RFK Jr. Wants to Pay Doctors to Report Vaccine Injuries
Your doctor could get paid to file unproven vaccine injury reports.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has launched a government-wide effort to look for evidence that vaccines cause injuries. The plan includes a new clinic at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for patients who believe they were harmed by vaccines. The clinic actually opened on October 5, but its opening was kept secret—Kennedy attended the ribbon-cutting quietly. Now, HHS wants to pay doctors to report any suspected vaccine injuries to a federal system called VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System). VAERS is a safety monitoring tool that collects unverified reports from anyone, including the public. The CDC reviews these reports and finds that the vast majority are not actually caused by vaccines. But anti-vaccine groups often misuse VAERS data to claim vaccines are dangerous. Paying doctors to file reports could flood the system with unconfirmed cases, which critics say would waste money and spread fear.
HHS also plans to make VAERS easier to use, including on mobile devices, and has awarded nearly $1 million to a Virginia tech company to help. Additionally, electronic health records would be required to include information about vaccine injuries, so doctors see a "complete picture" of a patient's history. Kennedy says this will rebuild trust in public health. But medical experts say the real goal is to exaggerate vaccine risks and undermine confidence in lifesaving shots. They point out that the U.S. already has multiple safety systems, and VAERS has been a sensitive early warning tool since 1990. Boosting research on rare side effects is good, but paying for unverified reports is not.
Critics, including the advocacy group Protect Our Care, call the plan corrupt and dangerous. They warn it could lead to higher insurance costs and fraud. For everyday people, this means more misinformation about vaccines, potentially leading to fewer vaccinations and more disease outbreaks. It could also affect your doctor's incentives and your medical records. The bottom line: this initiative may make it harder to know what's true about vaccine safety, putting public health at risk.
- RFK Jr. wants to pay doctors to report suspected vaccine injuries to a federal database, even if unproven.
- A new NIH clinic for vaccine injury patients opened secretly in October.
- Experts say this will spread misinformation and could raise healthcare costs.
Why It Matters
This could lead to more vaccine misinformation, lower vaccination rates, and higher healthcare costs for everyone.