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HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.<\/span>Jim LoScalzo\/CNP\/Zuma<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Longtime and controversial<\/span> anti-vaccine activist David Geier is still working at the Department of Health and Human Services\u2014and the agency is still refusing to specify exactly what he\u2019s doing. In mid-April, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told the Senate Finance Committee that he would give them a copy of Geier\u2019s contract. According to a member of the committee, he has still not.<\/p>\n \u201cThree weeks after Secretary Kennedy committed<\/a> to providing details regarding David Geier\u2019s work at HHS (something he committed to doing within 3 days), our office has yet to hear from HHS on anything related,\u201d says a spokesperson for Senator Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-N.M.).\u00a0<\/p>\n Autism advocates have called Geier \u201ca quack.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Geier and his late father Mark, a physician who eventually lost his license, spent years presenting themselves as experts on alleged vaccine injuries and pursuing discredited and dangerous \u201ctreatments\u201d for autism in children, including Lupron, a drug that inhibits testosterone production<\/a> and is used to chemically castrate sex offenders.\u00a0<\/p>\n From Mark\u2019s home in DC\u2019s Maryland suburbs, the pair presented themselves as experts on autism<\/a>, running organizations with serious-sounding names, including the Institute for Chronic Illness and the Genetic Centers of America. Their work has been widely panned: in 2003, the American Academy of Pediatrics said a study they published\u2014which purported to show a link between thimerosal, a preservative previously used in some vaccines, and autism\u2014not only \u201ccontains numerous conceptual and scientific flaws, omissions of fact, inaccuracies, and misstatements,\u201d but made inappropriate use of data from HHS\u2019s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. For another paper in the journal Autoimmunity Review, <\/em>which was subsequently retracted, the Geiers\u2019 apparent review board, journalist Brian Deer wrote<\/a>, consisted of the Geiers themselves, Mark Geier\u2019s wife, along with \u201ctwo of Dr Geier\u2019s business associates; and two mothers of autistic children, one of whom has publicly acknowledged that her son is a patient\/subject of Dr Geier, and the other of whom is plaintiff in three pending vaccine injury claims.\u201d<\/p>\n Both Geier and his father were banned in 2004<\/a> from accessing the Vaccine Safety Datalink, a federal database which records adverse vaccine reactions and contains medical information on millions of Americans. At the time, a National Immunization Program official wrote in a warning letter that the men had attempted \u201cto merge data files\u201d from the VSD in a way that could have created \u201ccomplete medical records on subjects, and if so, could have increased the risk of a breach of confidentiality.\u201d\u00a0Mark Geier\u2019s Maryland medical license was revoked in August 2012<\/a> for prescribing children the synthetic hormone Lupron as a supposed autism treatment. David Geier, who has a bachelor\u2019s degree in biology but no other certifications, was himself fined $10,000 in 2011 by the Maryland medical board for practicing medicine without a license<\/a>.<\/p>\n David Geier\u2019s hiring, which was first reported by the Washington Post<\/em><\/a> in March 2025, generated serious concern among autism organizations. The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network bluntly termed him \u201ca quack<\/a>,\u201d adding that by \u201chiring David Geier, the Trump administration has abandoned its responsibility to safeguard public health and promote science.\u201d<\/p>\n The situation has also raised concerns about Geier\u2019s potential access to sensitive medical or personally identifying information. Senator Luj\u00e1n\u2019s office sent a pointed letter to Kennedy<\/a> on April 1, asking, among other things, \u201cwhat specific research questions\u201d Geier is investigating, and \u201cwhat data use agreements are in place to ensure that privacy of the data is maintained.\u201d<\/p>\n Geier\u2019s employment is just one of many concerning changes that Kennedy has made at HHS. He\u2019s also taken steps to weaken the federal vaccine court system,<\/a> and \u201cretired<\/a>\u201d every member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a key\u00a0vaccine review board, attempting to replace many of them with allies from the anti-vaccine movement. (The board remains in limbo<\/a> after a judge issued an injunction against Kennedy\u2019s appointments.) <\/p>\n Under Kennedy, the FDA also deleted a warning page<\/a> outlining debunked autism treatments. One, chelation therapy, which removes heavy metals from the body, was practiced by the Geiers<\/a>. (Some anti-vaccine activists falsely claim that vaccines impart heavy metals into the body; a separate FDA page which has not yet been removed warns against chelation therap<\/a>y for autism.)<\/p>\n This month the New York Times <\/em>reported that Kennedy has quietly continued driving what the paper described as a \u201cvast inquiry\u201d<\/a> into vaccines, again attempting to link them to autism and various autoimmune conditions\u2014theories that have been repeatedly debunked. The Times<\/em> also reported that Kennedy has publicly deemphasized his inquiry at the behest of the White House, due to fears his anti-vaccine initiative will hurt Republicans in the midterm elections.<\/p>\n Neither David Geier nor HHS responded to requests for comment about his employment. The office of Senate Finance Committee chair Senator Mike Crapo, (R-Idaho) also didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n