Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr sparred with Democratic senators about the mass exodus from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kennedy’s recent actions on vaccines.
Kennedy testified before the Senate Finance Committee Thursday, where he defended his recent actions at the department, which includes the National Institutes of Health and the CDC.
“If we don’t end this chronic disease, we are the sickest country in the world,” he said. “That’s why we have to fire people at CDC. They did not do their job. This was their job to keep us healthy.”
Last week, the Trump administration fired CDC head Susan Monarez, whom President Donald Trump had nominated to lead the agency. That triggered a resignation from other top officials at the center. That has spurred questions from the left about RFK Jr. ability to lead the administration, though Trump and the White House have frequently backed Kennedy and the “Make America Healthy Again” movement.
During the hearing, Democrats again attacked RFK Jr, and the Republicans who confirmed him, over his vaccine stances and policies that many scientists have warned about.
“Republicans on the committee had a chance to prevent the public health train wreck that Mr. Kennedy has engineered,” Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said during the hearing.
Before the hearing began, Wyden and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) released a 54-page report about Kennedy’s mismanagement of the department. Others have criticized Kennedy for sowing distrust in public health agencies.
At the beginning of the hearing, Kennedy mentioned David Rose, the officer killed when a gunman opened fire on the CDC’s office in Atlanta. But Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) faulted Kennedy.
“Secretary Kennedy was too busy fishing to speak out promptly about an attack on this sensitive federal facility and its workers in Georgia and the death of a police officer, which was disgraceful and unforgivable,” Ossoff told reporters.
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), who repeatedly grilled Kennedy during his confirmation hearing, criticized Kennedy for dismissing every member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in June.
“This is the last thing our parents need, by the way, as kids are going back to school is to have the kind of confusion and expense and scarcity that you are creating as a result of your ideology,” he said. Kennedy, in turn, shot back and criticized Bennet.
“All the evidence is transparent for the first time in history and you were never there complaining when the pharmaceutical companies were picking those people and then running their products with no safety testing,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy defended himself by saying that he is not anti-vaccine.
“They think I’m being evasive because I won’t say kind of a statement that’s almost religious in nature,” he said. “I’m not going to sign onto something unless I can stand behind it with scientific certainty. That doesn’t make me ‘anti-vax’ – it makes me pro-science.”
The hearing also got testy at times, with protesters interrupting the hearing, which triggered Chairman Mike Crapo to say that the committee would recess if any more occurred. At one point, Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington cited how Kennedy canceled $500 million in vaccine development projects that use mRNA technology through Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.
“I’m happy to have a detailed discussion with you, you’re so wrong on your facts,” Kennedy said, which led to Cantwell to shoot back.
“You’re interrupting me, and sir, you’re a charlatan, that’s what you are,” she said. “You’re the ones who conflate chronic disease with the need for vaccines.”
Kennedy, the son of the late Democratic attorney general and New York senator Robert F. Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy, has long promoted the idea that vaccines cause autism. He also loudly criticized the process and mandates for the Covid-19 vaccine. All but one Republican senator supported Kennedy’s nomination to lead the nation’s top health agency.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) criticized how Kennedy had said that numerous health organizations that defended the Covid-19 vaccine had been captured by the drug industry.
“Is everybody corrupt but you,” Sanders asked. “To suggest that every institution–the [American Medical Association], the pediatrics people–is corrupt because they disagree with you is an insult to the American people.”
But during the hearing, many of the Republicans criticized Kennedy’s practices.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, the top Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, criticized Kennedy for not supporting the Covid-19 vaccine with his organization the Children’s Health Defense. Cassidy said at the beginning of his questioning that Trump deserved the Nobel Prize for Operation Warp Speed which developed the Covid-19 vaccine.
Cassidy, a physician for many years before he became a senator, also flagged an email from a fellow doctor saying doctors were confused about who could receive the Covid-19 vaccine.
“I would say, effectively, we're denying people vaccine,” he said, to which Kennedy said “you’re wrong.”
Last month, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new round of Covid-19 vaccines for people 65 and older and for people who are younger and have underlying conditions that could make them more vulnerable to Covid-19. That has created confusion among pharmacies about who is eligible.
But Cassidy was not the only Republican who criticized Kennedy. Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, who is also a physician, said he worried about Kennedy’s recent changes in policy.
“The public has seen measles outbreaks, leadership at the National Institutes of Health questioning the use of mRNA vaccines, the recently-confimed director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fired, Americans don’t know who to rely on,” the Wyoming Republican said. “If we’re going to make America healthy again, we can’t allow public health to be undermined.”
In addition, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who is not seeking re-election, criticized Kennedy for the firing of Monarez despite Kennedy previously praising her and also cited Kennedy’s previous statements that he would empower the scientists to do their job and that he would not impose his beliefs on the department.
“That, again, seems to be contradictory to the firing of a CDC director, the canceling of mRNA research contracts, firing advisory board members, attempting to stall NIH funding, eliminating for I think half a billion dollars for further mRNA research, and I just want an answer for it,” he said.
The hearing came at a crucial time for the department. ACIP will meet later this month. In addition, Kennedy is set to release his report about the supposed “autism epidemic” this month after Trump tasked him with doing so, even as there is scant evidence of a full-blown epidemic of the developmental disability.
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