Robert F. Kennedy jr uses a bibliography to cancel millions in COVID vaccine research but the document was created using a word search

"The COVID vaccine prevented 3.2 million U.S. deaths"...But, every day is another incompetent statement from RFKjr (Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, jr.). Kennedy cut funds designated for COVID (mRNA) vaccine research and used a 180 page report to justify his wrongminded, stupid decision. At least one social media friend wrote to her Maine Congressman Jared Golden to oppose RFKjr's actions.  In the newsletter STAT, Dr. Jake Scott, an infection disease physician, actually read the document referenced by RFKjr as justification for the cuts to research funding. In fact, the document is just a bibliography created by using particular search words, but some of the articles listed actually contradict Kennedy's false premise becasue, obviously, they were not read for content by an individual who could competently understand the data. 

Kennedy’s case against mRNA vaccines collapses under his own evidence: RFK Jr.’s ‘evidence’ doesn’t support ending the research — it makes the case for expanding it.* Reported by STAT

My social media friend Sally-Ann joins millions who are worried about RKjr's stupidity, so she immediately sent an email to Maine Congressman Jared Golden. The news always reminds me of the book title from the 1980s--A Confederacy of Dunces. (A good book--I've read it probably a dozen times, but not recently.) I decided I would just type and not worry about a pretty letter, because I am already worried.

Dear Congressman Golden: First I would like to thank you for the work you are doing in Washington D.C. in these unprecedented times. It seems that daily we have bad news that touches us or people we love. Today's news comes from Robert Kennedy Jr., who is not going to renew contracts for rna vaccines in spite of their wide-spread use and effectiveness.

Back in the 1970s, I worked as a Certified Nuring Assistant (CNA) for three years. During these years I put myself through nursing school. After that I worked as an R.N. for 41 years. I worked in med-surg units, in an ICU, in home care, and in both inpatient and outpatient psychiatry and addiction medicine. I now am working as a volunteer Faith Community Nurse, and still have my nursing license.

I also worked during the pandemic, giving vaccines to people at the Augusta Civic Center. (And even President Trump benefited from the COVID vaccine!) That was some of the most rewarding work of my career. People were so grateful to receive the vaccines. Many of them had not seen their families since the beginning of the pandemic, and the vaccine was their ticket to traveling to see their children.
Now that RFKjr is wielding his power, things are different. He is not qualified for the position he is in. I hope Congress can do something about this travesty--at least regarding the mRNA vaccines, which have saved so may lives.

*When Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. terminated $500 million in federal funding for mRNA vaccine research last week, claiming he had “reviewed the science,” his press release linked to a 181-page document as justification.  After reviewing Kennedy’s “evidence”,  it doesn’t support ending mRNA vaccine development. It makes the case for expanding it.

The document isn’t a government analysis or systematic review. 

Rather, it’s a bibliography assembled by outside authors that, according to its own title page, “originated with contributions to TOXIC SHOT: Facing the Dangers of the COVID ‘Vaccines’” with a foreword by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.). The lead compiler is a dentist, not an immunologist, virologist, or vaccine expert.

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya has suggested the funding was terminated due to lack of public trust in mRNA vaccines. 

But misrepresenting evidence to justify policy decisions is precisely what erodes public trust. If we want to restore confidence in public health, we need to start by accurately representing what the science actually says.

Here’s what Kennedy obviously missed: Most of the compiled papers are in vitro studies (laboratory experiments in test tubes or petri dishes) documenting effects of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, not vaccination. These laboratory experiments, while limited in their clinical relevance and unable to establish causation, consistently show harmful effects from the spike protein produced during infection. The implicit message throughout: Infection produces spike protein that can cause harm, therefore vaccination, which produces controlled amounts of spike without the virus making copies of itself, makes sense.

Some of the papers included in the bibliography are even explicit about this. One examining neurological effects concludes “the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination far outweigh the risks of a neurological complication.” Another review in the packet directly compares infection with vaccination and concludes vaccination is “the more favorable option for protection.” Kennedy is literally citing evidence that contradicts his position.

