Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has tapped a prominent figure in the anti-vaccine movement to join the department. David Geier, who is listed as a "senior data analyst" for HHS, will be working on a new study examining the long-debunked theory that vaccines cause autism.
David Geier and his father, Mark Geier, have long promoted the belief that thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative formerly used in some childhood vaccines, is linked to autism. Scientific studies have, however, found no such link. In 2004, the Institute of Medicine did an extensive review and found the Geiers’ work to be flawed to the point of “making their results uninterpretable.”
Public health experts expressed concern about Geier’s new role, warning that his involvement in federal vaccine research could undermine public confidence in vaccines. Dr. Christopher Beyrer, the director of the Duke Global Health Institute, said “if we increase vaccine hesitancy and immunization rates go down further, we will see more vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks.”