Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stressed during his Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing that he is not inherently against vaccines in a bid to reassure members that he is worthy of being confirmed as the secretary of health and human services.
“News reports have claimed that I am anti-vaccine or anti-industry,” Kennedy said during his opening statement before the committee. “I am neither. I am pro-safety. I worked for years to raise awareness about the mercury, toxic chemicals in fish, and nobody called me anti-fish.”
If confirmed, Kennedy would direct more than 18 of some of the most powerful federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Kennedy, the former Democrat and environmental law advocate and activist, was considered by former President Barack Obama to lead the Environmental Protection Agency because of his record protecting natural resources from pollution, beginning with mercury pollution in the Hudson River Valley.
During his opening statement, Kennedy highlighted that his career as an environmental lawyer opened the door to his future career in public health advocacy.
“I learned very early on, that human health and environmental injuries are intertwined,” Kennedy said. “The same chemicals that kill fish make people sick also.”
The 71-year-old firebrand launched a long-shot campaign to challenge President Joe Biden in April 2023 but switched to an independent run soon after. Late into the campaign cycle, Kennedy dropped his campaign to endorse Trump and boost his public health platform, which was dubbed “Make American Healthy Again.”
Kennedy said the chronic disease epidemic in the United States is an “existential threat” to the economy, the military, and health.
“All of the other disputes we have about this day, and whether it’s insurance companies, whether it’s reminders, whether it’s HMOs, whether it’s patients or families, all of those are moving deck chairs around on the Titanic,” Kennedy said. “Our ship is sinking.”
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID) said Kennedy, if confirmed, would have the “opportunity to live to deliver bold, transformative solutions” that both sides of the aisle recognize is broken.
“Mr. Kennedy, if confirmed, you will have the opportunity to chart a new and better course for the federal approach to tackling both the drivers and the consequences of our ailing healthcare system,” Crapo said during his opening statement. “Your commitment to combating chronic conditions that drive healthcare costs will be critical to our success.”
Tackling industry influence plays a role
Kennedy has been an outspoken critic of the pharmaceutical and large agricultural sectors, alleging that they are corrupted by the intermingling of bureaucratic and corporate interests.
On the campaign trail, Kennedy lambasted the revolutionary weight loss drug Ozempic, made by Danish corporation Novo Nordisk, arguing that public health should instead focus on improving food systems that cause obesity.
Kennedy also suggested last summer that the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1, commonly referred to as bird flu, may be a genetically engineered virus so that pharmaceutical companies can profit substantially from vaccines to prevent another pandemic.
“Should I be so privileged as to be confirmed, we will make sure our tax dollars support healthy foods,” Kennedy said during his opening statement. “We will scrutinize the chemical additives in our food supply. We will remove financial conflicts of interest from our agencies. We will create an honest, unbiased, gold standard science at HHS, accountable to the president, to Congress, and to the American people. They will reverse the chronic disease epidemic, and put the nation back on the road to good health.”
Participatory crowd
During Kennedy’s opening statement, when he said he was not anti-vaccine, a female protester in the back of the room yelled, “He lies.” The protester, wearing a mask, held a sign that read, “Vaccines save lives, not RFK Jr.”
The crowd became so boisterous that Crapo threatened to suspend the hearing until Capitol Police could get the situation under control.
Pro-Kennedy attendees also clapped several times during his testimony, including in response to questions from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), when he said that Americans do not like Obamacare.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) also garnered applause during his questioning when he thanked Kennedy for his work on addressing the chronic disease epidemic.
“I’m not necessarily the most optimistic guy because we’ve got enormous challenges facing this nation, but I thought, ‘Wow, here’s somebody from the Left, somebody I don’t agree with on many issues politically, with President Trump and focusing on an area of agreement, something that the American people desperately want,’” Johnson said.
Democrats home in on vaccines
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), the leading Democrat on the committee, said in his opening statement that Kennedy has “embraced conspiracy theories, quacks, charlatans, especially when it comes to the safety and efficacy of vaccines.”
When asked by Wyden about vaccines, in particular for measles and polio, Kennedy said he would “do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking them.”
Kennedy has said in the past that he does not want to issue recommendations on vaccines but rather provide patients and doctors with as much safety and efficacy information as possible.
“It’s a slippery tactic to dodge any real responsibility for his words and actions, and it is, in my view, absurd coming from somebody who’s trying to win confirmation for a job that is entirely about making recommendations,” Wyden said.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) also chided Kennedy for his positions on vaccines.
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“We’ve just had a measles case in Rhode Island, the first since 2013, and, frankly, you frighten people,” Whitehouse said.
Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) said there is “no reason that any of us should believe that you have reversed the anti-vaccine views that you have promoted for 25 years.”
Congressional Reporter Ramsey Touchberry contributed to this report.
