The head of a Colorado civil justice reform group applauded a new report that said U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is allowing “junk science” to shape U.S. public policy.
The report, called “The Junk Science Playbook,” was released by the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) and said that policy shifts at HHS mirror litigation strategies long used in mass tort cases.
“So glad ATRA is pulling back curtain on RFK Jr’s ridiculous statements like Tylenol causes autism,” Mark Hillman, chair of the Colorado Civil Justice League (CCJL) posted on X. “‘Junk Science Playbook’ report ties RFK Jr.’s HHS Agenda to Mass Tort Machine.”
Hillman is a former Colorado state senator and state treasurer who also operates a family farm on Colorado’s Eastern Plains and has written commentary on legal and public policy issues.
CCJL is a business-backed legal reform group that advocates for limits on liability, opposition to what it describes as excessive litigation, and policies aimed at stabilizing insurance and civil court costs in the state.
According to the ATRA report, changes to advisory panels, regulatory interpretations, and public health messaging could weaken long-standing liability frameworks that protect vaccine manufacturers and other health care innovators from expansive lawsuits. ATRA said that trial attorneys often rely on evolving regulatory positions to bolster claims in court, and that federal policy shifts can directly influence litigation trends.
Based in Washington, D.C., ATRA was founded in 1986 and advocates for changes to civil justice laws at the state and federal levels.
The group’s report points specifically to the stability of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VCIP), which was established by Congress in 1986 under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act to provide a no-fault alternative to traditional litigation while maintaining vaccine supply.
ATRA said in its report that undermining that structure could increase exposure to large-scale lawsuits.
In an Inside Health Policy interview published Jan. 12, plaintiffs’ attorney Aaron Siri said that he anticipates Kennedy “will amend the federal Vaccine Injury Table to remove vaccines that are no longer routinely recommended, which would open manufacturers to standard product-liability lawsuits, allowing injured patients to sue vaccine makers like any other company accused of failing to make a product safer or warn of known harms.”
“Once the Vaccine Injury Table is amended to remove the vaccines that are no longer routinely recommended, every attorney in the country will be able to handle vaccine injury claims in the same manner as injury claims from any other product,” Siri said, reported Inside Health Policy.
Siri is managing partner of Siri & Glimstad LLP and “represented Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. during his presidential campaign,” Fortune reported in Dec. 2024. That report also said Siri helped Kennedy interview candidates to work at HHS.
Ross Marchand, executive director of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA), said such changes to VCIP could disrupt supply and discourage innovation.
“The main danger with proposed changes affecting the Vaccine Injury Table is that they would bring back the pre-VICP status quo of nonstop litigation that bankrupted vaccine manufacturers and disrupted supplies,” Marchand told Patient Daily earlier this week. “While it’s easy to only focus on regulations coming from the executive branch—especially after the recent FDA fiasco involving Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine—out-of-control litigation is basically regulation by the judiciary.”
“If every vaccine maker is sued out of existence, there will be zero incentive to bring new products to market,” said Marchand. “That’s terrible for patients and sets an awful precedent for other industries, which have benefitted from various tort reforms that have made it easier to do business. Lawmakers should maintain liability protections and keep American innovation moving forward.”
