Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas and the Republican candidate for the US Senate, is aligning himself with the Make America Healthy Again (Maha) movement by investigating pediatricians for giving vaccines – actions that could further restrict access to vaccines as deadly outbreaks unfold. Paxton announced he would investigate an alleged conspiracy between pediatricians, vaccine makers and insurance companies in January, and at least one Texas pediatrician now says she is under investigation. Paxton linked his efforts to a campaign against vaccines from Donald Trump and Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and directly referenced the Maha movement in his announcement.
The president endorsed Paxton’s Senate run in May. Pointing to a sweeping collusion that “illegally incentivized” doctors to administer vaccines, Paxton alleges that the pharmaceutical and insurance industries were attempting to “bribe” medical providers. He also launched an investigation into the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), accusing them in August of potentially recommending vaccines for financial gain – referencing a lawsuit the AAP filed earlier this year to halt sweeping changes to the childhood immunization scheduleand once again invoking Trump and Kennedy’s moves on vaccines.
A new law in Taxes makes it easier for parents to request school vaccine exemptions, as the rate of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination falls in the state. Only 93.3% of kindergarteners in Texas are now fully vaccinated against measles. Pediatricians are one of the lowest-paid medical specialties and “barely break even” on vaccines, said Marjan Linnell, a pediatrician and president-elect of the Texas Pediatric Society.
But Kennedy has made millions suing vaccine makers. He’s made at least $2.5m in referrals for lawsuits related to vaccine side effects to law firm Wisner Baum. He had a 10% contingency stake in a Gardasil vaccine lawsuit that reportedly settled for about $50m in June.
In Kennedy’s confirmation hearing to become HHS secretary, Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, asked Kennedy about these potential conflicts of interest and whether he would continue receiving money from lawsuits while overseeing (and after leaving) HHS. Kennedy initially said he would stop profiting from vaccine lawsuits, but he later filed an amended ethics disclosure saying he would give the money to one of his sons. Even when her health department receives vaccines for free from the state, it only receives about $13 for the costs of administering the vaccine.
It’s way more than six bucks for me to do that in a health department, and I’m a low-cost, low-overhead entity.” Wells continued: “I’m taking a loss every time I give a vaccine, but it’s the right thing to do.” Primary care doctors have high levels of trust, as does the AAP – with both ranked as more trustworthy than federal health agencies in a February survey. Ken Paxton, I think, is desperate. He very well may lose to Talarico, and this is a stupid, desperate thing to do.” Despite their broad popularity, pediatricians have frequently been targeted by anti-vaccine activists – including recent claims from Children’s Health Defense that they’ve reported doctors in Lubbock to the Texas medical board for treating measles patients.
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