Martin Kulldorff, chair of the Trump administration\u2019s reconstituted CDC vaccine panel, made a shocking \u2014 and misleading \u2014 statement as the group met in September. Referring to a clinical trial, Kulldorff, a biostatistician and former professor at Harvard Medical School, said eight babies born to women who received Pfizer\u2019s covid vaccine while pregnant had birth defects, compared with two born to unvaccinated women.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very concerning to have a fourfold excess risk of birth defects in these pregnant women,\u201d Kulldorff then said.<\/p>\n
Scientists criticized Kulldorff\u2019s questions and remarks in that meeting because they suggested that the vaccine caused birth defects, which is not supported by evidence<\/a>. The birth defects would have occurred before the women received the vaccine, the scientists said. They say it was one of several scientifically unsubstantiated claims by newly appointed members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, an influential panel that guides which vaccines millions of people receive and whether insurance covers their cost.<\/p>\n Many of the new panel members share a connection to a little-known think tank making its mark in President Donald Trump\u2019s Washington: the Brownstone Institute.<\/p>\n Libertarian author Jeffrey Tucker created the nonprofit institute in 2021, fueled by backlash against covid lockdowns<\/a> and other pandemic-era policies. \u201cYou cannot do something like that to the world and expect people just to sit by and go, \u2018OK, that\u2019s normal,\u2019\u201d Tucker said in an interview.<\/p>\n Tucker has endorsed child labor<\/a>; said of covid shots<\/a> that \u201cthere is no evidence at all that the vaccines saved millions,\u201d contradicting numerous<\/a> studies<\/a> showing the opposite; and opposes vaccine mandates<\/a>.<\/p>\n His institute\u2019s covid contrarians seek to limit the government\u2019s role in protecting Americans from disease. The Austin, Texas-based think tank has<\/a> received<\/a> millions<\/a> from donors whose identities are shielded in tax filings. And in recent months, its associates have catapulted to the highest levels of government.<\/p>\n At least eight people with ties to the Brownstone Institute hold or recently held senior positions at federal health agencies or key roles advising the government, exercising significant authority over access to vaccines and scientific research.<\/p>\n They include Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, which has been racked by funding cuts and firings under the Trump administration, as well as senior Food and Drug Administration officials Vinay Prasad and Tracy Beth H\u00f8eg. Prasad has been involved in restricting<\/a> the use<\/a> of covid vaccines. H\u00f8eg has voiced skepticism<\/a> about vaccine mandates and some childhood immunizations.<\/p>\n Bhattacharya was a senior scholar for the organization. Brownstone has published Bhattacharya\u2019s<\/a> and Prasad\u2019s<\/a> writings on its website. H\u00f8eg has reported receiving<\/a> payment<\/a> from the group.<\/p>\n The institute has compensated Kulldorff<\/a> and published his articles<\/a>. Tucker wrote in October<\/a> that 2020 marked \u201cthe beginning of a long friendship\u201d with Kulldorff \u201cthat continues to this day.\u201d Three other ACIP members share connections with the organization: MIT operations management professor Retsef Levi, who has spoken<\/a> as part of at least one Brownstone event; physician Robert Malone, who speaks at its events<\/a> and whose articles appear on its website<\/a>; and Case Western Reserve University professor and epidemiologist Catherine Stein, who in 2022 authored an article<\/a> calling for an end to vaccine mandates at universities.<\/p>\n Thomas Buckley, a public relations professional who wrote for the institute, accepted a political appointment as a top NIH spokesperson after thousands of workers at the biomedical research agency were fired<\/a>. Buckley noted on Substack<\/a> that his Brownstone writings<\/a> \u201cled to my new job.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s maybe his judgment,\u201d Tucker said.<\/p>\n Buckley, when asked to elaborate, said in an email that he interviewed Bhattacharya \u201cfor a story that was later published on Brownstone \u2014 it was simply me being polite.\u201d He said he resigned from the NIH on Sept. 30. NIH spokesperson Laci Williams declined to confirm his departure date.<\/p>\n Despite the ascendance of those with ties to his group, Tucker said that \u201canybody who thinks that somehow Brownstone is some big plot, it\u2019s crazy.\u201d He said he is not in regular contact with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose department oversees the CDC, FDA, and NIH.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have any influence,\u201d Tucker said.<\/p>\n Sowing Vaccine Doubt<\/strong><\/p>\n People with ties to the institute have sown doubt about covid vaccines or routine childhood immunizations, dismissing widespread evidence that they are safe and the benefits outweigh the risks.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve successfully placed their ideology inside the mechanism that determines U.S. vaccine policy,\u201d said Jake Scott, a physician at Stanford Medicine who specializes in infectious diseases. \u201cIt\u2019s very, very troubling.