Trump administration plans to reimburse doctors for vaccine side effects
The Trump administration is finalizing a rule that would reimburse doctors who diagnose, treat and counsel patients for vaccine side effects. Experts say the change, together with other HHS moves, is meant to weaken public trust in immunization and to assemble an evidence base around vaccines’ purported risks. Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has also announced a vaccine “injury” research center at the National Institutes of Health and has sought to reshape the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
Critics tie those steps to Kennedy’s long anti-vaccine activism and to money he and allies have made from litigation, books, speaking and supplements. Before his January 2025 confirmation hearing he disclosed $2.5m in income from referrals for vaccine-related lawsuits and would not pledge to forgo such compensation after leaving office. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts warned then that he could restrict vaccine access while cashing in, citing his role in HPV-vaccine suits against Merck that settled for more than $50m in June 2026. Kennedy later said his son would receive the expected 10% share; whether that happened is unclear. Publisher Tony Lyons reportedly paid him $4m in book advances over the past year and $451,000 in consulting fees before he took office. He earned $326,000 for 15 weeks as chairman of Children’s Health Defense in 2023, more than half of his $510,000 2022 salary, and received about $250,000 in free flights and yacht trips from a former campaign donor now under Senate investigation.
HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said the department categorically rejects claims that Kennedy is pursuing personal gain or dismantling American medicine. Law professor Dorit Reiss of UC Law San Francisco and Peter Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine’s National School of Tropical Medicine argue ideology and profit both matter. As secretary, Kennedy has loosened peptide rules in the wellness industry. Former lawyer Aaron Siri has pushed “shared clinical decision-making” for all vaccines, a shift Reiss says could pull products out of the compensation program and open a more profitable litigation path.
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