Kennedy to deliver keynote for anti-vaccine group he once led

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is delivering the keynote at a Children's Health Defense conference at the Grand Hyatt in Washington — the anti-vaccine nonprofit he chaired until December 2024, and which still calls him its founder.

The relationship is long and documented. Kennedy joined CHD in 2015 and led it for nearly a decade, drawing a six-figure salary, taking leave during his presidential campaign and formally severing ties before the Trump administration took office. Under his chairmanship the organisation filed dozens of lawsuits against state vaccine policies and promoted the disproven claim that vaccines cause autism. In announcing the keynote, CHD said it "couldn't be more excited to welcome our founder back to the CHD stage."

Set that against the record of his confirmation. In January 2025 hearings, Kennedy told senators he would not discourage Americans from getting vaccinated, and — pressed on the group's anti-vaccine merchandise — said he had "no power" over the nonprofit. Returning as its keynote speaker while running the department that sets federal vaccine policy is a difficult fact to reconcile with either statement.

CHD alumni now hold positions inside HHS, which moves this from a question of one official's associations to one of institutional direction.

For anyone running an organisation with a health benefit plan, a workforce in a regulated industry, or a veteran population dependent on VA and community care, federal vaccine policy is not background noise. It sets coverage, liability and duty-of-care expectations. This is worth tracking on its merits, not its politics.