\u201d<\/p>\n Tucker said that Brownstone \u201cdoesn\u2019t have any operational impact on the ACIP committee at all\u201d and that \u201cif somebody wasn\u2019t troubled by Brownstone, there\u2019s probably no reason for us to exist.\u201d<\/p>\n Tucker and Brownstone\u2019s associates express libertarian views and promote<\/a> distrust of government<\/a>, including public health authorities.<\/p>\n \u201cThe evidence is mounting and indisputable that MRNA vaccines cause serious harm including death, especially among young people. We have to stop giving them immediately!\u201d Levi posted on social media<\/a> in 2023, referring to vaccines based on messenger RNA technology, which Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna used to develop their covid shots. Stein wrote<\/a> that covid vaccine mandates are \u201cunethical\u201d and not scientifically justified. Bhattacharya asserted on a podcast with Trump ally Stephen Bannon that mRNA technology for vaccines is \u201cno longer viable<\/a>,\u201d and he has overseen mass terminations of NIH grants<\/a> for scientific research.<\/p>\n Kennedy in June fired all 17 members of the CDC\u2019s vaccine panel and has replaced them with 12 people so far, including individuals with connections to the Brownstone Institute. Tucker said that he did not propose to the White House or HHS that they be appointed and that Brownstone has not paid them over the past year.<\/p>\n During the September ACIP meeting, several new panel members expressed skepticism<\/a> of vaccines and dismissed evidence \u2014 including the CDC\u2019s own data \u2014 demonstrating that they are safe and effective.<\/p>\n That included Kulldorff\u2019s questions and remarks about covid vaccines and birth defects.<\/p>\n In a Pfizer clinical trial, hundreds of pregnant women were given covid vaccines or a placebo during the second and third trimesters<\/a> of pregnancy. But the birth defects Pfizer reported in its clinical study<\/a> typically would have formed long before the vaccine was given, said Jeffrey Morris, a biostatistics and public health professor at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.<\/p>\n \u201cTo say that this is a major safety risk,\u201d Morris said, \u201cis beyond a stretch.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis one really upsets me because it\u2019s just so misleading,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Multiple<\/a> large<\/a> studies<\/a> have shown no association<\/a> between covid vaccines and miscarriage, stillbirth, or birth defects.<\/p>\n In response to questions for this article, Kulldorff said: \u201cIn the randomized trial, there were four times as many birth defects in children born to mothers receiving the Pfizer covid vaccine during pregnancy compared to the placebo-receiving control group. To ensure vaccine confidence, it is the responsibility of ACIP to note and inquire about such discrepancies, and it is the manufacturer\u2019s responsibility to thoroughly examine it through additional follow-up studies.\u201d<\/p>\n Kulldorff said he is \u201cnot affiliated with the Brownstone Institute\u201d but declined to respond to additional questions, including whether he is currently compensated by the organization or has donated to it. The Brownstone Institute paid Kulldorff $108,333 in 2022, according to tax filings<\/a>.<\/p>\n Levi said he heard about the Brownstone Institute from social media. He said he is in contact with Tucker \u201conce in a while\u201d but said Tucker has not advised him on vaccines since he was named to the CDC\u2019s vaccine panel. Levi said he has \u201cnever received any compensation,\u201d \u201cnever had any affiliation,\u201d and \u201cnever donated or given any money\u201d to the group.<\/p>\n Bhattacharya did not respond to questions. Williams, the NIH spokesperson, who had earlier declined to respond, citing the federal government shutdown, did not respond to a query seeking comment after the shutdown ended Nov. 12.<\/p>\n Stein declined to comment and referred questions to HHS. Department spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in a statement that Stein\u2019s ACIP appointment \u201creflects the Administration\u2019s commitment to independent, evidence-based science. Her professional record speaks for itself.\u201d<\/p>\n The Brownstone Institute\u2019s website says it works<\/a> \u201cto support writers, lawyers, scientists, economists, and other people of courage who have been professionally purged and displaced during the upheaval of our times.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a danger associated with a state-imposed orthodoxy,\u201d Tucker said in the interview. \u201cI think Brownstone has a moral obligation to care for dissidents and create settings in which they\u2019re able to test their ideas against people with whom they disagree.\u201d<\/p>\n He said that \u201cthere\u2019s never harm that comes from open debate and open distribution of information and views.\u201d But Brownstone\u2019s critics say its associates make extreme claims about vaccines and promote anti-vaccine messages.<\/p>\n \u201cThey kind of position themselves as defending freedom, but they consistently platform covid minimizers and vaccine skeptics,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n Tucker took issue with the description, saying \u201cit presumes that we know exactly with scientific precision the severity of covid, and so anybody who falls short of explaining that with amazing precision is a minimizer.