The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Aug. 14 said it is reviving a long-disbanded task force to improve vaccines, after facing a lawsuit funded by Children’s Health Defense, which Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. used to chair.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will chair the revived panel. Members will include senior leaders from the NIH, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, all of which are part of the HHS.
The task force is going to work with the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines, which is made up of government officials, attorneys, and others, and advises the government on vaccine injuries. It will regularly produce recommendations focused on developing, promoting, and refining vaccines for children that result in fewer and less serious adverse reactions than the currently available vaccines, HHS said.
The body will also look to improve research on and reporting of adverse reactions to vaccines.
Lawsuit
“I’m very pleased,” Ray Flores, an attorney who sued Kennedy, told The Epoch Times.
The vaccine injury statute states in part that the health secretary shall establish a task force on safer childhood vaccines to prepare recommendations to promote the development of vaccines resulting in fewer and less serious adverse events.
The law says that every two years, the secretary shall send to Congress a report on the actions taken to improve vaccines.
According to a 2018 stipulation in a case filed by Kennedy, HHS said there were no reports from health secretaries to Congress pursuant to the law.
Kennedy “personally became aware that the biennial reports required by the 86 Act were never submitted,” Flores said in his complaint. He added later that “along with Secretary Kennedy’s predecessors over the past 25 years, he has also failed to establish this Task Force to make or assure improvements as required by law.”
Kennedy received written notice of the violations but did not revive the task force, prompting the suit.
On July 25, government lawyers asked for an extension of time to reply to let the parties “explore the potential for early resolution of this matter before engaging in further litigation.”
First Report
HHS is going to transmit the first formal report based on the task force’s work within two years to Congress, it said on Thursday.
Updates will be provided every two years thereafter.
Flores said that he plans on seeking dismissal of the lawsuit without prejudice.
He said he’ll ask for dismissal without prejudice “because I want to be able to to hold them to it if they don’t file the formal reports.”
Flores said that the task force’s main goal should be safer vaccines “without all the dangerous products in there,” such as adjuvants.
