Recapping RFK, Jr’s First Day of Affirmation Hearings in 5 Takeaways

RFK Jr., Affirmation Listening to Confirmed 5 Methods He Threatens Public Well being

By Tanya Lewis edited by Lauren J. Younger

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., confronted a barrage of questions from U.S. senators right this moment throughout his affirmation listening to for his nomination for secretary of the Division of Well being and Human Companies. The listening to targeted on views Kennedy, an environmental lawyer with no medical coaching, has expressed on a number of necessary points going through Individuals’ public well being right this moment, together with vaccines, persistent illness and federal well being care applications comparable to Medicaid. Kennedy’s responses might reveal how he would lead the federal government’s huge well being and medical equipment ought to he be confirmed.

“The listening to was a reminder of simply how sprawling the Division of Well being and Human Companies is and simply how far reaching the areas of well being care that the secretary has their hand on,” says Jason Schwartz, an affiliate professor of well being coverage on the Yale Faculty of Public Well being, who focuses on vaccines and vaccination coverage. “I used to be struck by, below questioning from each Republican and Democratic senators, the areas the place there’s clearly not a substantial amount of familiarity on Kennedy’s half concerning main elements of the HHS portfolio.”

Kennedy has made unsupported and harmful claims about fluoridation, uncooked milk and different subjects. Within the listening to, Democratic Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado additionally introduced up Kennedy’s unsubstantiated previous assertion that Lyme illness was a bioweapon. Maybe most notably, Kennedy has regularly promoted false or deceptive claims about vaccines, although he tried to distance himself from a few of them throughout right this moment’s listening to.

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“Because the [hearing’s] questions identified, there’s been virtually nobody who’s been a extra expansive critic of vaccines in his work for such a very long time,” Schwartz says.

Listed here are 5 takeaways from the listening to that reveal what Kennedy’s management of HHS may seem like.

Vaccines

Kennedy has a protracted document of antivaccine activism, although his personal kids are vaccinated. He has falsely linked vaccines to autism and has benefitted financially from efforts to revoke the approval of sure vaccines. Regardless of this historical past, Kennedy said within the listening to that he’s “not antivaccine” however somewhat “prosafety.” Democratic senators begged to vary. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon pointed to Kennedy’s go to to Samoa in 2019, which occurred months earlier than a measles outbreak that killed 83 individuals, a lot of them kids. Vaccination charges had been already low following a tragic incident the earlier yr, when two nurses by chance mixed the MMR vaccine in opposition to measles, mumps and rubella with a muscle relaxant, resulting in the deaths of two kids. Kennedy met with antivaccine advocates throughout his go to and later wrote a letter to the nation’s prime minister inaccurately suggestion {that a} “faulty” vaccine might have brought on the infections. Within the affirmation listening to Kennedy denied accountability for any position within the lethal outbreak, nonetheless.

In the course of the COVID pandemic, Kennedy sought to revoke the approval of the lifesaving COVID vaccines simply six months after their rollout. Within the listening to, he stated he was in opposition to the vaccines’ use in six-year previous kids and cited a deceptive declare that that age group doesn’t get severely unwell from COVID. But well being specialists acknowledge the vaccines possible saved hundreds of thousands of lives, together with kids’s.

“The information clearly present that there was loads of threat of COVID in younger kids, and whereas it’s not as frequent a trigger of great sickness or loss of life as it’s in older people, nobody would argue that it isn’t nonetheless a big well being concern, and there’s an excellent purpose to proceed to advocate vaccination in younger kids,” Schwartz says.

Medicaid

In the course of the listening to, Kennedy was requested about his views on Medicaid, the federal government insurance coverage program that helps practically 80 million low-income Individuals. (This system was plunged into uncertainty yesterday when the Trump administration introduced a federal funding freeze that roughly coincided with the Medicaid portal briefly going offline, which meant that folks couldn’t verify enrollment standing or submit claims.) Kennedy at occasions appeared to confuse Medicare and Medicaid within the listening to, Schwartz says; the nominee claimed that most individuals are dissatisfied with the latter program, regardless of clear proof on the contrary. When questioned about whether or not he would reduce Medicaid, he gave oblique solutions stating he would observe President Donald Trump’s want to reform it.

Abortion

Up to now Kennedy has been supportive of abortion, however in latest months and in the course of the listening to, he seems to have modified his place. When Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma questioned him about his views on abortion, he stated that he agreed with President Trump that “each abortion is a tragedy” and that 1.2 million abortions (the estimated quantity within the U.S. in 2023) is just too many. He additionally stated he helps Trump’s view that states ought to resolve on abortion entry, but just like the president, he additionally opposes “late-term abortions” (that are virtually at all times completed for medical causes) and helps so-called conscience exemptions (by which a supplier can select to not present abortion look after spiritual causes).

Continual Illness

A lot of the Republicans’ questioning of Kennedy targeted on his perception that the nation is going through a persistent illness epidemic pushed by weight problems, unhealthy meals and a damaged well being care system. Kennedy cited a slew of statistics about how charges of persistent ailments, comparable to diabetes and autoimmune sicknesses, and autism have mushroomed, notably in kids. He has pointed to processed meals and meals components as main drivers of this development. Some proof has linked consumption of ultraprocessed meals to well being harms, nevertheless it’s unclear what, if any, actions Kennedy would take as HHS secretary to fight it. President Trump has taken a deregulatory method to authorities, so the thought of his administration’s HHS regulating meals corporations or faculty lunches doesn’t seem possible.

Infectious Illnesses

Because the listening to wrapped up, the questions turned to Kennedy’s earlier statements about shifting HHS’s priorities away from infectious ailments to persistent ones. He reportedly informed an antivaccine convention in November 2023 that he would inform the Nationwide Institutes of Well being to take a “break” from finding out infectious ailments for the subsequent eight years. When Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota requested, “Do you propose to offer analysis on hen flu a break?”—referring to a illness that has brought on a widespread outbreak in U.S. cattle, contaminated 67 individuals within the nation and killed one—Kennedy demurred, saying he would proceed to work to stop pandemics. His earlier document of opposing vaccines and different very important well being measures recommend in any other case.

Kennedy’s overview for HHS secretary is anticipated to go earlier than one other congressional committee on Thursday. Senators even have a interval to submit additional inquiries to Kennedy earlier than a remaining vote.

Further reporting by Lauren J. Younger.