Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation's health secretary and longtime vaccine skeptic, struck a defiant tone Thursday when confronted with the issue bipartisan criticism over changes he has made to reorganize federal health agencies and vaccination policies, telling senators he is determined to “take the politics out of the science.”
Appearing before the Senate Finance Committee, Kennedy repeatedly defended his record in heated arguments with senators from both parties and questioned data showing the vaccines are effective. In turn, senators accused him of acting contrary to his promise seven months ago that he would do “nothing that would make it more difficult or dissuading people from getting vaccinated.”
“Secretary Kennedy, at your confirmation hearing you promised to maintain the highest standards on vaccines. I have been deeply concerned ever since,” Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the top Senate Republican and a physician, said during the hearing.
Kennedy has vehemently denied he has limited access to vaccines and defended his record of restoring trust in federal health agencies under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“They deserve the truth, and that's what we're going to tell them for the first time in the agency's history,” Kennedy told senators.
From the start, Democrats were expected to break Kennedy's record. Some called on him to resign and accused him of politicizing federal health policy decisions. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said he believes Kennedy's “primary interest is to deprive Americans of vaccines.”
“During the confirmation process, he claimed to be pro-security and pro-science, but his actions demonstrate a strong commitment to promoting junk science and fringe conspiracies,” Wyden said.
Criticism during the three-hour hearing also came from Republicans, a rare rebuke of a Trump administration official by a Republican-led committee.
Three Republicans, including Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, who played a key role in advancing Kennedy's candidacy, joined Democrats in criticizing Kennedy's actions. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina once told Kennedy that remarks he made to the panel during the confirmation process “appear to be at odds” with what he does now as health secretary.
The decorum usually associated with congressional hearings sometimes fell by the wayside. Kennedy and the senators repeatedly shouted at each other, accused each other of lying, and called each other names. In one instance, Kennedy told Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) that she was doing “crazy talkWhen asked about vaccine access, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) called Kennedy a “charlatan.”
Thursday's meeting marked the peak of bipartisan discontent over a series of controversial Kennedy decisions that have left his department in disarray. Kennedy disbanded the entire advisory panel responsible for making vaccine recommendations and replaced it with members of known vaccine skeptics. He withdrew $500 million in funding intended to develop vaccines against respiratory viruses. And just last week, he fired the newly appointed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over disagreements over vaccine policy.
In an article published Thursday in the Wall Street Journal, Susan Monares, the former director of the CDC, wrote that she was supplanted after she refused to recommend people “who have publicly expressed anti-vaccine rhetoric” to an influential vaccine advisory group.
At the hearing, Kennedy said Monares was lying and that a shake-up at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was “absolutely necessary.” He added that he fired her because he asked if she was trustworthy and she told him, “No.”
“We depoliticized the topic and brought in great scientists from a very diverse group of people who are very, very pro-vaccine,” he said.
However, under questioning, members of his own party insisted on his support for vaccines. At one point, Cassidy's doctor read an email from a doctor friend that said patients 65 and older needed a prescription to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
“I would say we are effectively denying people vaccines,” Cassidy said.
“You’re wrong,” Kennedy replied.
Under new federal guidelines approved last week, adults under 65 who are otherwise healthy will have to talk to their doctor before getting the shot. The move has made it more difficult for people to access the COVID-19 vaccine.
During the hearing, Kennedy said he couldn't say whether COVID-19 vaccines had prevented any deaths, citing “chaos of data” within the federal agency.
“I have no idea how many lives it saved, but it saved quite a few,” he said.
Researchers, however, It is estimated that almost 20 million lives were saved by COVID-19 vaccines in their first year of public availability.
In the same conversation, Cassidy asked Kennedy if he thought President Trump deserved a Nobel Prize for his administration's work on Operation Warp Speed, an initiative that accelerated the development of a vaccine and treatments for COVID-19.
“Absolutely,” Kennedy said.
Cassidy said he was surprised by his response because he believes Kennedy is trying to limit access to the COVID-19 vaccine. He also expressed dismay at Kennedy's decision to cancel $500 million in contracts to develop vaccines using mRNA technology, which Cassidy said was key to the operation.
Kennedy's stance on vaccines has resonated beyond Capitol Hill.
Ahead of the hearing, more than 1,000 health agency employees and national health organizations called on Kennedy to resign. Seemingly in support of Kennedy's direction, Florida announced plans to become the first state to eliminate all mandatory vaccines, including for schoolchildren. And three Democratic-led states—California, Washington and Oregon—formed an alliance to counter the unrest within the federal public health agency.
The states said their health care alliance will focus on ensuring the public has access to reliable information about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines.
As if in a parallel universe, Kennedy told senators on Thursday that his goal is to do the same after hours of criticism of his vaccine policies.
“I’m not going to agree to anything unless I can do it with scientific certainty,” he said. “That doesn't mean I'm anti-vaccine, it just means I'm pro-science.”
