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A group of Senate Democrats asked Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. whether his family will benefit from a legal settlement involving a vaccine.
A letter sent Tuesday by Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Angela Alsobrooks (Md.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), and Andy Kim (N.J.) focused on a $50 million settlement reached by pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. over litigation involving its Gardasil vaccine.
Before leading HHS, Kennedy worked as a vaccine injury attorney and was noted as an attorney of record in some cases concerning the Gardasil vaccine. Filings submitted to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics during his confirmation hearing detailed how Kennedy would stand to profit from potential Merck & Co. settlements while holding authority over federal vaccine policy — a clear conflict of interest.
In an ethics agreement amendment to the Senate Finance Committee, Kennedy detailed his plan to divest his interests in the Gardasil vaccines case to the law firm Wisner Baum, with any proceeds going to his “non-dependent adult son.”
Warren, in a letter sent to Kennedy during the nomination process, also noted this and warned it “presented an egregious conflict of interest.” She called Kennedy’s divestment from the cases “plainly inadequate.”
The Tuesday letter questioned if the person who received the Gardasil fees was Kennedy’s son Conor Kennedy — who works at Wisner Baum — and asked the total amount of legal fees paid.
Kennedy stated during his confirmation process that he planned to keep a “10 percent fee from settlements tied to cases he referred to Wisner Baum for the Gardasil lawsuit,” the group wrote in a press release about the letter. Lawmakers categorized this initial plan as “alarming,” before Kennedy changed his plan to divestment.
“Now, it appears that your son could stand to gain millions of dollars from Merck’s recent settlement agreement, raising fresh concerns about conflicts of interest,” the letter states.
Brent Wisner, managing partner of the firm, said in an email that “at no time” will Kennedy or his son receive fees from a Gardasil settlement, Reuters reported.
The letter further accuses Kennedy of failing to recuse himself from decisions surrounding Gardasil or other policies on vaccine litigation.
An HHS spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kennedy remains distrustful of vaccines and has brought or suggested sweeping changes to U.S. vaccine policy.
In January, Kennedy directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to change the list of recommended vaccines for children from 17 shots to 11 shots. In recently released emails, Kennedy also appeared to direct the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel to restrict access to vaccines and allowed researchers to access “confidential data” to indicate the disproven claim that vaccines cause autism.
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