 | |
| Formation | 2007; 18 years ago (2007) |
|---|---|
| Founder | Eric Gladen |
| Founded at | Washington, D.C. |
| Type | Advocacy group |
| Location | |
Chief Executive Officer | Mary Holland |
Chief Operating Officer | Kraig Makohus |
Chief Financial Officer | Doug Kissell |
| Website | childrenshealthdefense |
Formerly called | World Mercury Project |
Children's Health Defense (CHD) is an American501(c)(3) nonprofit activist group mainly known foranti-vaccine advocacy and is one of the main sources ofmisinformation on vaccines.[1][2][3][4][5] Founded asWorld Mercury Project in 2007 by Eric Gladen, it was chaired by lawyerRobert F. Kennedy Jr. from 2015 to 2023.[6]
The group has campaigned against various public health programs, such as vaccination andfluoridation of drinking water.[7] The group has contributed tovaccine hesitancy in the United States, encouraging citizens and legislators to support anti-vaccine regulations and legislation,[8][9] although arguments against vaccination are contradicted by generalscientific consensus.[10][11][12][13]
The group's US$15-million budget is funded through donations from individuals (both directly and anonymized through foundations) andaffiliate marketing revenues.
The group was founded in 2007 under the name of World Mercury Project by activist Eric Gladen. Under Gladen, who produced the anti-vaccination filmTrace Amounts in 2014, World Mercury Project remained a relatively minor group. It had annual revenue of $13,000 in 2014, which jumped to $470,000 in revenue in 2015, when Kennedy joined the board. In 2018 it changed its name to Children's Health Defense.[1][14][15]
The group alleges that a large proportion of American children have conditions as diverse asautism,attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,food allergies,cancer, andautoimmune diseases due to exposure to a variety of chemicals and radiation.[16] The chemicals and radiation that the group has blamed and campaigned against includevaccines,pesticides,fluoridation of drinking water,paracetamol (acetaminophen),aluminum,wireless communications.[17][18] It has brought lawsuits targeting pesticides in food and agriculture.[19]
Alleging widespread corruption within health care research and collusion by multiple governments, the group endorsed a 2017 edition of the bookJudy Mikovits wrote about her discredited theories, with Kennedy writing the foreword.[7] Kennedy's bookThe Real Anthony Fauci, published in 2021, repeats several discredited myths about theCOVID-19 pandemic, notably about the effectiveness ofivermectin.[6] During the pandemic, the group accused the United States government of supporting research on a vaccine as part of a plan to increase revenues for thepharmaceutical industry.[16]
The growth of the group during the pandemic gave rise to international chapters, notably in Canada, Europe and Australia.[6]
Children's Health Defense is an influential anti-vaccine organization due to the prominence of its chairman,Robert F. Kennedy Jr.[8][9][7] In April 2023, Kennedy took leave when he started his campaign ascandidate for the position of President of the United States. As a non-profit group, Children's Health Defense may not endorse political candidates, but in November 2023, the group gave its first Defender Award to Kennedy for "his courage and steadfast commitment to truth and liberty".[20]
Despite Kennedy's claims that he is not against vaccines,[7][21][22] several critics point out he and his organization spread common anti-vaccine arguments as part of their core messages. According toDavid Gorski, the World Mercury project was "a group dedicated to fear mongering over mercury invaccines as a cause of autism and health problems". Kennedy has stated the media and governments are engaged in a conspiracy to deny that vaccines cause autism.[9][23] Other misinformation promoted by Children's Health Defense is a conspiracy theory in relation to theGreat Reset that claims that elites, including Bill Gates, plan to take over the United States and establish aMarxist high-control regime.[24]
Kennedy met withDonald Trump in January 2017. While Kennedy claimed the President agreed to establish a commission to study the risks allegedly associated with vaccines, government officials denied any decision was taken and nothing subsequently came of it.[25][26]
On February 15, 2017, with other anti-vaccination activists and actorRobert De Niro at his side, Kennedy challenged anybody to prove the use ofthimerosal is safe "in the amounts contained in vaccines currently being administered to American children and pregnant women", ignoring a 1999Food and Drug Administration review doing just that. Although the use of thimerosal in vaccines was phased out by 2001 (with one exception), this mercury compound is still often mentioned by anti-vaccination groups.[9][27][28] Overwhelming evidence indicates that vaccines are safe and effective.[9][23]
