{"id":203663,"date":"2026-03-11T01:03:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T01:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/rfk-jrs-pick-to-review-covid-vaccines-authored-misleading-research-experts-say-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T01:03:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T01:03:31","slug":"rfk-jrs-pick-to-review-covid-vaccines-authored-misleading-research-experts-say-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/rfk-jrs-pick-to-review-covid-vaccines-authored-misleading-research-experts-say-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"RFK Jr\u2019s pick to review Covid vaccines authored misleading research, experts say – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

HHS calls MIT professor \u2018more than qualified\u2019 for advisory panel and calls \u2018attacks\u2019 on him \u2018politically motivated\u2019
The MIT professor who has been appointed by Robert F Kennedy Jr to review the safety of Covid-19 vaccines<\/a> has failed to meet basic scientific standards in his own research on the topic, according to more than a dozen scientists and public health experts.
Retsef Levi, an operations management professor, is a member of the US health department\u2019s vaccine advisory committee (ACIP), which is meeting later this month and \u2013 many experts fear \u2013 could seek to roll back recommendations<\/a> on who should receive Covid-19 vaccines.
Levi, who holds Israeli and American citizenship, has claimed that Covid-19 vaccines are the \u201cmost failing medical product<\/a> in the history of medical products\u201d, despite a body of research that has shown they are safe and effective<\/a>. A modeling study published in 2022 in the prestigious medical journal the Lancet estimated that Covid-19 vaccines saved nearly 20 million lives in the first year<\/a> they were available.
He holds a coveted seat on the ACIP, which was once considered the \u201cinternational gold standard for vaccine decision-making<\/a>\u201d but has faced criticism after Kennedy fired 17 of the group\u2019s voting members<\/a> \u2013 including doctors, immunologists and epidemiologists \u2013 and replaced them with individuals who have been criticized for undermining public trust in the safety and efficacy of many vaccines<\/a>, without any basis in fact<\/a>.
A Guardian review of Levi\u2019s record found that more than a dozen experts have criticized research papers he has authored on the topic for being misleading. Some experts also said they believed Levi, who is not a physician or vaccine expert and now heads ACIP\u2019s special immunizations work group on the Covid-19<\/a> vaccines, approaches the topic with a pre-determined agenda, instead of a spirit of true scientific inquiry.
In a statement to the Guardian, Levi, 55, said that criticism of his work was not valid. \u201cMy papers are factual, balanced, rigorous and accurately contextualize their findings,\u201d he said. \u201cMy record, expertise and experience speak for themselves.\u201d
Dr Sharon Alroy-Preis, who served as head of Israel\u2019s public health services during the pandemic, and stepped down from that role earlier this year, told the Guardian she could recall reading a draft of a paper Levi wrote in 2021, which suggested a correlation between Israel\u2019s vaccination rate and emergency calls received by first responders in Israel that involved cardiac arrest.
\u201cWe took it very seriously at the ministry of health. We invited him to a meeting to thoroughly look at the research,\u201d she said. \u201cAt the meeting it was clear that he was not familiar with the way the data is collected and potential wrong interpretations. What was more troubling: he didn\u2019t seem to care.\u201d
She added: \u201cHaving no answers to our professional questions he continued to insist he was right and \u2018on to something\u2019. It was clear he came with an agenda.\u201d
Levi did not comment on this specific criticism.
Nadav Davidovitch, an epidemiologist and public health physician who was on a national advisory committee in Israel during the pandemic, said Levi was one of a handful of prominent individuals from prestigious institutions who sought to share their opinions on how to tackle the pandemic even though they were not experts in vaccines, epidemiology or infectious disease.
Davidovitch, a fellow at the Hastings Center for Bioethics, and member of faculty of medicine at Bar Ilan University, said he believed Levi became \u201cmore radical\u201d as the pandemic went on, specifically in regards to children being vaccinated, because he seemed to believe the government was doing \u201cdangerous things\u201d.
