BREAKING NEWS: Kennedy Blasts Retraction of Article Showing Link Between Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and Vaccines

HHS Secretary Kennedy wants to know why the editor of 'Toxicology Reports' pulled an article linking vaccines and sudden infant deaths.

On Monday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. published an open letter to the editor-in-chief of Toxicology Reports, demanding a full explanation for retracting the 2021 article, “Vaccines and sudden infant death: An analysis of the VAERS database 1990–2019 and review of the medical literature,” written by Neil Z. Miller.

The now censored article found that 2,605 infant deaths (under age one) were reported to VAERS within 60 days of vaccination: 58% of cases were reported within 24 hours of vaccination while a supermajority (over 78%) of cases were reported within a week of vaccination. The uncensored article can still be read at the National Library of Medicine.

Writing on X, Secretary Kennedy explained his rationale for writing the letter.

“I sent this letter to the Editor-in-Chief of Toxicology Reports demanding a full explanation for the removal of a published article examining vaccines and sudden infant death. 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.”

In the letter, addressed to Lawrence H. Lash, the editor-in-chief of the journal and a professor of pharmacology at Wayne State University School of Medicine, Kennedy writes, “We will restore trust in public health by insisting on transparency, accountability, and open scientific inquiry—not by asking the public to accept decisions behind closed doors.”

HHS Secretary Kennedy demanded the following of Lash:

1. How the removal decision was reached;

2. If, and which, experts were consulted in the investigation;

3. Clarification of treatment of corroborating literature cited by Miller;

4. Criteria for “potential implications for medical practice” as a reason for retraction.

In his article, Miller states that otherwise unexplained infant deaths after vaccination are often labeled as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), suffocation, or unknown causes. He argues that such sloppy labeling helps to conceal links between vaccines and infant deaths.

The peer reviewed article was apparently reviewed and retracted in May because nearly six years after its initial publication Toxicology Reports found the VAERS data was not reliable.

In an ironic twist, Secretary Kennedy is currently working to restructure VAERS in order to collect larger and therefore more accurate data samples. Many of the same forces that have previously censored or outright dismissed scientific research on vaccine safety have also resisted Kennedy’s attempts to improve VAERS.

But until such reforms happen, VAERS remains the largest repository of information related to vaccine injuries and deaths.

In his letter, Kennedy made it clear that the explanation provided by the medical journal was insufficient.

“The notice of removal you [Lash] issued had only two sentences explaining the retraction,” Kennedy wrote. “Given the high levels of public interest in vaccine safety and a history of both overt and obscure pressure against the study of some of these topics, such a brief notice of removal is woefully insufficient.”

Kennedy has repeatedly called out corruption and Big Pharma’s influence on what is published in medical journals. In 2025, he noted that in June of 2021, The Lancet published a letter, authored by Peter Daszak and his associates, titled, “Statement in support of the scientists, public health professionals, and medical professionals of China combatting COVID-19.”

In his letter, Kennedy called on the scientific community to resist criticisms of the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the theory that the pandemic originated there. Daszak, it was later revealed, funded the lab in Wuhan through his organization, EcoHealth Alliance.

After Kennedy posted his letter on Monday, researcher Nicholas Hulscher responded that his recent study on the link between the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR) and infant deaths corroborated the findings of the Toxicology Reports article. It, too, Hulscher wrote, was recently removed from a publication — in this case, ResearchGate, an online platform that scientists use to share research with one another.

“It’s time to take more direct action against the Journal Cartel,” Hulscher wrote in his response to Kennedy.

The topic of a potential link between vaccines and the sudden death of infants in the United States is particularly poignant given the alarming number of babies that die unexpectedly every year, leaving families devastated.

CDC data shows 3,700 sudden, unexpected deaths of infants in the U.S. in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available. Of these, 1,529 were classified as SIDS deaths while 1,131 were said to be from unknown causes and another 1,040 from accidental suffocation or strangulation in a bed.