Experts say RFK Jr.’s claim that his voice condition is linked to the flu shot is not based on science
US Health and Human Services Secretary told USA Today He believed that the flu jab was a “likely culprit” for his spasmodic dysphonia that he could not “rule out”.
A medical assistant gives a flu vaccine to a patient. So far this season, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates the virus has caused at least 18 million illnesses and 9,300 deaths.
Longtime vaccine skeptic and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., reportedly believes that routine influenza vaccines may have triggered his spasmodic dysphonia – a neurological condition that affects the vocal cords and a person’s ability to speak. But the claim, made in a comprehensive recent interview with USA Today, Experts say this is not supported by evidence.
Kennedy told the outlet that she stopped getting her annual flu shot in 2005. “(Spasmodic dystonia is) why my voice is so bad,” Kennedy said, calling the vaccine a “likely culprit that I can’t rule out. I can’t prove it.”
Robert Hopkins, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, says the comments are “yet another attack on vaccine confidence.” “We have no known association between the flu vaccine and these types of voice disorders.”
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the exact reasons for spasmodic dysphonia are unclear; Experts suspect that different areas of the brain may be involved and that the condition may have a genetic component.
Meanwhile, the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation says that “no evidenceThe organization says, “Vaccines do not cause this condition. On the contrary, early research suggests that some vaccinations may actually be protective against some forms of dystonia.”
One Analysis Only one of several common flu vaccine brands, Flulaval, has dysphonia listed as a possible side effect by MedPage Today. that was the vaccine allowed For use in the US in 2006, after Kennedy said he had stopped getting the flu vaccine. The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment.
Listing dysphonia as a possible side effect of that vaccine, Hopkins says, “That means there was at least one voice disorder during the clinical trials.” They say this is not evidence that dysphonia is linked to the vaccine.
Kennedy’s comments come amid a particularly severe flu season in the US: So far in the 2025-2026 season, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Estimate That the virus has caused at least 18 million illnesses and 9,300 deaths, including at least 32 children. According to the CDC, an estimated 90 percent of vaccine-eligible children who died from the flu this season were not fully vaccinated.
Like most medicines, flu vaccines can cause side effectsBut many have been in use for decades and are administered safely to millions of people each year. “The body of scientific evidence overwhelmingly supports their safety,” CDC State.
“Flu vaccines are our best tool to reduce everyone’s chance of severe flu or complications from the flu,” Hopkins says.
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