RFK Jr.’s Bold Reassurance to Anti-Vaxxers

“You have friends in the White House,” he said at a conference hosted by the anti-vaccine organization he founded.

Kent Nishimura / AFP / Getty September 17, 2026, 7:33 PM ET Share Save Since becoming Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly denied that he opposes vaccines and has toned down some of his more extreme rhetoric on the subject. But in a keynote speech today at a conference for Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine organization he founded, the old Kennedy was back. He complained about safety studies, floated disproven theories about a link between vaccines and autism, and all but declared himself an anti-vaxxer. “You have a strong and steadfast friend at the White House,” he told the crowd.