\u201cWhat was different with him was that after a year or so he became very vocal on social media and attracted people who were even more conspiratorial than he was,\u201d he said.
Davidovitch said he believes the Covid-19 vaccines saved millions of lives, though there could also be side effects, and said the medical establishment was not always transparent enough \u2013 not because of conspiracy theories, but because doctors were racing against time during the pandemic.
\u201cLevi was very engaged. He is very eloquent and well-connected, and he also got the ear of people like Robert Kennedy,\u201d he said. \u201cThe issues of transparency and trust were a major lesson learned as experts seek to improve their response in future public health crises.\u201d
Levi defended his credentials in a statement to the Guardian. \u201cI have over two decades of experience as a professor at MIT developing advanced analytical methods to evaluate complex risk\u2013benefit trade-offs in healthcare and public health systems, manufacturing systems of biologics, as well as pharmacovigilance and drug safety \u2013 to name a few,\u201d he said. He added that he also had \u201cextensive experience working with clinicians, regulators and industry experts\u201d.
Levi\u2019s research citing Israeli emergency calls to first responders \u2013 which was thoroughly criticized by the Israeli ministry of health in a paper<\/a> \u2013 was later peer-reviewed and ultimately published in 2022 by Scientific Reports, where it would become one of the most widely cited studies<\/a> to suggest vaccines could be causing harm. It still garnered intense criticism online.
One paper<\/a>, which was signed by 10 scientists but not peer-reviewed, called on Scientific Reports to retract the paper, saying it was the \u201cperfect demonstration\u201d of a phenomenon that had developed during the Covid-19 pandemic, in which publications were rushed \u201cpotentially without rigorous peer review\u201d.
The authors wrote: \u201cThe paper does not pass basic statistical and epidemiological review, which brings into question whether the findings do indeed \u2018raise concerns regarding vaccine-induced undetected severe cardiovascular side-effects\u2019 \u2026 or whether the reported weak correlations are simply the result of inadequate and inappropriate methodological choices.\u201d
In response to some of the criticism, Levi told FactCheck.org<\/a> in 2022 that the paper\u2019s findings were \u201cmerely correlation and NOT providing causality\u201d, and said more studies should be done. Scientific Reports did investigate the paper and Levi was ultimately forced to issue a correction<\/a> that cited several errors. But it was never retracted.
Lonni Besan\u00e7on, an assistant professor in data visualization at Link\u00f6ping University in Sweden who has been called a \u201cresearch integrity sleuth<\/a>\u201d, said the paper failed to distinguish between the effects of Covid-19 itself and effects of the vaccine.
\u201cDespite this, it surely had an impact of [promoting] vaccine hesitancy,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is the 41st most shared paper of all time \u2026 which is shameful.\u201d
In 2023, Levi tweeted that there was \u201cmounting and indisputable\u201d evidence that mRNA vaccines \u2013 the technology used in the Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines \u2013 \u201ccause serious harm, including death\u201d. Besan\u00e7on said the claim was unsubstantiated and harmful to science and public health. Indeed many believe the use of mRNA technology represents a new frontier in vaccine science<\/a>.
At least one other paper Levi published about Covid-19 \u2013 which has not been peer-reviewed and found that recipients of the Pfizer vaccine<\/a> had a roughly 40% higher all-cause mortality than Moderna over 12 months \u2013 was heavily criticized by public health experts who were asked to read it by the Guardian. The paper was co-authored by Joseph Ladapo<\/a>, the surgeon general of Florida who has been called an \u201cunexpected source of vaccine misinformation\u201d<\/a> and once compared vaccine mandates to slavery. Ladapo has hit back at critics, including at the Food and Drug Administration<\/a> (FDA), and said his attempts to get more \u201chonesty and transparency\u201d from the government has been met with \u201ca word salad of pandering and gaslighting\u201d.
