Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unapologetically defended his approach to health care and his restructuring of the nation’s health agencies during testimony Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee. Before the hearing even started, Democratic senators, health organizations and a group of current and former HHS employees called for Kennedy to resign or be fired.
“It is in the country’s best interest that Robert Kennedy step down, and if he doesn’t, Donald Trump should fire him before more people are hurt,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said. Wyden cited what he called Kennedy’s “reckless disregard for science and the truth.”
What changes has Kennedy made to HHS and the CDC?
Just in the last month, Kennedy fired Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez and canceled $500 million in funding to help develop vaccines using mRNA, the technology used to create the COVID-19 vaccine in record time.
Kennedy also revoked the emergency use authorization for the COVID vaccine. Evidence presented at the hearing shows the move is confusing doctors about who should receive it.
Why is Kennedy doing this?
The secretary said these moves are all necessary to restore public trust in health care.
“CDC failed that responsibility miserably during COVID when its disastrous, nonsensical policies destroyed small businesses, violated civil liberties, closed our schools and caused generational damage in doing so, masked infants with no science and heightened economic inequality,” Kennedy told the committee. “That’s why we need bold, competent, creative, new leadership at CDC. People able and willing to chart a new course.”
In June, Kennedy removed and replaced every member of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, or ACIP, which makes recommendations to the CDC about the safety, efficacy and clinical need for vaccines. Critics contend Kennedy’s new appointees have a history of questioning vaccines that have been proven effective.
Will there be any changes to vaccine mandates and guidelines?
The new members are scheduled to meet for the first time on Sept. 18 and 19. There are bipartisan concerns that they could reverse vaccine guidelines that have been shown to work.
“I hope that you will tell the American people how many preventable child deaths are an acceptable sacrifice for enacting an agenda that I think is fundamentally cruel and defies common sense,” Wyden told Kennedy.
“Senator, you’ve sat in that chair for how long?” Kennedy responded. “Twenty, 25 years? While the chronic disease in our children went up to 76% and you said nothing.”
Some of the vaccines that will be discussed at the ACIP meeting could include those for Measles, Mumps and Rubella, or MMR, and Hepatitis B, which can be transferred by sharing personal items like a toothbrush or passed from mother to baby.
“There are real concerns that safe, proven vaccines like measles, like Hepatitis B and others could be in jeopardy,” Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said. “That would put Americans at risk and reverse decades of progress. As we’ve seen over the last four years, the previous administration, when recommendations became politicized or were swayed by bias, that the public trust can be lost.”
Kennedy said he does not expect a change to the recommendations surrounding the MMR vaccine, which babies can get right after their first birthday and then again between the ages of 4 and 6. He also said it’s wrong to say he is denying people vaccines.
Kennedy casts doubt on government data
In addition to Kennedy’s new approach to vaccine safety, senators also took issue with him openly casting doubt on the government’s own data.
“You’re the Secretary of Health and Human Services. You don’t have any idea how many Americans died from COVID?” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., asked Kennedy.
“I don’t think anybody knows, because there was so much data chaos coming out of the CDC,” Kennedy said.
The criticism at Thursday’s hearing, specifically about vaccines, didn’t appear to change Kennedy’s mind. In fact, immediately after the hearing, HHS announced it is reinforcing religious and conscience exemptions from childhood vaccine mandates.
