HHS Advances Old Anti-Vaccine ‘Placebo’ Claims
Longtime followers of anti-vaccine narratives will recognize the claim that the safety of vaccines is unproven because they were not tested in placebo-controlled trials.
What’s new is that a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services recently made a version of this claim. The statement echoed comments from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has a history of undermining confidence in vaccine safety.
“Except for the COVID vaccine, none of the vaccines on the CDC’s childhood recommended schedule was tested against an inert placebo, meaning we know very little about the actual risk profiles of these products,” the HHS spokesperson told the Washington Post. Other journalists also have published the statement.
The spokesperson also appeared to suggest a policy change and misleadingly said: “All new vaccines will undergo safety testing in placebo-controlled trials prior to licensure — a radical departure from past practices.”
In fact, Staff Writer Kate Yandell writes, there is substantial information available on vaccine safety.
It is unclear what the spokesperson meant by “new vaccines,” and HHS did not reply to our request for clarification. But it is not a “radical departure” to perform placebo-controlled trials to test the original versions of vaccines.
Some current childhood vaccines, such as the rotavirus vaccines, were indeed tested against a placebo. But a placebo isn't always necessary or ethical. Many current vaccines are new versions of older vaccines and were compared in clinical trials with prior iterations.
Kennedy himself made similar claims in an April 28 interview with Phil McGraw, also known as Dr. Phil.
The goal of such claims on placebo-controlled trials “is to just scare people about vaccines, to make them think they are not tested for safety,” Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told Kate.
For more, read the full story: “HHS Advances Kennedy’s Old ‘Placebo’ Vaccine Safety Claims.”
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Since mid-April, President Donald Trump has falsely claimed, repeatedly, that gasoline prices “hit $1.98 a gallon” in multiple states. When we wrote about it last month, the White House didn’t respond when we asked for supporting evidence. But CNBC reported on May 5 that Trump was likely referring to the trading price for RBOB, an unfinished gasoline product that’s later blended with oxygenates, such as ethanol. That's not the price at the pump. Read more: “The Possible Source of Trump’s False $2 Gasoline Claim.”
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Drug overdose deaths have been trending downward since 2023, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a Feb. 25 press release, the CDC reported a 24% decline for fiscal year 2024, compared with the prior year. It estimated that there were 87,000 drug overdose deaths in fiscal 2024. Most of those deaths — about 55,000 — were from synthetic opioids, including fentanyl. Read more: "Bondi Far Overstates the Impact of Fentanyl Seizures on American Lives."
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Reader: I recently saw a social media post claiming that President Trump called WWII Veteran Ruby Bradley a ‘loser’ for being captured and ‘woke’. Additionally, it claimed that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is wiping her military records. Is this true?
FactCheck.org Director Lori Robertson: We found no evidence for this claim, which multiple readers asked us about. Staff Writer Alan Jaffe wrote this week: "We could find no record of Trump referring to nurse Ruby Bradley, who received 34 medals for her service during World War II and the Korean War. A Pentagon spokesperson told us that there was 'nothing deleted and/or taken offline related to Ruby Bradley' and 'we have not received any guidance requiring the removal of content' related to her."
As Alan explained, in the weeks after an executive order by Trump that called for the Defense and Homeland Security departments to “abolish” diversity, equity and inclusion offices, and a memo from Hegseth calling for a “digital content refresh,” the Department of Defense deleted websites and social media pages that highlighted women and some ethnic and racial groups in the military. Some pages were later restored.
But for Bradley, as the Pentagon spokesperson told Alan, “Looks like the rumor is just that.”
In fact, Alan found a U.S. Army page devoted to women in the Army Medical Department, which included information on the heroic actions of Bradley, who was taken prisoner by the Japanese during World War II. She died in 2002 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
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Wrapping Up
Here's what else we've got for you this week:
- RFK Jr. Misleads About Safety of COVID-19 Vaccine in Children
In recent interviews, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has minimized the risk COVID-19 poses to kids and exaggerated the risk of the vaccine, incorrectly claiming that the shot poses a “profound risk” to children. While serious side effects can occur, they are rare, and have not been shown to outweigh the benefits of the vaccine in protecting against COVID-19.
- Trump’s Stock Market Blame-Shifting
President Donald Trump said the faltering stock market “is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s” and that a downturn wasn’t due to tariffs. Our graphic shows how the markets responded after Trump made various tariff announcements.
Y lo que publicamos en español (English versions are accessible in each story):
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