Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), a key Republican at the helm of the top health committee in the Senate, pressed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on his stance on vaccines during his second hearing to be confirmed as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Cassidy, the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, is one of a handful of Republicans who could jeopardize Kennedy’s confirmation. Cassidy has declined to indicate his vote intention.
“Your past of undermining confidence in vaccines with unfounded or misleading arguments concerns me,” Cassidy told Kennedy in his opening statement. “Can I trust that that is now in the past? Can data and information change your opinion, or will you only look for data supporting a predetermined conclusion?”
Before politics, Cassidy practiced as a physician in California and Louisiana for 30 years, specializing in liver disease. During his opening statement, he told a story of one of his patients, an 18-year-old woman who needed an emergency liver transplant due to a severe hepatitis B infection, a disease that could have been prevented with a vaccine.
“As a physician who’s been involved in immunization programs, I’ve seen the benefits of vaccinations,” Cassidy said. “I know they save lives. I know they’re a crucial part of keeping our nation healthy.”
Although he has tried his best to sidestep the “anti-vaccine” label, Kennedy has long discouraged vaccinations and spent a significant amount of his career litigating pharmaceutical companies and branches of HHS over vaccine injuries.
During his questioning, Cassidy pushed Kennedy to answer whether he believed the measles vaccine caused autism.
“If you show me the data, I will be the first person to assure the American people that they need to take those vaccines,” Kennedy said, adding later that he would “apologize for any statements that mislead otherwise” should he be proved wrong.
Kennedy also said he would not “go into HHS and impose [his] pre-ordained opinions on anybody at HHS. I’m going to empower the scientists at HHS to do their job and make sure that we have good science that’s evidence based, that’s replicable, where the raw data is published.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), also a physician and a strong supporter of Kennedy, got into a head-to-head conflict with Cassidy regarding hepatitis B after Paul said that there is no need to get a vaccine for the disease on the first day of an infant’s life, as is the current protocol.
“You get it through drug use, and it’s sexually transmitted. That’s how you get hepatitis B. But you’re telling me, my kid has to take it at 1 day old. That’s not science,” said Paul, noting that he waited to get his children vaccinated for hepatitis B when they were starting school.
Senators in the HELP Committee and, on Wednesday, in the Senate Finance Committee have spent weeks combing through the more than four-decades-long career of Kennedy, the former Democrat-turned-Republican health spokesman under President Donald Trump.
If confirmed, Kennedy will control the 18 agencies comprising HHS, under which fall various public health, infectious disease, health insurance, and medical research responsibilities.
Kennedy also established the organization Children’s Health Defense, a group that is ostensibly against environmental toxin exposure but primarily targets the chemical composition of vaccines.
Cassidy said that Kennedy’s “bully pulpit is incredible” and that he wants to ensure that Kennedy is responsible with his influence.
“I just want to pledge to you, I will never stick on a point if somebody shows me that says I’m wrong. I know that’s an interpretation people have, but it’s absolutely wrong,” Kennedy said.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), also a Kennedy skeptic, used her time on the panel to address the environmental lawyer’s vaccine record. Murkowski is also an essential vote for Kennedy’s confirmation.
“We know that if we can do a better job with chronic diseases, maybe some of the other things that we are susceptible to in the infectious diseases arena, we’re able to perhaps pull back a little bit. But our reality is, in order to make this country healthy again, it is to focus on everything,” Murkowski said.
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The Alaska senator did not ask Kennedy to answer questions regarding vaccines, but she did not forthrightly say she would not support Trump’s nominee.
“I’m asking you on this in the issue of vaccines specifically, please convey with a level of authority and science, but also with a level of connection, and free of conflict, free of political bias,” Murkowski said. “These measures are measures we should be proud of as a country.”
