RFK Jr. appoints longtime anti-vaccine ally Lyn Redwood to HHS position

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has hired an anti-vaccine advocate and longtime ally to a position at the Health and Human Services Department, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.

Lyn Redwood served for years as president of Children's Health Defense, the anti-vaccine organization founded by Kennedy. Her exact role at HHS is unclear.

Andrew Nixon, a department spokesman, declined to comment.

Meanwhile, Redwood is expected to deliver a presentation at the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting on Thursday using a report on thimerosal that is currently available online, which contains misleading information and cites a source that apparently does not exist, according to one author, who told ABC News he is falsely cited in the report.

Thimerosal is a preservative in vaccines meant to prevent contamination. It's currently used in about 4% of flu shots but was removed from routine childhood vaccines in 2001.

"To the best of my knowledge, the study in rats referred to in the planned CDC presentation by Lyn Redwood listing Berman RF as first author does not exist," Robert F Berman, Ph.D., professor emeritus at the University of California Davis, said.

"I have not published a paper with that title or with that set of co-authors in the journal Neurotoxicology in 2008. Also, none of my research has made any statements about possible thimerosal effects on microglia in the brain or resulting in neuroimmune effects," Berman said.

That citation has since been removed from the revised presentation online.

The Washington Post was first to report Redwood's appointment to HHS.

Redwood has held a longstanding belief that mercury exposure through thimerosal-containing vaccines causes autism. Specifically, she has directly attributed her son's autism to mercury exposure from childhood vaccines as recently as October 2024 in a podcast with RFK Jr.

Decades of research has found no link between autism and vaccines or any vaccine preservative, including thimerosal.

"Thimerosal was removed from all routine childhood vaccines in the US out of an abundance of caution - it is still used as a preservative in much of the world. Many studies have demonstrated that it is safe and has no association with neurodevelopmental disorders," Dr. Sean O'Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Infectious Diseases and AAP's liaison to ACIP, told ABC News.

A thorough report of existing evidence by the Institute of Medicine in 2004 concluded, "the body of epidemiological evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also says, "research does not show any link between thimerosal and autism."

While this preservative is not used frequently in the U.S., if it is removed or no longer recommended in those remaining flu shots, doctors worry it could lead to unnecessary gaps in vaccine access and the potential for harm by not protecting these people.

"Any decrease in the number of flu vaccines available will likely result in fewer people being vaccinated and subsequently, more hospitalizations and deaths. Its removal could also signal to the general public unwarranted safety concerns," O'Leary said.

At least one vaccine expert said she shuddered Wednesday at the idea of Redwood joining HHS.

Fiona Havers, a 13-year CDC veteran who worked on vaccine policy, told ABC News in a statement, “Lyn Redwood is well-known for spreading vaccine misinformation. It is troubling that Redwood may now have an official role within HHS and will potentially be in a position to interfere with official messaging about vaccine safety.”

ABC News has reached out to Redwood for a comment.

Redwood and Kennedy have long been close. In a conversation between the two of them on Kennedy’s podcast last year, Kennedy credited Redwood with being the figure who “coordinated” the “stalking crusade” by mothers who convinced Kennedy to begin looking into the potential harms of vaccines in the early 2000s.

Redwood was also involved in Kennedy’s recent presidential campaign, coordinating volunteer and petition-gathering trainings in Georgia, her home state, according to sign-up pages on the campaign’s website.