RFK Jr.’s vaccine injury clinic could damage NIH hospital, board warns

“The space in which this protocol will be conducted, the vaccine evaluation center inside the clinical center, has been in existence for decades,” Green said. Like all protocols, it needs to undergo rigorous scientific and ethical reviews before it’s implemented at the hospital. Green said the protocol is still under review.

None of this was made clear in Kennedy’s ceremony, and Leslie condemned the optics of the event, particularly the signs labeling patients “vaccine injured.” Those patients “must come first,” Leslie said. “They deserve our care and respect and they deserve answers.” But Kennedy does them—and the hospital—a disservice, Leslie argued.

“The secretary has spent two decades arguing that vaccines are dangerous,” Leslie said. “Those signs announce the conclusion that the research has not yet reached and that the research exists to test. Think about what that means for those patients. If this research finds evidence of harm, many will dismiss it as the work of a secretary who has long argued that vaccines are dangerous. If it finds none, patients will be told that the clinic was a sham. Either way, they’re left with answers no one trusts, and science only helps patients when the public believes it.”

Leslie said he feared that the stunt sends a political message that will undermine trust that the hospital has worked to earn and maintain for over 70 years.

“The clinical center standing rests on one thing: the confidence of patients, physicians, and the public that the research done here is designed to find the truth, not to confirm a conclusion reached in advance,” he said. “Trust is slow to build and quick to lose. If people come to believe that research at this hospital can be steered toward a politically desired answer, the damage will not stop at vaccines.”

After Leslie’s statement, another member thanked him and made a motion for the board to support the statement. The motion was quickly seconded and, in a voice vote, the board unanimously endorsed the comments.