Anti-vaxxer. Spreader of misinformation. Dangerous.
Del Bigtree understands the vitriol that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., faced during his presidential campaign and his confirmation process for secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).
For years, Bigtree has had the same attacks directed at him.
As partner behind the documentary “Vaxxed,” and founder of the Informed Consent Action Network, Bigtree is considered one of the nation’s most prominent advocates for vaccine safety studies, children’s health, and informed consent, along with Kennedy.
Bigtree and Kennedy have worked together on vaccine-related issues for more than a decade. Bigtree was also among the advisers present when Kennedy decided to run for president and he served as the candidate’s communications director during his campaign.
Standing in the Oval Office in February watching Kennedy take the oath to serve as secretary of HHS, Bigtree said he felt a wave of emotions.
He said he thought about “all the slinging arrows cast his way from the moment he entered the race as a Democrat, all of the criticism from the mainstream media, and all of the obstacles designed to wreck his campaign.”
“He was confronted with so many hurdles but he kept moving forward with what he believes,” Bigtree told The Epoch Times. “That moment, when he put his hand on the Bible and was sworn in, was sweet because he was now in a position to make a greater impact on issues we’ve fought for a long time.”
Bigtree, now CEO of the MAHA Action political action committee, is still the head of Informed Consent Action Network and host of “The Highwire,” an online show that explores vaccine safety and health issues.
Earlier in his career, he was a producer for the “Dr. Phil Show” and the CBS talk show, “The Doctors.” He won an Emmy Award during his time there.
His tenure on “The Doctors” sparked a new path.
For a decade, the show mostly focused on episodes about cutting edge surgeries and medical breakthroughs, Bigtree noted.
In 2014, a radiologist approached Bigtree about a story on the link between vaccines and autism. Bigtree recalls telling him, “‘On ‘The Doctors,’ we are pretty set on the idea that vaccines don’t cause autism, and that vaccines are safe and effective. But if that’s a space you’re really focused on, I’m always interested in a controversy and in a story.’
“I told him that something really big would have to happen for me to even pitch the story,” Bigtree said.
A year later, the same radiologist alerted Bigtree to Dr. William Thompson, a “whistleblower inside the CDC,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Thompson was about to come forward to say “that the CDC is committing scientific fraud with their vaccine safety studies,” Bigtree said.
“The Doctors” would not broadcast the story.
Around the same time, Bigtree met Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the British physician who linked the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism, in an article published in the medical journal, The Lancet.
The story drew backlash from the pro-vaccine community and was eventually retracted. Wakefield lost his medical license but he continued on his mission to show a connection between the MMR vaccine and autism.
Bigtree learned about Wakefield’s documentary that chronicled Thompson’s story about the CDC. He watched the film’s first version in the basement of Wakefield’s home.
Bigtree left “The Doctors” and teamed up with Wakefield to finish the documentary.
“Vaxxed: From Cover-up to Catastrophe” was released in 2016 and drew widespread controversy. Actor Robert DeNiro removed the film from the Tribeca Film Festival in 2016. Several venues were criticized for showing the documentary.
Bigtree promoted the film on a bus tour and became a celebrity within the medical freedom movement.
Scientific Studies
Kennedy has said the link between autism and vaccines has not been disproven, and that none of the vaccines given to children during the first six months of life have been tested for such a connection.
In 2019, the Informed Consent Action Network submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the CDC asking for “all studies relied upon by CDC to claim that the DTaP vaccine does not cause autism.”
The DTaP vaccine is used to protect against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (whooping cough). The Network also submitted the same request for the hepatitis B vaccine, influenza and pneumococcal vaccines, and the polio vaccine.
The group also asked that the CDC provide studies to show that cumulative exposure to these vaccines during the first six months of life do not cause autism.
The CDC did not respond to the requests, prompting Informed Consent Action Network to file a lawsuit against the agency in federal court.
Bigtree said the CDC finally provided 20 studies, none of which showed that the vaccines do not cause autism.
Bigtree said he launched “The Highwire” in 2017 to present the evidence that the Informed Consent Action Network was finding in courts.
“We’ve heard about mountains and mountains of studies, and tons and tons and millions of children by every single news pundit in the world, but they’re lying. They could not provide a single one. It is shocking,”Bigtree said.
“And finally, Robert Kennedy, Jr., is going to do something about it.”
As health secretary, Kennedy has promised significant changes throughout his department, and among the changes he has already made include widespread reductions in staff.
On April 30, HHS announced that all new vaccines must be tested against a placebo (an inert substance) before being licensed.
The requirement is “a radical departure from past practices,” a spokesperson for the HHS told The Epoch Times in an email.
“Except for the COVID vaccine, none of the vaccines on the CDC’s childhood recommended schedule was tested against an inert placebo, meaning we know very little about the actual risk profiles of these products,” the spokesperson said.