On May 8, 2019, while some areas in the United States were struggling with a resurgence ofmeasles due to low vaccination rates,Kathleen Kennedy Townsend,Joseph P. Kennedy, andMaeve Kennedy McKean publicly stated that while their relative Robert had championed many admirable causes, he "has helped to spread dangerous misinformation over social media and is complicit in sowing distrust of the science behind vaccines."[29]
Kennedy's compensation has risen with the nonprofit's revenue. According to federal tax returns filed by the group, his salary was $131,000 in 2017, rising to $345,000 in 2020, and eventually totaling $500,000 for 2021 and 2022.[30][31] In 2023, Kennedy was paid $326,000 for 15 weeks of work before taking leave to run for president.[32] However, after being nominated for the position of Health and Human Services secretary following the2024 United States elections, documentation filed with theU.S. Office of Government Ethics indicating those amounts corresponded to his after-tax income rather than gross income. His actual income from Children's Health Defense was thus $836,571 in 2022, while the 2023 figure of $326,056 appears to be correct. Income from previous years was not corrected.[33]
After Kennedy's departure, Mary Holland was appointed as Chief Executive Officer.[34] Kennedy later became theU.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services on February 13, 2025.
Children's Health Defense petitioned theFood and Drug Administration in May 2021 to have authorization of all COVID-19 vaccines resciended, and to refuse to authorize any other vaccine protecting against the disease in the future.[35][36] The petition was filed by Kennedy and advisory board member Meryl Nass, a doctor who saw her license suspended by the Maine Board of Licensure in Medicine in 2022.[37][38][39] Kennedy and Nass advocated for the use of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine instead of vaccination, even though those two drugs were already known at the time to be ineffective against COVID.[35]
The organization uses social media and internet advertising to propagate anti-vaccination messages, targeting young parents and minorities in the United States.[1][2] During theCOVID-19 pandemic, those communications attempted to downplay the risk posed by the virus, to argue the new vaccines are dangerous, and to undermine public health authorities. TheCenter for Countering Digital Hate identifies the group as one of the leaders of the anti-vaccination movement online.[3] In August 2022, the organization's accounts onMeta platforms,Facebook andInstagram, were terminated for repeatedly breaching the platforms' policies.[40] WhileInstagram removed Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s account from its platform in February 2021, it did not take any measure against the Children's Health Defense account. Between Instagram and Facebook, the organization had a reach of 300,000 subscribers in 2021.[41][42][43]
The organization also organized rallies against public health measures aiming at mitigating the impact of the pandemic, such as the one in Washington on January 23, 2022. This particular demonstration featured other leaders of the American anti-vaccination movement such asDel Bigtree; both Kennedy and Bigtree compared vaccine mandates to oppression inNazi-occupied countries during World War II. The demonstration was also attended by a group from neo-fascist organizationProud Boys.[44][45][46]
CHD targets Black Americans with messaging linking COVID-19 vaccination with theTuskegee Syphilis Study and other instances when ethical violations have been committed against minorities as part of medical studies. Such interventions are likely to hurt the Black community by increasing vaccine hesitancy within that vulnerable population.[47] Echoing other actors in the anti-vaccination movement andNation of Islam, Children's Health Defense claims that the United States government seeks to harm ethnic minorities by prioritizing them for COVID vaccines. The conspiracy theory is elaborated upon in an hour-long video productionMedical Racism: The New Apartheid released in March 2021 by Children's Health Defense and Kennedy. The video also contains recycled anti-vaccination stories about autism,Bill Gates and theCenters for Disease Control. Like other such conspiracy theory videos, it inserts true historical events into its narrative to make its fantastic claims appear more believable.[1][48]
