Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will headline a conference being held by an organization he once headed that regularly expresses opposition to vaccines, the group announced on Sept. 14.
Kennedy is slated to deliver a keynote speech on Thursday during the Children’s Health Defense conference in Washington.
The conference is being held “to highlight the work of key government officials and individuals who are advocating for transparency, accountability and justice in the area of public health,” according to the organization. Children’s Health Defense (CHD) says its mission is to “restore and protect the health of children by eliminating exposures to environmental toxins.”
It will be the first time Kennedy speaks at a Children’s Health Defense event since becoming health secretary in 2025.
The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
“We are thrilled to welcome Secretary Kennedy as our keynote speaker in DC. As the founder of CHD, Bobby has dedicated decades to fighting for public health transparency, medical freedom, and the protection of children’s health,” Mary Holland, president and CEO of Children’s Health Defense, told The Epoch Times via email.
“Now leading the Department of Health and Human Services, he is confronting the American chronic disease epidemic and eliminating regulatory capture, marking a critical turning point for public health. We are profoundly honored at this homecoming to have him share his insights as we gather for a day dedicated to truth, health freedom, and accountability at this critical moment.”
Kennedy was the group’s chairman from 2015 to 2023. He went on leave to run for president, ultimately ending his campaign in 2024 and endorsing then-candidate Donald Trump, who named him health secretary after winning the election.
The group aired an interview with Dr. Paul Thomas this week that alleged that for every vaccine on the childhood vaccine schedule, a child “is more likely to die from the vaccine than from the disease.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is overseen by Kennedy, says on its website that vaccines on the schedule “are very safe.”
Before stepping down from Children’s Health Defense, Kennedy regularly wrote articles for the organization criticizing vaccines, including shots against COVID-19, measles, and human papillomavirus.
The measles, mumps, rubella vaccine “is associated with seizure rates five times greater than associated with wild measles, as well as brain damage,” he said in one post in 2019.
Kennedy said during his confirmation hearings that he had no power over Children’s Health Defense. “I’m supportive of vaccines,” he told Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) after Sanders held up baby clothes sold by Children’s Health Defense that said “Unvaxxed, Unafraid.”
Also scheduled to appear at the Children’s Health Defense event are Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), and EpochTV host Jan Jekielek. Johnson will receive an award for engaging in oversight of the government, Children’s Health Defense said. He has received and made public records on vaccines, including a 2021 email that showed a top regulator telling National Institutes of Health officials they should study health problems that arose after vaccination.