Children’s Health Defense, the non-profit organization that strives to end childhood health epidemics by eliminating toxic exposure, has sued Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for allegedly violating requirements of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986.

RFK Jr. chaired the organization from 2015 to 2023.

“Attorney Ray Flores is suing U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for failing to establish a task force dedicated to making childhood vaccines safer, as mandated by federal law,” The Defender wrote.

“The lawsuit, filed by attorney Ray Flores, is funded by Children’s Health Defense,” it added.

“YES, CHD is funding a lawsuit against @SecKennedy,” Children’s Health Defense said on social media.

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“Our first priority will ALWAYS be children’s health. Sec. Kennedy has FAILED ‘to establish a task force dedicated to making childhood vaccines safer, as mandated by federal law,’ so we WILL be holding him accountable,” it continued.

“This is Children’s Health Defense. Those three words say it all. We don’t need to be apologetic for standing up to the rights of children, to the health of children,” Flores said.

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The Defender explained more:

The lawsuit alleges Kennedy is violating the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, which requires the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to promote the development of safer childhood vaccines that cause “fewer and less serious adverse reactions” than existing ones.

The act requires HHS to establish a task force that includes the health secretary, the commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the directors of the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

It also requires the health secretary to provide Congress with progress reports every two years.

Since the U.S. Congress passed the act over 35 years ago, no health secretary — including Kennedy — has reported to Congress on steps taken toward making vaccines safer.

Flores said in the complaint that because more than 100 days have passed since the Trump administration took office, “any grace period for Mr. Kennedy to rectify the failure of his predecessors has ended.”

Mary Holland, CEO of Children’s Health Defense — which is funding the lawsuit — said it is “blackletter law that the HHS secretary must convene a task force on how to make vaccines safer.”

“This is part of the 1986 act itself,” she said. “That no secretary has done so since the passage of this law is a blow to the rule of law. I hope and trust that the current secretary will fulfill his obligation to Congress’s mandate.”

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Flores said the 1986 act includes a broad provision allowing citizens to sue the secretary if the requirements are not met. His lawsuit asks the court to compel Kennedy to comply with the mandate to set up a task force and submit biennial reports to Congress.

Flores told The Defender it was “astonishing” that HHS hasn’t fulfilled its responsibility to make vaccines safer. “Perhaps a little encouragement from a federal judge will help move this along,” he said.

The Defender noted that RFK Jr. filed a similar lawsuit against HHS when he was a practicing attorney.

“In 2018, when Kennedy worked as a lawyer, he and co-counsel Aaron Siri filed a lawsuit against HHS in a New York district court, seeking copies of the biennial reports after the agency failed to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests,” The Defender wrote.

The controversial National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 provided vaccine manufacturers a liability shield after individuals injured by vaccines sued for billions in damage claims throughout the 1980s, threatening to bankrupt the vaccine industry.

CNN noted:

The task force was indeed created, but it was short-lived, issuing its final report in 1998. Since then, Kennedy has used the absence of the panel to mischaracterize the government’s efforts to ensure the safety of vaccines. He’s floated the idea of reviving the panel – or one like it – on vaccine safety for years.

Children’s Health Defense says attorney Ray Flores, its senior outside counsel, filed the lawsuit on its behalf. Kennedy filed a similar suit in 2018 after a Freedom of Information Act request failed to produce any of the reports that are supposed to be filed under the Act, including the 1998 report.

HHS has not responded to CNN’s request for comment about the new lawsuit.

 

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