Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is questioning the removal of a study he cited in his latest book.
“Americans have a right to know why scientific papers are removed, who made those decisions, what evidence supported them, and whether the same standards are applied consistently,” Kennedy said on X on June 15 as he released a letter he wrote to Lawrence Lash, editor-in-chief of the journal Toxicology Reports.
The letter was sent on June 11, one day after The Epoch Times reported on the journal’s removal of a paper produced by independent researcher Neil Miller that had linked sudden deaths among infants to vaccines, based in part on reports lodged with the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
Toxicology Reports, owned by Elsevier, published the paper in 2021. It said in a removal notice that it was removing the paper because, in investigating concerns raised by readers, Lash found responses from Miller unsatisfactory.
“In particular, serious methodological flaws were identified in the use of VAERS data to infer a correlation between vaccination and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS),” the notice said. “Given the inherent limitations of passive reporting systems, including the expected temporal clustering of events independent of causality, the conclusions presented in the article are not supported by the methodology employed. In light of these concerns, and given the potential implications for medical practice, the Editor-in-Chief has decided that the article should be removed.”
Kennedy, who cited the study in a 2023 book he authored, in the letter to Lash said that any retractions and removals “should be accompanied by a transparent and full explanation of why such an action was carried out.” He said that the brief statement on removal was “woefully insufficient.”
Kennedy demanded that Lash provide more details to his office by June 25, including a full written analysis justifying the decision, a list of which experts were consulted during the process, and clarification of the concerns over “potential implications for medical practice.”
Lash did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. A spokesperson for Elsevier told The Epoch Times in an email on June 8 that the removal followed “a thorough assessment” involving “careful review and consultation with relevant experts.” The spokesperson added, “We stand by the decision that the recommendations and conclusions presented in the paper may pose potential risks to public health and could potentially be applied in clinical practice resulting in harm to patients.”
Miller noted in a June 4 statement that he said in the paper that the fact that many SIDS deaths happened within days of vaccination was not proof of causality while pointing to what he described as “extensive additional evidence pointing to possible links between vaccines and sudden infant death.” He opposed the removal of the paper.
“I am deeply grateful that Secretary Kennedy is seeking an explanation from Dr. Lash regarding the process by which my paper was removed,” Miller told The Epoch Times in an email on Monday. He added, “I hope this inquiry helps ensure that valid and credible scientific research is evaluated on its merits and that articles are not removed or retracted solely because their findings are controversial or challenge prevailing views.”
Several other papers that have been highlighted by Kennedy or his allies in recent years have recently been retracted or placed under investigation, including a paper Miller wrote with Kennedy’s book coauthor Brian Hooker.
Kennedy in 2025 sought the retraction of a different paper, which asserted that there was no association between common vaccine ingredient aluminum and chronic diseases such as autism. His call was declined by the American College of Physicians, the publisher of the journal that published the study.