The document’s methodology reveals how this happened. The authors of the compilation acknowledge that “most in vitro studies cited here used recombinant spike proteins or spike proteins in pseudoviral vectors,” not actual vaccines. They grabbed papers using any mention of spike protein, whether from infection or vaccination, and presented them as evidence against vaccines.

The apparent deception runs deeper. Multiple cited studies inject spike protein or mRNA intravenously into mice, inducing myocarditis, or even directly into brain tissue, routes obviously never used in human vaccination. (Vaccines are injected into shoulder muscle.) The packet includes studies with hippocampal injection of spike, brain infusion in mice, and injection into cerebrospinal fluid. While these experiments help identify theoretical hazards, they reveal nothing about the real-world risk from the intended intramuscular injection in humans.

When it isn’t misreading studies’ conclusions, the compilation uses them in an intellectually dishonest way. For instance, it misleads about how long spike protein stays in the body. It cites studies showing spike protein from SARS-CoV-2 infection lasting months, driven by the virus continuously making copies of itself, to suggest vaccine spike persists similarly.

But vaccine spike typically clears within two weeks because there’s no replicating virus. Those who assembled the document know this distinction but obscure it.

The safety distortions are egregious. The document highlights anaphylaxis rates as high as 1 in 2,280 doses from selective studies, while systematic CDC surveillance estimates 4.5 per million doses, 400 times lower. 

They emphasize myocarditis (a treatable infection in the cardiac muscle) in young males, which peaked at about 100 per million among males ages 16-17 after the second dose, without mentioning that SARS-CoV-2 infection causes myocarditis at higher rates with worse outcomes, or that rates have since dropped to background levels.

Most damning is what’s absent. The compilation ignores the Danish nationwide study of approximately 1 million JN.1 booster recipients that found no increased risk for 29 specified conditions. It omits the Global Vaccine Data Network analysis of 99 million vaccinated across multiple countries finding no new or hidden safety signals. It excludes CDC data showing the unvaccinated had a 53-fold higher risk of death during Delta, demonstrating the critical importance of mRNA vaccination. The Commonwealth Fund estimates Covid vaccines prevented approximately 3.2 million U.S. deaths through 2022.

The papers themselves often contradict the compilation’s framing. Multiple studies state “we cannot infer any causality” from their findings. The document’s own sources describe challenges as surmountable, not fatal flaws. 

Nevertheless, the incompetent Kennedy presents these tentative findings, which the authors themselves call preliminary, as definitive evidence requiring immediate action.

Beyond Covid vaccines, Kennedy’s decision undermines pandemic preparedness. The 22 terminated projects worth $500 million represent the expensive late-stage development that BARDA uniquely funds — Phase 3 trials, manufacturing scale-up, and strategic stockpiling that private companies can’t afford. Kennedy promises “safer, broader, whole-virus vaccines” as alternatives, apparently unaware these take six months minimum to update versus weeks for mRNA. When the next pandemic virus emerges, those extra months will translate directly into preventable deaths.

I’ve analyzed Covid vaccine safety data intensively since 2020. There are real discussions to have about rare side effects, risk communication, and policy trade-offs. But those require honest representation of evidence.

What Kennedy has done is different. Most papers in the compilation found infection-related harms, evidence that actually supports vaccination, yet he is wielding it against vaccines. 😓😕💢He’s citing sources that explicitly support vaccination while claiming they oppose it.

This isn’t scientific disagreement. It’s either staggering incompetence or willful misrepresentation. When half-billion-dollar decisions affecting pandemic preparedness rest on such foundations, the scientific community must respond clearly: Kennedy is using evidence that refutes his own position to justify dismantling tools we’ll desperately need when the next pandemic arrives.

Jake Scott, M.D., is an infectious disease physician and clinical associate professor at Stanford University School of Medicine.