That time Josh Elliott criticized doctors who declined to appear on a panel with anti-vaccine crusader Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

What a duo: Josh Elliott and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Elliott, a Democratic state representative from Hamden, invited Kennedy to a 2019 forum on vaccines at the State Capitol. Also included on the panel were two doctors from the Yale School of Medicine and one from the Yale’s School of Public Health.

When two of the panel members declined to appear with Kennedy, Elliott canceled the event—and criticized the doctors. He was careful not to complain about Kennedy. Instead, Elliott said, according to The Hartford Courant, “Medical professionals began trying to kill the forum because they felt we would be legitimizing debunked claims from someone who has demonstrated the inability to sift through truth from fiction. I am concerned with the perspective the medical community has taken –that it is better not to have the conversations publicly.”

What a load of nonsense Elliott offered. Kennedy was not incapable to “sift through the truth from fiction.” He has chosen to align himself with fiction. That was clear in 2019 when Elliott invited him to Hartford.

When the doctors announced as panelists chose not to be splattered by Kennedy’s conspiracy-laden claims, Elliott blamed the doctors–who Kennedy wrote “came with heavy vaccine industry pedigrees.”

Since becoming the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services last year, Kennedy has cancelled $500 million in mRNA research grants and 380 clinical trials. These are destructive acts aimed at undermining the advance of scientific knowledge in the service of preventing and curing diseases. There was no “sifting.” It was wholesale destruction by a powerful public official Elliott indulged for the sake of some attention when serious people knew better. 

Published July 31, 2026