\u201d<\/p>\n In early September, Scott testified at a Senate subcommittee hearing on vaccines alongside Toby Rogers, a political economist and Brownstone Institute fellow who doesn\u2019t list<\/a> any medical credentials. Rogers wrote last year in his Substack newsletter<\/a> that \u201cvaccines are a civilization-destroying technology\u201d and has promoted the debunked idea<\/a> that vaccines cause autism. \u201cMy belief is that the autism and chronic disease epidemics are primarily caused by toxicants \u2014 mostly from vaccines and about a dozen additional toxicants,\u201d Rogers said<\/a> at the Senate hearing. Numerous studies have shown<\/a> there is no link between vaccines and autism.<\/p>\n Days later, members of Kennedy\u2019s handpicked panel of CDC vaccine advisers \u201cspent hours elevating these theories\u201d about vaccines \u201cthat are not really based in solid evidence or high-quality studies,\u201d Scott said. \u201cThey manufactured doubt about established vaccines, entertained all this speculation without any evidence \u2014 that\u2019s the real damage.\u201d<\/p>\n Levi, responding to that criticism, said: \u201cFor the first time in a long time we are issuing objective, evidence-based immunization recommendations through ACIP with honest and transparent discussion of the benefits, risks, and uncertainties.\u201d<\/p>\n As the panel weighed whether to delay the hepatitis B shot given to most newborns, H\u00f8eg, a senior adviser for clinical sciences at the FDA, questioned whether the vaccine is safe. \u201cWe should have some humility and consider that we may not know all of the potential safety issues,\u201d she said to the CDC panel.<\/p>\n Widespread evidence<\/a> shows that the hepatitis B newborn dose is safe and that the shot has very few side effects. Starting in 1991, the CDC recommended<\/a> that the first of three shots of hepatitis B vaccine be given to infants shortly after birth. The move virtually eliminated the potentially fatal disease among American children. Babies infected with the virus at birth have a 90% chance<\/a> of developing chronic hepatitis B.<\/p>\n In academic journals, H\u00f8eg has disclosed receiving payment<\/a> from the Brownstone Institute but did not specify the amount<\/a>. She has described Tucker as \u201ca good friend<\/a>.\u201d H\u00f8eg did not respond to a request for comment for this article.<\/p>\n In an email, the FDA\u2019s Prasad said that he \u201chas received no money from Brownstone or any person(s) affiliated\u201d and that all his content published on its website \u201cwas republished from his own personal Substack.\u201d<\/p>\n Tucker said he has not advised Prasad or H\u00f8eg on vaccines since they became FDA officials. He described the latest CDC vaccine panel meeting as \u201ca breath of fresh air.\u201d<\/p>\n The Covid Contrarian Clubhouse<\/strong><\/p>\n The Brownstone Institute, on its website, previously called itself<\/a> \u201cthe spiritual child of the Great Barrington Declaration,\u201d the controversial pandemic treatise Bhattacharya, Kulldorff, and Oxford University epidemiologist Sunetra Gupta co-authored in October 2020 that argued against lockdown measures to prevent the covid virus from spreading.<\/p>\n They proposed that widespread immunity against covid could be achieved by allowing healthy people to get infected, known as herd immunity, with protective measures instituted for medically vulnerable people.<\/p>\n The proposal was criticized at the time by many public health experts and high-ranking government officials, including then-NIH Director Francis Collins, who called its authors \u201cfringe epidemiologists,\u201d according to emails<\/a> the American Institute for Economic Research obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. (Tucker was AIER editorial director<\/a> from 2017 to 2021.)<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve been willing to publish articles of some very extreme anti-vaccine people,\u201d Dorit Reiss, a professor at University of California Law-San Francisco focused on vaccine-related legal and policy issues, said of the Brownstone Institute. \u201cThey\u2019re trying to give a more respectable veneer to the result of the Great Barrington Declaration,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n In response, Tucker said: \u201cI don\u2019t think being an extremist is a good basis on which to shut somebody\u2019s thoughts down. We need provocations.\u201d<\/p>\n Tucker said he did not propose that Bhattacharya \u2014 who was a senior scholar at the institute and wrote 29 articles<\/a> from July 2021 through October 2024 \u2014 be nominated to lead the NIH. More than one-third of the articles were co-authored with Kulldorff, who became Brownstone\u2019s senior scientific director in November 2021.<\/p>\n Kulldorff told National Review<\/a> he was fired from the Harvard-affiliated Mass General Brigham hospital system and placed on leave at the university that month after he refused to be vaccinated against covid, saying he had natural immunity. Kulldorff said he was hospitalized for a covid infection<\/a> in early 2021.