Key facts
- The rule would reimburse doctors who diagnose, treat and counsel patients with vaccine side effects, the report said.
- Kennedy announced a vaccine injury research center at the National Institutes of Health, the report said.
- Kennedy disclosed $2.5 million in income from vaccine lawsuit referrals before his January 2025 hearing.
- HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said the department rejects claims Kennedy seeks personal gain or to dismantle American medicine.
- Kennedy's publisher Tony Lyons reportedly paid him $4 million in book advances over the past year.
- The most common VICP claim, more than half, concerns where the vaccine is administered, not the vaccine itself.
The Trump administration is finalizing a rule to reimburse doctors who diagnose, treat and counsel patients with side effects from vaccines, according to a report published November 15, 2026. The report said experts believe the move is an attempt to undermine trust in vaccines and to create an evidence base on their purported risks.
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, also announced the creation of a vaccine injury research center at the National Institutes of Health and has sought to reshape the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, the report said. It said the actions point to Kennedy's longtime activism against vaccination as well as the profits he and his network have made from vaccine lawsuits.
Emily Hilliard, an HHS spokesperson, said the department "categorically reject claims that Secretary Kennedy is pursuing personal gain or seeking to dismantle American medicine".
Prior to his confirmation hearing in January 2025, Kennedy disclosed $2.5 million in income from referrals for vaccine-related lawsuits, the report said. At the hearing, Kennedy would not commit to forgoing compensation from vaccine lawsuits after he leaves office. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, said at the hearing that Kennedy could make millions while limiting vaccine access.
The report said litigation against Merck over its HPV vaccine was settled for more than $50 million in June 2026. After the confirmation hearing, Kennedy said his son would receive the money, expected to be 10% of the total; the report said it is unclear if he did.
The report said Tony Lyons, Kennedy's publisher, reportedly paid Kennedy $4 million in book advances over the past year and $451,000 in consulting fees before he became HHS secretary. Kennedy also earned $326,000 for 15 weeks as chairman of Children's Health Defense in 2023, more than half of his $510,000 salary in 2022, the report said. It said he received free flights and yacht trips from a former campaign donor now under Senate investigation, gifts totaling some $250,000.
Dorit Reiss, a professor of law at UC Law San Francisco, said Kennedy is a real ideologue but that he and his allies are likely happy to make money doing it. Peter Hotez, professor and dean of Baylor College of Medicine's National School of Tropical Medicine, said Kennedy's actions are likely a combination of being an ideological zealot and making money for himself or his associates.
The report said the most common claim to the VICP, more than half, concerns where the vaccine is administered, not the vaccines themselves. Reiss said compensating doctors for reporting side effects to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System risks offering the wrong incentives to unscrupulous providers.