The organization's social media channels have been shown to amplify conspiracy theories common to other anti-vaccination groups as well asQAnon, such as the "Great Reset" and the "Deep state".[3][49][50] A regular output of videos under the heading of "CHD TV" presents their audience with commentary and interviews related to various conspiracy theories.[51]
A study found Children's Health Defense was one of major buyers of anti-vaccine Facebook advertising in December 2018 and February 2019, the other beingStop Mandatory Vaccination. Heavily targeting women and young couples, the advertising highlighted the alleged risks of vaccines and asked for donations.[2][52] According to an analysis by NBC News, the group is one of three major sources of false claims on vaccination shared on the internet, the other two being the fake news siteNatural News and the website Stop Mandatory Vaccination.[4] Facebook subsequently refused to carry anti-vaccination advertising from the group.[53][1]
Children's Health Defense said that the efficacy of its non-advertising Facebook campaigns has been greatly affected by the platformtaking additional measures against misinformation in 2019. In a lawsuit filed with theUnited States District Court for the Northern District of California in August 2020, against Facebook and four fact-checking services, the group said the viewership of some of its posts on vaccination and5G wireless was reduced by 95% after they were labelled as misinformation. Even though those messages were allowed to be posted by the group and shared by users, Children Health Defense argues that labelling them as misinformation amounts tocensorship; they allege their messages are presented merely as opinions rather than information and as such, cannot be characterized as misinformation.[7][53][54][55] The organization is seeking $5 million in damages.[1]
CHD's film division produced the 2024 video productionVaxxed III: Authorized To Kill. Promoted as a sequel of the 2016Vaxxed, it presents testimonies of people who were allegedly injured following being vaccinated during the COVID-19 pandemic.[56][57]
In January 2023, CHD filed a complaint alleging the efforts of major news outlets to limit the spread of COVID-19 misinformation amount to a violation to theSherman Antitrust Act. The complaint targetsThe Washington Post, theBBC,Associated Press andReuters. Along with CHD and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the plaintiffs include other major spreaders of misinformation, includingJoseph Mercola,Ty and Charlene Bollinger,Erin Elizabeth, Ben Tapper,Ben Swann andJim Hoft. They present themselves as "online news publishers" victimized by media policies aiming at providing accurate reporting of COVID-related information.[58][59] The case will be heard byUnited States District Court for the Northern District of Texas judgeMatthew Kacsmaryk.[60]
During the2025 Southwest United States measles outbreak CHD published a video interview of theMennonite parents of a six-year-old Texas girl who, in February 2025, became the first child to die of measles in the United States in around 20 years. The father said that "measles are good for the body". The mother told other parents regarding themeasles, mumps and rubella vaccine: "Don't do the shots" with measles being "not as bad as they're making it out to be."[61] The Centers for Disease Control says "Getting MMR vaccine is much safer than getting measles, mumps, or rubella".[62]
CHD hosted a deceptive web site on vaccines and autism visually identical to a public-information CDC web page on the same topic. While the CDC page was clear on the absence of autism risks, the CHD pages described debunked anti-vaccine autism research mixed in with medically accepted research. The CHD web page, which featured the CDC banner and logo and the headline "Vaccine Safety", included testimonials from anti-vaccine parents, e.g. one titled "Mother of 3: I Will Never Vaccinate Again". The deceptive page was removed in March, 2025 at the request of the U.S. government.[63]
From $13,000 in annual revenue in 2014, World Mercury Project brought in $470,000 in revenue in 2015, when Kennedy joined the organization. Its revenues increased to $1.1 million in 2018. With the group becoming a major disinformation hub during theCOVID-19 pandemic, its revenue reached $6.8 million in 2020, $15 million in 2021, counting among its new donorsLimeWire's founderMark Gorton,[6][64] and $23.5 million in 2022.[31] With Kennedy on leave from his position for most of 2023, the group's revenue fell to $16 million.[65]