\u201cThe pattern across Levi\u2019s work is using study designs that can generate associations but cannot establish causation, then having those findings amplified as evidence of vaccine harm, sometimes even when he acknowledges the limitations himself,\u201d said Jess Steier, executive director of the Center for Unbiased Science & Health<\/a>. \u201cSomeone who repeatedly chooses study designs that can\u2019t answer causal questions, and whose work gets weaponized to support conclusions he admits it can\u2019t support, is not who you want driving vaccine policy.\u201d
Elizabeth Jacobs, professor emerita at the University of Arizona and a founding member of Defend Public Health, said the Pfizer paper was \u201cmessy\u201d and \u201csloppy\u201d and difficult to evaluate because certain data was missing. She said the work did not take into account pre-existing health conditions, which she called \u201ca major red flag that the study isn\u2019t scientifically rigorous\u201d.
\u201cDr Levi has made a number of easily disproved statements about his baseless belief that mRNA Covid-19 vaccines are harmful, despite having little or no education, training or experience in public health,\u201d Jacobs said. \u201cIf Mr Kennedy were serious about objective evaluations of the data, Dr Levi would not be included in any assessment of Covid-19 vaccine safety, let alone leading it. His biases are clear, insurmountable and disqualifying.\u201d
Levi disputes the claim that he lacks relevant expertise.
The Guardian asked Levi to address all of these critiques of his work. In response, Levi said in a statement: \u201cThe mentioned criticism on my research has been addressed through formal peer-review processes, with all retraction requests, including the one by the Israeli Ministry of Health, denied by Scientific Reports.\u201d
A spokesperson for HHS said \u201cattacks\u201d on Levi were \u201cclearly politically motivated and ignore his substantial credentials\u201d.
\u201cHe is more than qualified to serve on ACIP. Secretary Kennedy appointed members who are willing to ask hard questions and follow the evidence, which is exactly what restores public trust, not rubber-stamping recommendations,\u201d the spokesperson added.
The published agenda for ACIP\u2019s 18-19 March meeting indicates the committee will focus on Covid-19 vaccine injuries, long Covid, and potential changes to vaccine recommendation methodologies.
Dr Jake Scott, an infectious diseases specialist and clinical associate professor at Stanford University School of Medicine who is a nationally recognized vaccine expert, said he fears ACIP will use data that has not been peer-reviewed or publicly released \u2013 like an unsubstantiated allegation by a former FDA official <\/a>that at least 10 children died from Covid vaccination \u2013 to justify restrictions on vaccine recommendations, even in cases when real-world data does not merit the limits.
\u201cWhat concerns me is not that someone is reviewing the data, but that the person who is reviewing it has said mRNA vaccines should be removed from the market,\u201d he said. \u201cThe question becomes, is this a genuine scientific inquiry or a review with a pre-determined decision?\u201d
Scott said he was concerned not just as a vaccine research expert, but as a doctor who was on the frontlines of the pandemic. He said he had lost more than 100 patients \u2013 people in nursing homes and others who were vulnerable \u2013 and then saw the \u201cdramatic change\u201d that occurred once vaccines were introduced. After that, he witnessed a sharp drop-off in Covid-19 associated deaths.
\u201cIn 2021 the vast majority \u2013 nearly all \u2013 of my patients who I lost to Covid had chosen to be unvaccinated, and that was tragic in its own way,\u201d Scott said. \u201cMany were younger. I lost parents who had relatively young kids, who would not have died had they been vaccinated.\u201d
Scott added: \u201cThere is so much misinformation about Covid vaccines in general, so many extreme fringe theories that continue to fuel doubt and mistrust in vaccines, in public health, and in doctors. It is heartbreaking and mind blowing and hard to put into words how high the stakes are.\u201d<\/p>\n

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HHS calls MIT professor \u2018more than qualified\u2019 for advisory panel and calls \u2018attacks\u2019 on him \u2018politically motivated\u2019The MIT professor who has been appointed by Robert F Kennedy Jr to review the safety of Covid-19 vaccines has failed to meet basic scientific standards in his own research on the topic, according to more than a dozen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":203664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-203663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}