Laine, who is also a physician in the United States and clinical associate professor, explained that the publication reserves retraction of papers for scientific misconduct or errors that invalidate findings, neither of which applied to this study. Independent reports confirmed that the journal had no plans to retract, citing the robustness of the data and peer review process.
The dispute raises unprecedented concerns about political interference in scientific literature. An interview with Ivan Oransky, a specialist in academic publishing and co-founder of Retraction Watch, appearing in a Nature article, described the demand as an attempt to bend the scientific record toward a political agenda. Experts warned that such actions risk undermining public trust in peer review and the independence of medical research institutions.
It is also worth mentioning that the larger scientific record strongly contradicts Kennedy. Extensive clinical trials and real-world studies demonstrate that a range of vaccines have either controlled or prevented disease outbreaks and prevented deaths. The World Health Organization also dismissed earlier ecological studies and repeated assertions linking aluminum in vaccines to autism as methodologically flawed and unsupported by empirical evidence.
The actions of Kennedy must be understood within the wider context of his Make America Healthy Again or MAHA movement. This coalition amplifies concerns about pharmaceutical influence and healthcare costs but often channels them toward anti-science positions. An editorial by The Lancet published in August 2025 notes that these actions are supporting a dangerous pseudoscientific program of work that emboldens a corrupt and unscientific wellness industry.
FURTHER READINGS AND REFERENCES
- Andersson, N. W., Bech Svalgaard, I., Hoffmann, S. S., and Hviid, A. 2025. “Aluminum-Adsorbed Vaccines and Chronic Diseases in Childhood.” Annals of Internal Medicine. DOI: 7326/annals-25-00997
- Fieldhouse, R. 22 August 2025. “RFK Jr Demanded a Vaccine Study be Retracted — The Journal Said No.” Nature. DOI: 1038/d41586-025-02682-9
- Kennedy, R. Jr. 2 August 2025. “Flawed Science, Bought Conclusions: The Aluminum Vaccine Study the Media Won’t Question.” TrialSite News. Available online
- The Lancet. 23 August 2025. “RFK Jr and MAHA: Dangerous, Emboldened, and Escalating.” The Lancet. DOI: 1016/S0140-6736(25)01683-6