Kennedy sharpens vaccine attacks, without scientific backing

Asthe federal government prepares for the next meeting of its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has intensified his attacks on aluminum vaccine components used in many shots to boost the body's immune response.

- Céline Gounder, Tribune News Service

Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist before seeking public office, claims that aluminum adjuvants are neurotoxic and tied to autism, asthma, autoimmune disease, and food allergies. But science and medicine advances a different view. Strong recommendations that parents introduce peanut-containing foods to infants early, for instance, have led to a drop in the incidence rate of peanut allergies. Since taking office, Kennedy has ordered reviews of vaccine ingredients, citing aluminum as a top concern. A discussion of “adjuvants and contaminants” is on the vaccine advisory panel's draft agenda.