Pfizer, Moderna, and other vaccine stocks are falling as Trump taps anti-vaxxer RFK Jr. for health secretary
Healthcare stocks were falling Friday morning after noted anti-vaccine crusader Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was announced as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy has touted debunked claims linking vaccines to autism and compared vaccination to the Holocaust.
“We have a generational opportunity to bring together the greatest minds in science, medicine, industry, and government to put an end to the chronic disease epidemic,” Kennedy said in a statement Thursday after Trump nominated him.
Kennedy, who ran for president this year as an independent candidate but ended his campaign before Election Day, has insisted that he is not anti-vaccine. But he has repeatedly touted lies and conspiracy theories related to vaccination programs, including the COVID-19 vaccine. Among other things, he has baselessly claimed that COVID-19 was “targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people,” insisting that the “most immune” people are Aheknaizi Jews and Chinese people. And he called the coronavirus vaccine the “deadliest vaccine ever made.”
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) November 12, 2024
While speaking to Fox News’ Jesse Watters last year, he said, “I do believe that autism does come from vaccines,” repeating a long-standing myth that has been debunked dozens of times. Kennedy has also repeatedly invoked the Holocaust when describing vaccination policies, including in 2015 while promoting an anti-vaccine documentary.
“They get the shot, that night they have a fever of a hundred and three, they go to sleep, and three months later their brain is gone,” Kennedy said at the time, according to The Sacramento Bee. “This is a holocaust, what this is doing to our country.”
He also has a nonprofit group, Children’s Health Defense, that has been noted as one of the primary sources of misinformation on vaccines. He led the group between 2015 and April 2023, when he went “on leave” to focus on his presidential campaign.
Pfizer (PFE) stock dropped by more than 2% Thursday after Trump announced Kennedy’s nomination, and shares continued a slight decline in pre-market trading Friday. Moderna (MRNA) stock fell by almost 6% Thursday and was down just shy of 2% on Friday, while AstraZeneca (AZN) stock was down by more than 1%.
Novavax (NVAX) shares sunk by more than 7% on Thursday, dropping another 1% on Friday, while London-based GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) stock has tumbled by more than 4% since the announcement. Each of those companies is responsible for some of the vaccines available in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including the COVID vaccines.
Kennedy’s conspiracy theories don’t stop at vaccines, as he often promotes a series of debunked or controversial medical treatments. Last month, he claimed the Food and Drug Administration had subjected raw milk, therapies involving stem cells, hyperbaric oxygen, and Ivermectin to “aggressive suppression.”
“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Trump said in a statement nominating Kennedy. He said Kennedy will restore the Department of Health and Human Services “to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research.”
