The Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has hired an antivacamic and ally defender of a lifetime in a position in the Department of Health and Human Services, a person familiar with the subject confirmed to ABC News.
Lyn Redwood served for years as president of Health Defense of Children, the anti -cacuna organization founded by Kennedy. His exact role in HHS is not clear.
Andrew Nixon, spokesman for the department, told ABC News that he had no comments.
Meanwhile, Redwood is expected to deliver a presentation at the Meeting of the Immunization Practices Advisory Committee (ACIP) on Thursday using a Thimerosal report that is currently available online, which contains misleading information and cites a source that apparently does not exist, according to an author, which told ABC News that it is cited in the report.
Timerosal is a preservative in vaccines aimed at preventing pollution. It is currently used in approximately 4% of flu vaccines, but was eliminated from routine children’s vaccines in 2001.
“Let me know, the study in rats mentioned in the planned presentation of the CDC by Lyn Redwood listed Berman RF as the first author does not exist,” said Robert F Berman, PH.D., Professor Emeritus at the University of California Davis.
“I have not published an article with that title or with that set of co -authors in the Neurotoxicology magazine in 2008. In addition, none of my investigations has made statements about possible thymus effects on microglia in the brain or resulting in neuroimmune effects,” Berman said.
That appointment has been eliminated since the presentation reviewed online.
The Washington Post was the first to inform Redwood’s appointment to HHS.
Redwood has had a long belief that exposure to mercury through vaccines containing thimeria cause autism. Specifically, he has directly attributed his child’s autism to exposure to mercury of children’s vaccines in October 2024 in a Podcast with RFK Jr.
Decades of research has not found any link between autism and vaccines or any vaccine preservative, including thimerosal.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., testifies to the Health Subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee of the House of Representatives, June 24, 2025 in Washington.
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
“The timerosal was eliminated from all routine childhood vaccines in the United States of great caution: it is still used as a preservative in much of the world. Many studies have shown that it is safe and has no association with neurological development disorders,” Dr. Sean O’Leary, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics in infectious diseases and the LIAA of AAP to ACIPA.
An exhaustive report of existing evidence by the Medicine Institute in 2004 He concluded: “The body of epidemiological evidence favors the rejection of a causal relationship between vaccines and autism that contain timerous.”
He Centers for Disease Control and Prevention It also says: “Research shows no link between couch and autism.”
Although this preservative is not frequently used in the US. UU., If eliminated or is no longer recommended in the remaining flu vaccines, doctors care that it can cause unnecessary gaps in access to the vaccine and the potential for damage by not protecting these people.
“Any decrease in the number of flu vaccines will probably result in less people to be vaccinated and, subsequently, more hospitalizations and deaths. Its elimination could also indicate to unjustified security concerns of the general public,” O’Leary said.
At least one vaccine expert said he shuddered Wednesday at the idea that Redwood joined HHS.
Fiona Havers, a 13 -year -old CDC veteran who worked in vaccine policy, told ABC News in a statement: “Lyn Redwood is known for spreading the wrong information of the vaccine. It is worrying that Redwood now can have an official role inside the HHS and will be able to interfere with official messages about the safety of the vaccine.”
ABC News has communicated with Redwood for a comment.
Redwood and Kennedy have been close for a long time. In a conversation between the two of Kennedy’s podcast last year, Kennedy accredited Redwood for being the figure that “coordinated” the “stalking crusade” of the mothers who convinced Kennedy to begin investigating the possible damage of vaccines in the early 2000s.
Redwood also participated in the recent Kennedy presidential campaign, coordinating the volunteers and training collection training in Georgia, its native status, according to the registration pages on the website of the campaign.
