Well before Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was named Secretary of Health and Human Services, he was beating the drum that major pharmaceutical companies were heavily influencing the so-called “independent” health bodies looking out for the health of millions of Americans.
And one of the biggest names in health and wellness just confirmed what RFK, Jr. has been saying for years — by accident.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) inadvertently posted information on its website highlighting the corporate influence drug companies have over their governing body.
Late yesterday, Kennedy shared a screenshot he said was from AAP’s website, thanking their four top donors for their generous contributions to the organization’s “Corporate Donors to the AAP Friends of Children’s Fund.”
This is a screenshot from American Academy of Pediatrics’ webpage, thanking the organization’s top corporate donors. These four companies make virtually every vaccine on the CDC recommended childhood vaccine schedule. AAP is angry that CDC has eliminated corporate influence in… pic.twitter.com/WtWe6vnUrw
— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) August 19, 2025
The AAP’s website lists the top donors in the Presidential Circle of Donations of $50,000 or more as Merck, Moderna, Pfizer, and Sanofi — four of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world.
The screenshot directly from the AAP site also details what these four top donors get for their contributions, including an invitation to a Corporate Summit held each summer at the AAP National Headquarters in Itasca, IL.
In other words, these four major pharmaceutical companies are ensured their input at the summit.
The timing of this announcement from the AAP validates the corporate influence Big Pharma was having on an organization that claims to be “dedicated to the health of children” — something RFK, Jr. has been saying for years.
The timing of the AAP is also curious as it follows the pediatric group’s recent recommendation urging that all kids ages 6 months to 23 months get a COVID-19 vaccine.
“These four companies make virtually every vaccine on the CDC-recommended childhood vaccine schedule,” Kennedy wrote.
“AAP is angry that CDC has eliminated corporate influence in decisions over vaccine recommendations and returned CDC to gold-standard science and evidence-based medicine, laser-focused on children’s health.”
AAP today released its own list of corporate-friendly vaccine recommendations,” he added. “The Trump Administration believes in free speech and AAP has a right to make its case to the American people. But AAP should follow the lead of HHS and disclose conflicts of interest, including its corporate entanglements and those of its journal—Pediatrics—so that Americans may ask whether the AAP’s recommendations reflect public health interest, or are, perhaps, just a pay-to-play scheme to promote commercial ambitions of AAP’s Big Pharma benefactors.”
“AAP should also be candid with doctors and hospitals that recommendations that diverge from the CDC’s official list are not shielded from liability under the 1986 Vaccine Injury Act,” Kennedy continued.
According to Kennedy, the AAP’s recommendation now stands in direct contrast to what the HHS has advised after he announced the removal of the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention immunization schedule.