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NIH hospital board chair warns RFK Jr. clinic could erode trust
Ars Technica reports NIH Clinical Center board chair Jack Leslie said a vaccine-injury clinic ribbon-cutting by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could undermine trust in research at the hospital.
The chair of the board that oversees the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center warned that a vaccine-injury clinic ceremony led by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could damage public confidence in research at the hospital, Ars Technica reported1.
At a recent board meeting, chair Jack Leslie spent about six minutes criticizing Kennedy after a surprise ribbon-cutting at the Bethesda, Maryland, hospital, according to Ars, citing a videocast of the session1. The ceremony included people who said they had been injured by vaccines, sitting behind placards that read "vaccine injured," the report said1.
Leslie said some might prefer the board stay silent, but that silence would be a failing, Ars reported1. He said he had no objection to studying possible vaccine injuries, adding that serious reactions are rare but real and that people who believe they were hurt should be taken seriously1.
Hospital CEO Jonathan Green, sitting beside Leslie, said NIH has studied vaccine safety and efficacy for decades and that Kennedy's clinic is a new protocol at the existing vaccine evaluation center, Ars reported1. Green said the protocol still needs scientific and ethical review before it can be implemented and that it did not come with more funding or clinic space1.
Leslie objected to the ceremony's signs, saying they announced a conclusion research had not reached, according to Ars1. He argued that if studies later found harm, critics would dismiss them as the work of a secretary who has long argued vaccines are dangerous, and if they found none, patients would be told the clinic was a sham1.
"Trust is slow to build and quick to lose," Leslie said, according to Ars1. He said the Clinical Center's standing rests on confidence that research is designed to find the truth, not confirm a conclusion in advance, and that if people believe hospital research can be steered toward a political answer, the damage would not stop at vaccines1.
Ars did not report a response from Kennedy or HHS to Leslie's remarks. After the statement, the board unanimously endorsed the comments in a voice vote, Ars reported1.
