Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. beat back Senate Democrats’ blistering barrage of attacks Thursday accusing him of eviscerating vaccine policies.
Mr. Kennedy faced off against lawmakers who flung insults and accusations at him amid his move to scrutinize and potentially reset government vaccine recommendations, including the childhood immunization schedule.
Democrats on the panel, led by Sen. Ron Wyden, called on Mr. Kennedy to resign. Mr. Kennedy, in turn, accused veteran lawmakers of doing nothing to halt the decades-long decline in the health of U.S. children who have become dramatically more obese and sickly.
“Senator, you’ve sat in that chair for how long — 20, 25 years, while the chronic disease in our children went up to 76% and you said nothing? You never ask the question, ’Why is it happening?’” Mr. Kennedy shot back at Mr. Wyden. “For the first time in 20 years, infant mortality has increased in our country. It’s not because I came in here. It’s because of what happened during the Biden administration, and that is what we’re going to end.”
During the hourslong hearing, Mr. Kennedy batted insults right back at Democrats, accusing them of “talking gibberish,” lying and being “showboats,” uninformed or “ridiculous.”
Mr. Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again agenda and skepticism of the pharmaceutical industry have made him a favorite among Mr. Trump’s base of supporters, especially those who question the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine.
But Mr. Kennedy’s leadership at HHS has deeply alarmed the establishment, including many of those who work for the department, and in particular congressional Democrats.
“You are putting America’s babies’ health at risk, America’s seniors’ health at risk, all Americans’ health at risk and you should resign,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts Democrat, told Mr. Kennedy at the hearing.
In June, Mr. Kennedy fired the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s longstanding vaccine advisory committee. He reconstituted it with a handpicked group of scientists and doctors, among them vaccine skeptics.
In August, the panel recommended limiting COVID-19 vaccines to people 65 and older and those with health problems.
Mr. Kennedy also cut $500 million in federal funds for research and development of mRNA vaccines amid questions about their efficacy and safety. The COVID-19 shot, an mRNA vaccine, has been linked to myocarditis, particularly in young men. Critics also note that it has not been shown to stop the actual spread of COVID-19.
Mr. Kennedy fired CDC Director Susan Monarez last week after clashing with Mr. Kennedy over vaccines.
She wrote a scathing op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, published hours before Mr. Kennedy’s appearance in Congress, in which she accused him of telling her she must “preapprove” recommendations from the new vaccine advisory panel.
At the hearing, Mr. Kennedy denied her claim and explained why he fired Ms. Monarez.
“I told her she had to resign because I asked her, ’Are you a trustworthy person?’ And she said no,” Mr. Kennedy explained.
Later in the hearing, Mr. Kennedy accused Sen. Tina Smith, Minnesota Democrat, of “making stuff up” when she said he blamed antidepressants on the recent shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school.
“You are being dishonest right now. You don’t want to talk. You want to harangue and you want to have partisan politics,” Mr. Kennedy said.
The explosive hearing drew the attention of Vice President J.D. Vance, who defended Mr. Kennedy on social media.
“When I see all these senators trying to lecture and ’gotcha’ Bobby Kennedy today, all I can think is: You all support off-label, untested, and irreversible hormonal ’therapies’ for children, mutilating our kids and enriching big pharma,” Mr. Vance said. “You’re full of s—- and everyone knows it.”
Mr. Kennedy told Fox News last month that HHS is “launching studies on the potential contribution of some of the SSRI drugs and some of the other psychiatric drugs that might be contributing to violence.”
Mr. Kennedy disputed Democrats who tried to pit him against Mr. Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, which rapidly produced the first COVID-19 vaccine at the end of his first term. Mr. Kennedy has long criticized vaccine mandates and, in particular, the COVID shot due to a lack of safety testing and, later, because it was forced on people who had already developed immunity.
Democrats asked Mr. Kennedy to support statistics claiming the COVID shot saved 1 million lives.
He refused.
“There’s no data to support that. There are modeling studies. There’s faulty data. I’m not going to sign on to something if I can’t do it to a scientific certainty,” he said. “But it doesn’t mean that I’m anti-vax. It just means I’m pro-science.”
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.