RFK Jr. continues to collect fees from lawsuits against Merck over HPV vaccines: shots

RFK Jr. earned $856,559 in referral fees from the law firm Wisner Baum, which is suing Merck over claims its HPV vaccine caused cervical cancer, according to new filings with the Office of Government Ethics.

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Although Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is confirmed as the next health and human resources secretary, he still plans to collect fees from Wisner Baum, a law firm that is suing Merck over allegations that the drug company failed to properly warn consumers about the risks of its HPV. vaccine, Gardasil, according to new filings with the Office of Government Ethics.

Kennedy will collect the fees only if Wisner Baum wins, and only for cases that are not against the United States or in which the United States is not a party and does not have “a direct or substantial interest,” according to filings.

“Pursuant to the referral agreement, I am entitled to receive 10% of fees awarded in contingency fee cases referred to the firm,” Kennedy wrote in his signed ethics agreement. “I am not trying these cases, I am not an attorney in the cases, and I will not provide representation in connection with the cases during my appointment to the position of secretary.”

The filings, submitted to the US Office of Government Ethics as part of the confirmation process, detail Kennedy’s many financial holdings and interests. If he becomes HHS secretary and continues to collect fees, he would be able to potentially profit from vaccine lawsuits while also regulating drug manufacturers and exercising authority over federal vaccine policy.

“RFK Jr’s ethics agreement is inadequate because it does not address the bias created by his continued financial interest in the Merck litigation,” Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, who specializes in government ethics, wrote for NPR.

Neither a spokeswoman for Kennedy nor Trump’s transition team immediately returned repeated requests for comment.

The documents and their link to the Gardasil vaccine case were first reported by New York Times.

Senate Finance Committee has scheduled a hearing on Wednesday, January 29, to consider Kennedy’s nomination to lead HHS.

At Kennedy’s profile page on Wisner Baum’s website, he is first identified as “co-counsel with Wisner Baum on the Gardasil case,” and he has used his social media platforms and through his nonprofit to promote the case and his concerns with vaccine against the human papillomavirus.

HPV is a very common sexually transmitted virus that can cause cancer later in life. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend two doses of the HPV vaccine at ages 11 to 12 and says it provides safe, effective and lasting protection against HPV infections.

According to Kennedy’s personal financial disclosure report, he earned $856,559 in referral fees from the law firm. That’s in addition to $326,056 in salary and benefits he earned from the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense, an organization Kennedy chaired that has been influential in the anti-vaccine movement. The nonprofit has filed nearly 30 federal and state legal proceedings since 2020, including some aimed at the federal agencies he would oversee at HHS. Many of the legal actions taken by CHD challenged vaccines and public health mandates.

According to the filing, Kennedy took an unpaid leave of absence from the organization in April 2023 when he declared his candidacy for the presidencyand that he resigned from CHD with effect from December 2024.

The filing also shows that Kennedy declared an $8,848,402 share in the partnership profits of the law firm of Kennedy and Madonna, LLP, which has been renamed Madonna and Madonna, LLP. The filing says he received his “final partnership payout in May 2024.” He also earned money from another law firm, publishing and various other speaking and endorsement fees.

Edited by Scott Hensley and Jane Greenhalgh