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Former U.S. Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.), a longtime advocate for government transparency and informed consent in vaccine policy, died Saturday at age 78.
Children’s Health Defense (CHD) leaders said Posey was one of the first members of Congress willing to publicly challenge federal health agencies over vaccine safety and transparency.
“CHD mourns the loss of Bill Posey,” said CHD CEO Mary Holland. “For many years, Posey was the lone voice on Capitol Hill talking about the plight of the vaccine-injured and the fraud at the heart of vaccine science and policy.”
Posey “courageously picked up” where former U.S. lawmaker Dr. David Weldon left off, Holland said. After Weldon retired from Congress in 2009, Posey “kept the issues of CDC fraud and vaccine-induced autism alive in Congress,” she added.
“We are deeply grateful for his past leadership. May he rest in peace knowing that he served truth and justice,” Holland said.
Posey represented Florida in the U.S. Congress from 2009 to 2025, “following distinguished service in both the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate,” his successor, Mike Haridopolos, announced Sunday on X.
Posey died at Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne, Florida, The Hill reported. His cause of death was not disclosed.
‘We lost a giant of a man over the weekend’
CHD Chief Scientific Officer Brian Hooker also praised Posey’s commitment to children and families. “We lost a giant of a man over the weekend,” Hooker said.
Hooker said Posey consistently put “helping children” above political standing or reputation and became “a hero to many families across the U.S. and the world.”
Posey drew national attention for his work with whistleblower William Thompson, Ph.D., a senior scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In 2014, Thompson disclosed that he and his colleagues omitted data from a 2004 study in Pediatrics that suggested African American boys who received the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine before age 3 faced an increased risk of autism.
Hooker said Posey “was a lone voice in Congress” as he worked with Thompson to expose “fraud and malfeasance” within the CDC’s Immunization Safety Office.
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Posey: Parents ‘should be able to count on federal agencies to tell them the truth’
In 2015, Posey took to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to call for transparency surrounding vaccine injury and the CDC whistleblower allegations.
“I am absolutely, resolutely pro-vaccine,” Posey said at the time. “Advancements in medical immunization have saved countless lives and greatly benefited public health.”
However, Posey also said parents deserved complete and accurate information when making medical decisions for their children.
“Parents making decisions about their children’s health deserve to have the best information available to them,” Posey said. “They should be able to count on federal agencies to tell them the truth.”
Years earlier, during a 2012 House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on rising autism rates, Posey sharply questioned CDC official Coleen Boyle about whether the agency had ever conducted studies comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated children.
After Boyle cited multiple vaccine-related studies but eventually acknowledged the CDC had not performed vaccinated-versus-unvaccinated research, Posey interrupted her testimony.
“Never mind. Stop there,” Posey said. “That was the meaning of my question. You wasted two minutes of my time.”
Posey also questioned Boyle on the integrity of vaccine safety research linked to Danish scientist Poul Thorsen, who was indicted on charges related to fraud and misuse of grant funds.
Posey challenged health agencies ‘long before it became politically acceptable’
Beyond vaccine oversight, Posey backed several measures related to medical freedom, government accountability and COVID-19 policy.
In 2021, he introduced the PREPARE Act, which sought to establish an independent bipartisan commission to investigate the origins and handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The legislation followed questions raised by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about gain-of-function research and federal involvement in coronavirus research conducted in Wuhan, China.
Posey also co-sponsored legislation in 2024 that would have required colleges and universities mandating COVID-19 vaccination to cover medical expenses for students who suffered vaccine-related injuries.
In 2022, Posey joined other lawmakers demanding answers from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about COVID-19 shots for children under age 5. He also signed a bipartisan letter questioning then-White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci about taxpayer-funded animal testing.
Actor and comedian Rob Schneider, who has increasingly spoken out on medical freedom issues, called Posey “a truly honorable man” who dared to challenge pharmaceutical industry influence in Congress.
Bill Posey was a truly honorable man with the courage of conviction to stand up against Pig Pharma and his pharma paid colleagues in congress… https://t.co/8sGDp65dXU
— Rob Schneider 🇺🇸 (@RobSchneider) May 11, 2026
Advocacy group Health Freedom Louisiana said on X that Posey raised concerns about vaccine safety and public health integrity “long before it became politically acceptable” to question federal health institutions.
On July 29, 2015, Congressman Bill Posey stood before Congress and described fraud perpetrated by CDC scientists and a specific MMR study criminally manipulated to refute an MMR-autism connection.
Congressman Posey brought the issue before Congress more than a decade ago, long… pic.twitter.com/S7Bg1tLPP6
— Health Freedom Louisiana (@HealthFreedomLA) May 11, 2026
Haridopolos described Posey as “a principled conservative” known for supporting fiscal responsibility, government transparency and Florida’s Space Coast communities.
Before entering politics, Posey worked on the Apollo program at Kennedy Space Center through aerospace manufacturer McDonnell Douglas before launching his own real estate business, according to The Hill.
Posey retired from Congress in 2025 after choosing not to seek reelection in 2024, Axios reported at the time.
Related articles in The Defender
- It’s Been 10 Years Since a Whistleblower Exposed the CDC’s Cover-up of the Link Between Vaccines and Autism. The Agency Has Done Nothing.
- Fugitive Scientist Behind Vaccine and Autism Studies Arrested for Stealing $1 Million From CDC
- House Floats Law to Make Colleges That Mandated COVID Shots Pay for Vaccine Injuries
- Ask Congress to Investigate COVID Origins and Government Response to Pandemic
