HPV Vaccine Is Safe Despite RFK Jr.’s Claims, CDC Says

The New York Times (1/30, Rosenbluth) reports that “on Thursday, under questioning by” Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), HHS secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “declined to disavow comments he had made disparaging” Gardasil, a vaccine meant to prevent cervical cancer, which can be caused by the human papillomavirus, or HPV. Kennedy has described the vaccine “as unsafe” and has “singled out Gardasil in his critiques of vaccines, suggesting that its ingredients increase the risk of cancer, lead to autoimmune conditions and may be responsible for a rise in mental illness.” The CDC “disagrees with that characterization, noting that the body of scientific evidence ‘overwhelmingly supports their safety.’” Before the “vaccine was approved by federal regulators in 2014, it underwent lengthy clinical trials with more than 15,000 participants.”