Overview

• Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., founder of the country's largest anti-vaccine organization, Children's Health Defense, stated his intention to cause the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to shift funding and research away from infectious disease for eight years.
• As part of this plan, Kennedy proposes that the NIH should primarily focus on chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity, instead of diseases like measles and COVID-19.
• Kennedy's comments were made during an anti-vaccine conference in Savannah, Georgia, which was hosted by Kennedy's Children’s Health Defense.
• If elected, Kennedy also pledges to appoint an attorney general who would pursue legal action against medical journals refusing to publish vaccine-skeptical studies.
• In a recent poll, Kennedy received 22% support against President Joe Biden (39%) and former President Donald Trump (36%).