US President Donald Trump’s candidate for Secretary of Health and Human Service (HHS), Robert F Kennedy Jr. has been grilled on his history of vaccine scepticism and concerns that he might restrict access to abortion drugs amid an electric Senate Confirmation Meeting in Washington DC.
Protestors in the gallery of the hearing, held by the Senate Finance Committee, interrupted proceedings after the potential nominee argued in his opening statement that previous news reports stating that he is anti-vaccine and anti-industry were false – the protesters replied to Kennedy’s comments shouting “you are”.
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Typically, US Senate confirmation hearings allow representatives from both the Republican and Democratic parties to question candidates as to their motives and qualifications for a role before a formal vote on their confirmation can take place. In the case of Kennedy, senators’ key concerns revolve around his belief in the safety and efficacy of certain vaccines, as well as the direct impact that has had on Americans. It comes as President Donald Trump is looking to get a number of his nominations past the Senate.
In his opening statement, Kennedy said: “For a long time the nation has been locked in a divisive healthcare debate about who pays. When healthcare costs reach 20% there are no good options only bad ones. Shifting the burden around between government and corporations and insurers and providers is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Our country will sink beneath a sea of desperation debt if we don’t change the course and ask why healthcare costs are so high in the first place.
“The reality in this answer is a chronic disease. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says that 90% of healthcare spending goes towards managing chronic disease, which hits lower-income Americans the hardest. There is no single culprit in chronic disease much as I have criticised certain industries and agencies.”
Much of Kennedy’s prerogative in the first few moments of the hearing focused on responding to committee chair and Ohio senator, Republican Mike Crapo, on his plans to push for nutrition-based integration into the Medicare and Medicaid system. But the atmosphere became defensive after Oregon Democratic senator Ronald Wyden entered into record a letter the committee a letter from a fellow member of the Kennedy family and former Ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, detailing why she saw him as unfit for the role.
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By GlobalDataWyden said: “Mr Kennedy you have spent years pushing conflicting stories about vaccines. You say one thing and then you say another. In your testimony today under oath you say that you are not anti-vaccine but during a podcast interview in July of 2023, you said ‘no vaccine is safe and effective.’ In your testimony today note that you are not anti-vaccine, you say that all your children here today are vaccinated. But in a podcast in 2020, you said you would do anything, pay anything, to go back in time and not vaccinate your kids. Mr Kennedy, all of these things cannot be true.”
Kennedy responded by clarifying that when he initially said that ‘no vaccine was safe and effective’ he was going to end that sentence with ‘for every person,’ but was interrupted. Kennedy added that he “supports the measles vaccine” and “supports the polio vaccine”.
Wyden continued his line of questioning arguing that Kennedy has a history of trying to restrict access to medications, stating that in May of 2021, he petitioned the FDA to block access to Covid-19 vaccines.
Kennedy responded that he wrote the petition back when he believed the CDC recommended the Covid-19 vaccine for six-year-old children without scientific basis. He added: “Covid-19 vaccines are inappropriate for six-year-old children who basically have a zero risk from Covid-19.”
Research conducted by the Mayo Clinic has found 18% of those who experienced Covid-19 in the US were children, with about 1.5% of Covid-19 hospitalisations being found to be children.
Earlier in the hearing Wyden raised concerns over Kennedy’s potential to push for the restriction of the abortion drug mifepristone.
Kennedy went on to state that his approach as Secretary of HHS would be one of radical transparency given his previous history of litigating the government body he sought to take control of.
At the time of publication arguments in the Senate hearing are still ongoing but it remains to be seen how senators will respond to Kennedy’s defences against his previous claims.
