The Trump administration will move to pull the COVID vaccine off the U.S. market “within months,” one of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s closest associates has told the Daily Beast.
Dr. Aseem Malhotra, a British cardiologist who has repeatedly claimed in the face of scientific consensus that the vaccines are more dangerous than the virus, told the Daily Beast that Kennedy’s stance is shared by “influential” members of President Donald Trump’s family. Like Kennedy himself, no Trumps hold any scientific qualifications.
Malhotra is a leading adviser to the controversial lobby group Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Action, which is seen as an external arm of Kennedy’s agenda as Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary.
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He told the Beast that many of those closest to RFK Jr. have told him they “cannot understand” why the vaccine continues to be prescribed, and that a decision to remove the vaccine from the U.S. market pending further research will come “within months,” even if it is likely to cause “fear of chaos” and bring with it major legal ramifications.
“It could [happen] in a number of stages, including learning more about the data,” said Malhotra, who said there was an ongoing review into so-called “vaccine injuries” by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). “But given the increased talk of vaccine injuries in the past few weeks among the administration, it could also come with one clean decision.”
Malhotra said skepticism among Kennedy’s circle of the COVID-19 jab is driven by a 2022 paper by a group of physicians and university professors and researchers, which appeared in the journal Vaccine.
The peer-reviewed paper examined secondary analysis of “serious adverse events reported in… clinical trials of Pfizer and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in adults,” and said that those given the mRNA vaccines had a 16 percent higher risk of “excess serious adverse events” than those in the placebo group.
However, the study has been dismissed by large parts of the medical community, who say it underestimates the benefits of COVID-19 vaccines and overstates risks due to methodological flaws, biased data selection, and ignoring broader public health impacts.
Malhotra was not among the authors of the study, but said that he presented its findings during a MAHA Action team video meeting on July 9 which was attended by senior aides to Kennedy. He claimed it caused a “holy s--t” moment among many of those present.
Malhotra is known to have the ear of RFK Jr., having first drawn his attention in September 2022, when he published a paper in the Journal of Insulin Resistance on what he described as “misinformation about the COVID mRNA vaccine,” which led to a television interview.
After he walked out of the studio, Malhotra said the first person to call was RFK Jr. “He said, ‘I want to thank you for your courage,’” Malhotra said. The pair have since become close.
Malhotra helped fundraise for Kennedy’s doomed presidential campaign, and the two hiked together in the Los Angeles hills close to Kennedy’s home that he shares with his actress wife, Cheryl Hines, in October 2023.
Malhotra is now expected to meet Trump himself in September to push his anti-COVID-19 mRNA vax views, during a trip to meet Kennedy and other HHS aides.
“I think [Trump will] get it, because it’s in his interest to,” Malhotra said. “This information is only going in one direction, and there’s something really terribly wrong with the system. I think once [he] understands the situation… that will encourage him to act to change the system. He’s in a position to fix it. He can create a lasting legacy by doing so.”
The prediction of a drastic move against the COVID vaccine comes after Kennedy canceled $500 million in funding for the development of mRNA vaccines. Such vaccines use a copy of a molecule called messenger RNA (mRNA) to provoke an immune response against certain diseases. They have received much attention since the COVID-19 pandemic, where they served as the basis of the most widely used SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.
Days after canceling the funding, the HHS secretary—criticized for describing the COVID shot as “the deadliest vaccine ever made”—stated during a press conference his belief that the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine was dangerous and can cause “injuries” including myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart that can lead to health issues ranging from fatigue to cardiac arrest.
At the same time the scientifically unqualified Kennedy scion wrongly claimed there is no evidence football leads to brain damage.
Vaccine skepticism took a sinister turn earlier this month when an anti-vaxxer opened fire on the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), killing a police officer. Investigators believe the man targeted the CDC over his hatred of the COVID-19 vaccine, apparently convinced he was sick—or would become sick—because of it.
On Wednesday, more than 750 current and former staff members from the CDC, HHS and National Institutes of Health (NIH) accused Kennedy of spreading dangerous misinformation that fueled mistrust and contributed to the CDC HQ shooting, demanding by Sept. 2 that he stop, affirm CDC scientific integrity, and guarantee workforce safety.
They also argued Kennedy had jeopardized Americans’ health and undermined the nation’s readiness for public-health crises.
In a letter to Congress and Kennedy, which was posted on the Save HHS site, they wrote: “Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is complicit in dismantling America’s public health infrastructure and endangering the nation’s health by repeatedly spreading inaccurate health information.”
HHS, in response, said Kennedy was “standing firmly with CDC employees” to ensure their safety and well-being, adding: “In the wake of this heartbreaking shooting, he traveled to Atlanta to offer his support and reaffirm his deep respect. Any attempt to conflate widely supported public health reforms with the violence of a suicidal mass shooter is an attempt to politicize a tragedy.”
The Daily Beast contacted the White House, the HHS, Pfizer, and Moderna for comment.
Only the White House responded. Its spokesman, Kush Desai, said: “The Administration is relying on Gold Standard Science and is committed to radical transparency to make decisions that affect all Americans. Unless announced by the Administration, however, any discussion about HHS policy should be dismissed as baseless speculation.”
