RFK Jr. grilled by both Republicans and Democrats during raucous hearing

Democrats and Republicans pushed U.S. Wellness secretarial assistant henry m. Robert F. Kennedy's Jr. On his recent vaccinum policies and their stark counterpoint to President Donald Trump's successful first-term pandemic initiative to speed vaccine development during a combative three-hour Senate hearing on Thursday.

Half a dozen heated exchanges focused on the details of his decision to fire Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez, who had started the job with Kennedy's support only a month earlier. Kennedy said she lied about the reason she was dismissed.

Republican U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy praised Trump for having accelerated the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in 2020.

His line of questioning — mirrored by two other members of his and Trump's party — underscored the tightrope Republicans critical of Kennedy needed to walk in order to push back against his vaccine policies without criticizing the president.

Cassidy, a former physician, asked Kennedy during the Senate Finance Committee hearing if he agreed with him that Trump deserved a Nobel Peace Prize for the COVID vaccine initiative. Kennedy said he did.

That led Cassidy to ask why, then, has Kennedy said the vaccines had killed more people than COVID? 

Kennedy denied making the statement and initially would not agree that the vaccines saved lives, but in a later exchange acknowledged the shots prevented deaths but that he could not quantify that.

In the first year of their use, COVID vaccines saved some 14.4 million lives globally, according to a study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.

Republican John Barrasso, who like Cassidy is a physician, adopted the same tactic of questioning Kennedy without criticizing Trump.

"Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines. Since then, I've grown deeply concerned," said Barrasso.

"The public has seen measles outbreaks, leadership in the National Institutes of Health questioning the use of mRNA vaccines, the recently confirmed Director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fired," the senator added.

Senator Maria Cantwell brought out a chart to demonstrate to Kennedy how effective vaccines have been. "The history on vaccines is very clear," the Democrat said, referring to drops in some diseases of 99 or 100 per cent, due to vaccines.

"This is what was delivered with vaccines, and you don't want to support that."

'You're a charlatan!' Democrat slams RFK Jr. In Senate hearing

Kennedy, under fiery questioning from Democratic Senator Ron Wyden and others, also defended his ousting of CDC Director Susan Monarez, adding that he might need to fire even more people at the agency.

Trump fired Monarez after she resisted changes to vaccine policy advanced by Kennedy that she believed contradicted scientific evidence, further destabilizing the already embattled agency.

In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, Monarez said she had been directed to pre-approve vaccine recommendations, and that her ouster was part of a broader push to weaken U.S. Vaccine standards.

Kennedy said that he had never told Monarez she needed to pre-approve decisions.

Kennedy said the CDC during the COVID pandemic had lied to Americans, pointing to recommendations on mask wearing, vaccine boosters and social distancing and statements that the vaccine would prevent transmission.

"I need to fire some of those people and make sure this doesn't happen again," Kennedy said.

At one point, Democratic Sen. Mark Warner asked Kennedy if he accepted the fact that one million Americans died from COVID. Kennedy declined, saying, "I don't think anybody knows," prompting Warner to ask how someone who's been health secretary for eight months could be that ignorant. 

RFK Jr. Can't say how many Americans died of COVID

During the COVID pandemic, the CDC came under fire as Americans became frustrated, particularly with school closures, although its changing recommendations were based on past experience with virus transmission and what was known about the novel coronavirus at the time.

By late 2021, as the Omicron variant spread quickly and more real-world data on the vaccines accumulated, the CDC acknowledged the shots could not stop COVID infection and transmission, but were highly effective in preventing severe cases, hospitalizations and death.

Since taking the job, Kennedy has made a series of controversial changes to U.S. Vaccine policy, including narrowing who is eligible for COVID shots and firing all 17 expert members of a CDC vaccine advisory panel, choosing some anti-vaccine activists to replace them.

Kennedy has faced criticism from some Republicans and calls to resign by some Democrats since Monarez's firing, which triggered the resignations of four senior agency officials who cited anti-vaccine policies and misinformation pushed by Kennedy and his team.

Wyden called for Kenndy's resignation on Thursday at the beginning of the hearing, as have other senators and over 1,000 current and former health employees.

Cassidy, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labour, and Pensions Committee, has said the CDC upheaval warrants oversight. He was the deciding vote during Kennedy's confirmation process after receiving assurances the long-time anti-vaccine crusader would not interfere with vaccine policy.

On Thursday he pressed Kennedy on his decision to cancel $500 million US in funding for research on the mRNA technology used in making the most widely used COVID vaccines.

---

---