Representative Debbie Dingell spoke out Friday about her fears that the United States is not ready to handle another pandemic like COVID-19. The Michigan Democrat said she worries about the direction of public health policy under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Dingell made her comments to CNN after Kennedy faced tough questions during a Senate hearing on Thursday. During the hearing, senators asked Kennedy about his past statements on vaccines and his plans for handling future health emergencies. Kennedy has been known for questioning vaccine safety and calling COVID shots the “deadliest vaccine ever made.”
“If we get another COVID, we are not going to be ready, and people are going to die in mass numbers,” Dingell said in the interview, according to The Hill. She added that she was “afraid people are going to die” if the country faces another pandemic without proper preparation.
Kennedy struggles to answer basic vaccine questions
During his Senate hearing, Kennedy could not answer how many Americans died from COVID-19. He also said he was not sure if vaccines prevented deaths from the virus. This troubled many senators who questioned whether he was fit to lead the nation’s health agencies.
"If we get another Covid, we are not going to be ready and people are going to die in mass numbers," Rep. Debbie Dingell tells me on what concerns her most about the future of HHS under RFK Jr.'s leadership. pic.twitter.com/zebH61b1bg
— Omar Jimenez (@OmarJimenez) September 5, 2025
Kennedy told lawmakers that “we were lied to about everything” regarding COVID-19. He has made major changes to health agencies since taking office, including cutting funding for mRNA vaccine research that was key to developing COVID vaccines quickly during the pandemic.
The health secretary has also fired staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He said the agency needed changes because “we are the sickest country in the world” and that he needed to “fire some of those people to make sure this doesn’t happen again.” Medical experts have raised concerns about these rapid changes to public health agencies.
Florida moves to end vaccine requirements as measles spreads
Dingell’s warnings come as Florida announced plans to become the first state to end all vaccine requirements for schools. Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said Wednesday that vaccine mandates were wrong and compared them to “slavery.” He said parents should decide what goes in their children’s bodies.
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) September 3, 2025
Dr. Joseph Ladapo Just Announced That Florida is Ending Mandates for ALL Vaccines
“Every last one is wrong … Who am I, or anyone else, to tell you what you should put in your body? Who am I to tell you what your child should put in their body?”pic.twitter.com/6tvW7MkcZ6
“Who am I to tell you what your child should put in their body?” Ladapo said at a news conference. “I don’t have that right. Your body is a gift from God.” The move would affect vaccines for diseases like measles, polio, and mumps that schools currently require.
The timing of Florida’s announcement is concerning to health experts because of ongoing measles outbreaks. Texas has seen more than 760 measles cases this year, with two children dying from the disease. All the cases were in people who were not vaccinated. Dingell said she remembers having measles, chickenpox and mumps as a child and noted that “people die sometimes of them.”