Food and Drug Administration official Peter Marks resigned from his post in late March, after he refused to grant Kennedy’s HHS team unrestricted access to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, a vaccine injury database.
“If he is confident vaccines are safe, why did he block the data from being seen?” Bigtree said.
“Bias should not be able to impact science. Until now, we’ve only had scientists who are biased for vaccines. Regulatory agencies should be skeptical and consistently searching for answers. The bias has to end, and I’m confident it will under Bobby’s leadership,” he said.
Bigtree said Kennedy should bring into HHS scientists who want to determine if there is some connection between vaccines and autism.
“Get scientists who say, ‘I think I can prove vaccines do cause autism,’” Bigtree said. “If they can’t pull that off, now you have a true safety profile.”
Kennedy has said for years that autism is likely tied to childhood vaccines.
President Donald Trump said in December 2024 that he would give Kennedy the freedom to investigate the potential link between vaccines and autism if the latter was confirmed as HHS secretary.
Earlier this month, Kennedy said in a Cabinet meeting that “we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we’ll be able to eliminate those exposures.”
Kennedy noted that, at Trump’s direction, HHS had launched an expansive research effort including “hundreds of scientists from around the world” to explore rising rates of autism diagnoses. The goal is to accept research bids and fund research efforts by September.CDC report released on April 15 states that the prevalence of autism has increased to one in 31 children, up from one in 150 children in 2002.
Kennedy said on April 16 that autism is an epidemic and criticized people who attribute the jump largely or solely to better screening and diagnostic criteria.
“Doctors and therapists in the past were not stupid,” he said. “They weren’t missing all these cases. The epidemic is real.”
During an April 16 address, Kennedy also said that autism “destroys families” and “our children.”
“These are kids who will never pay taxes. They‘ll never hold a job. They’ll never play baseball. They‘ll never write a poem. They’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet,” Kennedy said during the briefing.
The remarks drew criticism from some parents, who said that their autistic children are successful and not reflective of what Kennedy described. Other parents of children with autism fiercely defended Kennedy, noting that he was accurately describing how the condition impacts some families.
At the briefing, Kennedy also explained that genetics may be behind some cases of autism, but that environmental factors are behind what he called the “autism epidemic.”
Vaccines and food additives are among the possible causes, he said. And he said that autism is a “preventable disease.”
On April 17, Kennedy clarified the remarks that drew the ire of some parents.
“There are many kids with autism who are doing well. They’re holding down jobs, they’re getting paychecks, they’re living independently,” Kennedy said on Fox News.
Bigtree applauded Kennedy for his commitment to find answers about the autism epidemic.
“What was shocking about today’s statement is the fact that it was shocking at all,” Bigtree said.
“Finally, for the first time, we’re hearing from an HHS Secretary that there has to be an environmental toxic exposure that is causing this. It’s a preventable disease.”
Bigtree said genes don’t cause an epidemic.
“Yet all the funding from our regulatory agencies has been into the genetics around autism, instead of what environmental toxin or group of toxins is causing this for all the autistic parents out there,” Bigtree said.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), which sits under the HHS umbrella, supports and funds research into autism, as well as potential new vaccines.
As Kennedy delivered his April 16 remarks, Bigtree said, “I thought, how many scientists and individuals have stood at that podium and told us that it was genetic and that we shouldn’t be worrying about this or refusing to call this an epidemic?”
“Finally, that ends today,” he added.
Launching MAHA
As Kennedy’s campaign communications director, Bigtree accompanied the candidate to town halls and speaking engagements across the country. The campaign gained momentum for several months, drawing support from conservatives, moderates, and independents.
Kennedy and Trump started conversations not long after Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last July, Bigtree said.
“From that point, to when Bobby announced he was suspending his campaign and joining President Trump, it was difficult for everyone on the campaign team,” Bigtree said.
“I think all of us had days when our perspective shifted about staying in the race or joining Trump. I imagine Bobby felt the same way.”
Kennedy announced his move to leave the race and endorse Trump at a rally on Aug. 23, 2024, in Glendale, Arizona.
During his speech, Kennedy said that Trump was giving him the opportunity to make America healthy again.
That phrase was quickly shared in hashtags on social media and MAHA was born.
Bigtree said the crowd reaction to Kennedy that night was overwhelming.
“I’ve known Bobby for a long time and have seen him take all the slings and arrows from his fight for medical freedom, all the attacks from the mainstream media, the lack of support from the Democratic Party, and all of the obstacles presented during his independent presidential campaign,” he said.
“From that reaction that night, and the powerful speech that Bobby made, there was no question he had made the right decision.”
Bigtree said the focus shifted; the MAHA Action PAC was launched and began working to encourage Kennedy supporters to cast their vote for Trump.
The PAC advocates for policies such as vaccine safety information transparency, improved access to holistic health care, examining the food industry, and addressing corporate influence on government health agencies.
