NIH Hospital Clinic Adds $0 in New Funding, Board Chair Says

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s new vaccine injury clinic at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center Research Hospital carries no additional funding and no extra clinic space, according to board Chair Jack Leslie. The clinic opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony that Kennedy attended alongside other Trump administration officials and a panel of people who describe themselves as vaccine injured, seated behind placards bearing that label.

Leslie addressed the clinic at a regularly scheduled board meeting. He began the session with introductions and informal conversation before setting the agenda aside to speak on the matter for about six minutes. He cautioned that Kennedy's anti-vaccine activities could tarnish the hospital's standing among patients with rare conditions and those who have exhausted other treatment options, a patient population the institution is often described as serving as a 'house of hope.'

Leslie said he had no objection to scientific study of vaccine harms. 'Serious reactions are rare, but real,' he said, adding that people who believe they have been injured should 'be taken seriously.' He also acknowledged that some board members might prefer he not criticize Kennedy's work. 'But I think that that would be a failing as an advisory board if we were silent,' he said.

Jonathan Green, the hospital's chief executive, sat beside Leslie at the meeting and addressed the clinic's footing. Green said the NIH has studied vaccine safety and efficacy for decades and that the work continues. He described the new operation as one additional individual 'protocol' at the hospital.

The NIH already operates a center that studies vaccine injuries. The clinic Kennedy opened adds no funding and no clinic space to that existing research capacity. The ceremony and the clinic's operational scope diverge on that point: the ribbon-cutting featured high-ranking officials and a panel of people who say vaccines injured them, while the facility enters service without new money attached.

Leslie and Green both spoke at the regularly scheduled board meeting. The meeting was held after the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the clinic.