❓WHAT HAPPENED: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is developing an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to analyze vaccine monitoring data and uncover potential adverse effects.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., vaccine researchers, and AI experts.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The AI tool has been under development since late 2023. The work is part of HHS operations in the United States.
🎯IMPACT: The development of this AI tool could highlight relations between reported vaccine injuries and cases of autism and other health issues.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is developing a generative artificial intelligence (AI) tool intended to analyze vaccine safety data, identify patterns, and generate hypotheses about potential adverse effects, according to the department’s AI inventory report for 2025. The project has been in development since late 2023 and reflects a broader push within HHS to modernize public health surveillance.
The initiative has drawn attention in part because it is moving forward under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has long argued that vaccine safety monitoring should be expanded and made more transparent. Kennedy has pushed for changes to the childhood vaccination schedule, removing several vaccines, including those for COVID-19, influenza, and hepatitis A and B, from the recommended list, and has called for reforms to both the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Supporters say these moves reflect an effort to restore public trust by more closely scrutinizing vaccine risks alongside benefits. VAERS, established in 1990, allows healthcare providers and members of the public to submit reports of health problems that occur after vaccination.
The debate around the AI tool intersects with Kennedy’s broader campaigns questioning aspects of establishment vaccine science, including his repeated calls for renewed investigation into autism and vaccines. Kennedy has argued that the issue has not been fully or transparently examined and has cited animal studies and other research as justification for continued scrutiny.
Image by Chhor Sokunthea / World Bank.
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