\n The US Department of Health and Human Services launched a program this week to study and capture the breadth of vaccine injuries, reviving a longtime priority for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and stoking concerns from some public health advocates.\n <\/p>\n
\n The health secretary unveiled a new vaccine injury research center Monday during a visit to the US National Institutes of Health, where the program will be housed.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cVaccine injury is an invisible disease, and it is purposely invisible,\u201d he said during the event, according to footage shared by HHS. \u201cWe have not done the studies that need to be done to understand who\u2019s vulnerable to those kind of injuries.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The announcement also comes with a range of proposals to reform the federal system for reporting adverse events and reimburse doctors who report suspected vaccine injuries, a move HHS said will \u201cencourage\u201d health care workers to make reports.\n <\/p>\n
\n The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says on its website that there is a \u201cvery remote chance\u201d of vaccines causing serious reactions, injuries or death. But Kennedy\u2019s claims that federal scientists have ignored possible side effects \u2013 including debunked theories linking immunizations to autism \u2013 have energized his \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d base.\n <\/p>\n
\n Last month, Kennedy previewed the proposed changes during a speech before Children\u2019s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group he co-founded and helped lead before he stepped away to run for the presidency.\n <\/p>\n
\n Kennedy said during the speech that the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System is \u201cvery bad\u201d and that although vaccine injuries could be \u201cvery rare,\u201d we don\u2019t know under the current system.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIn our country, we care about rare illnesses and deaths. We care about every child who dies from measles. They get headlines. We should care about the children \u2014 shouldn\u2019t we, I\u2019d ask you, care about children who are dying or suffering or being injured by vaccine injuries?\u201d he asked the crowd on September 17.\n <\/p>\n
\n Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of Texas Children\u2019s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, told CNN that the system the US has in place already works well.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe US already has the most advanced sophisticated system of vaccine monitoring the world has ever seen, with multiple redundant systems in place,\u201d said Hotez, who is also dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine.\n <\/p>\n
\n He pointed to the surveillance system\u2019s ability to pick up \u201cextremely rare side effects of Covid vaccinations\u201d during the pandemic, such as myocarditis in young men who received mRNA vaccines \u2013 at a rate<\/a> of about 1 in 20,000 \u2013 and blood clots associated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine \u2013 at a rate<\/a> of about 1 in 500,000.\n <\/p>\n \n Hotez said he sees the new moves from HHS as an effort to sow doubt in vaccines at a time when vaccination rates continue to decline, leading to a resurgence in vaccine-preventable illnesses.\n <\/p>\n \n Pennsylvania is currently the center of the nation\u2019s worst measles outbreak in decades. HHS officials have publicly sparred with state authorities over how many people have died from the disease this year; Pennsylvania has reported five measles-related deaths, all in unvaccinated people, amid more than 1,000 cases across the state.\n <\/p>\n \n In announcing the vaccine injury actions, Kennedy said it was another bid to restore public trust in health care institutions.\n <\/p>\n