<\/p>\n The Brownstone Institute reported nearly $7.4 million in contributions, grants, and other payments between 2021 and 2024, with about 35% coming from tax-exempt foundations and donor-advised funds, according to an analysis of tax filings. Donor-advised funds allow people to secure tax deductions for anonymous charitable contributions. Tucker said the organization has 17,000 donors, most of them small, but declined to elaborate on funders.<\/p>\n The filings show the institute has also received funding from foundations run by people with backgrounds in business, including in tech, finance, law, and banking. According to a review of tax records, many of them have also given to anti-vaccine organizations; groups such as the Independent Medical Alliance, which promoted ineffective treatments<\/a> for covid; or prominent organizations in conservative politics, such as the Federalist Society, the Alliance Defending Freedom, and the Heritage Foundation. Brownstone in 2023 received $67,350 from Donors Trust Inc.<\/a>, which funds conservative causes.<\/p>\n As of 2024, the Brownstone Institute\u2019s board included David Stockman, a White House budget chief under President Ronald Reagan; libertarian economist Donald Boudreaux; and Roger Ver, an investor known as \u201cBitcoin Jesus<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Ver\u2019s website<\/a> said he gave more than $1 million to the institute.<\/p>\n In 2024, Ver was indicted<\/a> by a federal grand jury for allegedly committing tax fraud costing the IRS at least $48 million. On Oct. 14, the Justice Department announced<\/a> that Ver had entered into a deferred prosecution agreement to resolve federal tax charges against him and has paid the IRS nearly $50 million. The government has moved to dismiss the indictment against him.<\/p>\n \u2018People Are Very Skeptical\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Other than publishing posts on its website, the institute awards fellowships and convenes conferences and retreats. Its associates testify in front of Congress. And it holds a \u201cSupper Club\u201d series in cities throughout the country.<\/p>\n \u201cThe goal of Brownstone is to make possible wide-ranging conversations about the failure of the system and the solutions to it,\u201d Tucker said.<\/p>\n Ashley Grogg, a registered nurse and founder of Hoosiers for Medical Liberty, spoke at a Supper Club in August<\/a> on \u201cinformed decision-making,\u201d primarily about vaccines.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are very skeptical,\u201d Grogg said in an interview. \u201cHow do we trust people moving forward? Do we really think that we can trust the new leadership that\u2019s coming in to do the right thing?\u201d<\/p>\n She said she was connected to Brownstone through one of her members. Grogg said she does not think newborns should universally be given the hepatitis B vaccine shortly after birth and opposes vaccine mandates. \u201cI don\u2019t want to take anything away from anybody,\u201d but people who refuse to be vaccinated should not be \u201cwithheld from society,\u201d Grogg said.<\/p>\n In September, as the CDC\u2019s vaccine advisers met, Tucker took to the social media platform X to amplify statements questioning vaccines, including from panel members with ties to the group he created. One was Malone saying<\/a>, \u201cIt\u2019s clear that a significant population in the United States has significant concerns about vaccine policy and about vaccine mandates.\u201d Another was from Levi, who, referring to covid vaccines<\/a>, said, \u201cMost of us are extremely concerned about the safety and the lack of robust evidence both on safety and efficacy for not only pregnant women, but their babies.\u201d<\/p>\n There is strong evidence<\/a> that mRNA and non-mRNA covid vaccines are safe for pregnant women. A mother\u2019s vaccination while pregnant also helps protect newborns<\/a>. CDC data that drew upon medical records in 12 states found that nearly 90% of babies<\/a> who were hospitalized with covid had mothers who did not get the vaccine while pregnant.<\/p>\n In response to questions for this article, Levi said in an email that \u201cthe claim that there is strong evidence for the efficacy and safety of covid vaccination during pregnancy in the absence of appropriate clinical trials is not consistent with fundamental regulatory principles\u201d and that panel members \u201cwere also concerned by the potential safety signal in the single (small) clinical trial that was conducted, and other research.\u201d Malone did not respond to questions for this article.<\/p>\n Kulldorff, the ACIP chair, said the panel will review vaccines given during pregnancy, childhood, and adolescence.<\/p>\n Less than a week after the ACIP meeting in Atlanta, Levi gave a Brownstone Institute talk about artificial intelligence systems.<\/p>\n Brownstone was a sponsor this month when Children\u2019s Health Defense, a leading anti-vaccine nonprofit founded by Kennedy, held its annual conference<\/a> in Austin.<\/p>\n And during the institute\u2019s own annual conference recently in Utah, Bhattacharya was one of three people<\/a> who received its first \u201cBrownstone Prize.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI would think it represents a kind of integrity and courage in public life,\u201d Tucker said, \u201cand stand up for what you believe is the truth, even at some degree of personal risk.\u201d<\/p>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\nUSE OUR CONTENT<\/h3>\n