Political ends

“The space in which this protocol will be conducted, the vaccine evaluation center inside the clinical center, has been in existence for decades,” Green said. Like all protocols, it needs to undergo rigorous scientific and ethical reviews before it’s implemented at the hospital. Green said the protocol is still under review.

None of this was made clear in Kennedy’s ceremony, and Leslie condemned the optics of the event, particularly the signs labeling patients “vaccine injured.” Those patients “must come first,” Leslie said. “They deserve our care and respect and they deserve answers.” But Kennedy does them—and the hospital—a disservice, Leslie argued.

“The secretary has spent two decades arguing that vaccines are dangerous,” Leslie said. “Those signs announce the conclusion that the research has not yet reached and that the research exists to test. Think about what that means for those patients.…