Children's Health Defense has received substantial anonymized funding viadonor-advised funds. According toRolling Stone, the Fidelity Charitable fund channelled $1 million to Children's Health Defense and some of its state chapters in 2021–2022; the Vanguard Charitable fund gave $1.5 million to the national group and its California chapter between 2020 and 2022; and the Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust fund channelled $680,000 to the national group and its New York chapter in 2020 and 2021. Another donor-advised fund, theNational Christian Foundation, gave a total of $630,000 to the group in 2020 and 2021. Smaller anonymized donations received during the COVID-19 pandemic includedFairfield County’s Community Foundation ($200,000) and theChicago Community Trust ($100,000).[66]
The organization receives a portion of the sales ofTy Bollinger's anti-vaccination video series, which it promotes.[67] Despite its messaging impeding the government's efforts to limit the spread of COVID-19, Children's Health Defense received $145,400 in federally backed small business loans through thePaycheck Protection Program fromJPMorgan Chase in 2020.[24][68][69] The 2021 tax return for Children's Health Defense indicates that Kennedy was paid above $500,000 for his services as chairman and chiefcounsel for the organization.[70]
Children's Health Defense initiated a number of court cases, with little success. Requests for contributions to its litigation funds are a major component of its fundraising activities.[58]
Given the impact they had during the height of theCOVID-19 pandemic, ethicistArthur Caplan commented that funding Children's Health Defense and similar groups might have grave consequence in future epidemics.[31]
Children's Health Defense has initiated a number of court cases against governments, agencies, and media companies, all of which are pending or have been dismissed.
On April 19, 2019, the Kings County (New York) Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit in which Robert Krakow, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Patricia Finn of Children's Health Defense represented five parents of unvaccinated children protesting the decision byNew York City authorities to impose mandatorymeasles-mumps-rubella vaccinations for residents in parts of Williamsburg, New York, as a response to theepidemic of measles in that area. The lawsuit was filed four days earlier against the New York City Department of Health and Human Hygiene and its commissioner.[71][72] In his ruling, Judge Lawrence Knipel said that the arguments presented by the plaintiffs amounted to little more than "unsupported, bald faced opinion". Responding to Children's Health Defense's claims that the city's reaction to a "garden-variety annual measles outbreak" was excessive, the judge pointed out that the documents filed as evidence in fact demonstrated otherwise. He concluded that "the unvarnished truth is that these diagnoses represent the most significant spike in incidences of measles in the United States in many years and that the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn is at its epicenter. It has already begun to spread to remote locations."[72][73]
On August 17, 2020, Children's Health Defense suedPoynter Institute for Media Studies, Facebook, and Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, claiming thatPolitifact censored a truthful public health statement about vaccines through itsfact checking. The case was dismissed for failure to state an actionable claim on June 30, 2021.[74] Children's Health Defense has appealed.
On August 16, 2021, Children's Health Defense suedRutgers because of their vaccine mandate. A federal court dismissed the suit on September 23, 2022.[75]
On August 31, 2021, Children's Health Defense sued theFood and Drug Administration (FDA) for approving the COVID-19 vaccine for children. The federal court dismissed the complaint with prejudice for lack of jurisdiction on January 12, 2023.[76] CHD has appealed.
On January 10, 2023, Children's Health Defense sued Reuters, AP, BBC, and the Washington Post in an antitrust suit, claiming that these groups were working together to keep certain opinions out of the media. As of April 2023[update], the lawsuit is pending beforeJudge Kacsmaryk in Texas.[77]
On January 25, 2023,[citation needed] Children's Health Defense sued theFDA underFreedom of Information Act to force release ofVaccine Adverse Event Reporting System data.[30] The lawsuit is pending.[citation needed]
On April 12, 2023, Children's Health Defense sued theNational Institutes of Health for failing to produce documents related to correspondence between NIH researchers and individuals who contacted the agency regarding adverse events they experienced after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. The lawsuit is pending.[citation needed]
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