MAHA Action is also debuting a national directory of physicians who are pro-MAHA, and the preventive health approach of prioritizing lifestyle adjustments over prescription drugs.
The organization also has a database that tracks proposed legislation in states nationwide, indicating whether policies are “anti-MAHA” or “MAHA approved.”
Visitors to the MAHA Action site will be able to track legislators to see if they support the MAHA initiative, Bigtree said.
MAHA took all these different groups—including mothers advocating for organic food and people fighting for informed consent, regenerative farming communities standing against herbicides and pesticides, and organic farming communities—and united them into a single comprehensive movement.
That delivered votes for Trump, Bigtree believes.
“President Trump pulled something off that no one believed was possible. He won every battleground state,” Bigtree said.
“When it came to moms and health and making America healthy again, and getting the toxic chemicals out of our food, which became a real battle cry across America, I think that’s really what shifted the energy in this country.”
Bigtree believes Kennedy’s presence contributed to the resounding win “that left no confusion that Americans mandated drastic change.”
“Bobby changed the energy of President Trump. I think MAHA, in many ways, sort of brought a softer edge to the MAGA movement,” Bigtree said. “Everywhere we went, we heard people tell us they were never going to vote for President Trump until RFK Jr. joined.”
On April 6, for the first time that Bigtree could recall, he vehemently disagreed with a Kennedy statement about vaccines.
For a decade, Kennedy and Bigtree have been among the most vocal critics of the efficacy and safety of the MMR vaccine because of its potential link to autism and other conditions.
In response to the measles outbreak in Texas, Kennedy visited the state and wrote a post on social media platform X stating, “The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine.”
Later on April 6, Kennedy posted photos posing with one family whose daughter had spent three weeks in the ICU from measles, another family whose daughter died from the condition in February, and two doctors, Dr. Richard Bartlett and Dr. Ben Edwards, “who have treated and healed some 300 measles-stricken Mennonite children using aerosolized budesonide and clarithromycin.”
Kennedy’s support for the MMR vaccine after years of criticism drew sharp criticism from some people in the medical freedom community.
Bigtree responded on X, saying Kennedy’s post must have “got cut off” and that “the MMR vaccine is also one of the most effective ways to cause autism.”
“For all who are asking—I have worked with Bobby for many years and I can confidently say that he has a heart that is incapable of compromise. I also recognize that he is at a poker table with the slyest serpents in the world and the stakes are nothing less than the lives of our children and the future of our species.
“We should not ask him to show his cards for our sake, but we can demand that he takes a little more time to write a better … post than this one,” Bigtree said.
On April 13, Bigtree told The Epoch Times, “I would have said that statement differently” because vaccines have side effects and “those side effects should be stated.”
He added that unlike Kennedy, he is “not limited by the shackles of political appointment” and he will not alter his perspective.
He reiterated his support for Kennedy.
“I have complete faith in Bobby and that real science and transparency will become the center of HHS. His job is to be HHS secretary for the entire country,” Bigtree said. “Vaccines will be available for people but there will be informed consent and transparent studies from unbiased science.”
The HHS on May 1 confirmed to The Epoch Times that the agency is launching efforts to find treatments for measles.
An HHS spokesperson said via email that Kennedy “will be enlisting the entire agency to activate a scientific process to treat a host of diseases, including measles, with single or multiple existing drugs in combination with vitamins and other modalities.”
‘It Will Take Time’
Many MAHA advocates want to see changes that include changing the childhood vaccine schedule, ending pharmaceutical advertising on television, performing detailed vaccine safety studies, and making the results transparent.
Bigtree urges patience.
He points to the push to ban artificial dyes from foods as an example of early progress in Kennedy’s tenure.
On April 22, the FDA announced a plan to remove artificial dyes from the U.S. food supply.
Officials said that the government is banning two synthetic colorings—Citrus Red No. 2 and Orange B, which can currently be used to color hot dogs and sausages—and is going to work with companies to eliminate the other dyes by the end of 2026.
Multiple state legislatures have introduced bills designed to ban artificial dyes and other food additives.
The Environmental Working Group, a food safety advocacy organization, reports that 20 states have introduced about 40 measures within the first three months of 2025 to address artificial dyes and chemicals in food.
In October 2023, the California Legislature banned red food dye No. 3. Last August, it also passed a measure to remove six other common dyes from use in school foods.
Virginia passed a similar measure in March.
And on March 24, West Virginia passed the most sweeping measure of its kind when Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed H.B. 2354 into law. The new law will ban seven synthetic dyes and two preservatives from food and beverages sold in the state.
“Without the movement, and Bobby becoming secretary of Health and Human Services, there would still be talk about getting chemicals out of our food supply, but that’s all it would be—just talk,” Bigtree said.
“This movement keeps growing because it is made up of people who are informed and engaged. They want to see results they thought they might never see in their lifetime.” he said.
“It will take time. It will be worth the time and worth the effort.”
