Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on vaccines: what the evidence says · JRE #1999

“And it was killing one out of – killing or giving severe brain damage to one in 300 kids. And it was pulled in the United States. It was pulled in Europe. But Bill Gates still gives it to 161 million African children every year.”

What the evidence says

Whole-cell DTP vaccine was used in the United States from the 1940s through the 1990s; U.S. health authorities (the Institute of Medicine, per CDC/ACIP) did conclude the whole-cell pertussis component was causally linked to rare acute encephalopathy, and CDC confirms no whole-cell DTP vaccine is currently licensed in the U.S., having been fully replaced by the acellular DTaP vaccine in the 1990s because of safety concerns. However, the transition was a phased shift to a lower-reactogenicity product as it became available, not a recall or ban triggered by a documented 1-in-300 death/brain-damage rate; that specific ratio does not appear in CDC, WHO, or peer-reviewed estimates of serious whole-cell DTP adverse events. CDC's own cited postlicensure surveillance (Japan, 1970-1974) found acute encephalopathy/encephalitis (including deaths) at a rate of about 7.6 cases per 10 million doses under whole-cell DTP, roughly 1 in 1.3 million, several orders of magnitude rarer than 1 in 300. Whole-cell DTP-containing vaccines remain WHO-prequalified and are still used in many low- and middle-income countries, including through Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (which the Gates Foundation helps fund), because international health bodies continue to judge their benefit-risk profile favorable given pertussis's high fatality risk in unvaccinated infants; this reflects ongoing global vaccine policy, not a product banned for a proven safety reason and then covertly redirected to Africa. The claim mixes an accurate underlying fact (the U.S. did move away from whole-cell DTP) with a fabricated injury rate and an inaccurate characterization of why and how the transition occurred and of current WHO/Gavi-supported immunization programs.

1. Prevention of Pertussis, Tetanus, and Diphtheria with Vaccines in the United States: Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), MMWR · government
2. Pertussis chapter, Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases (Pink Book), CDC · government
3. Pertussis, WHO fact sheet · government