Well being Secretary RFK Jr. grilled on vaccines and extra throughout Senate listening to : NPR

[ad_1] Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was questioned by senators from each events on Thursday about vaccine entry and extra. NPR analyzes the well being secretary's almost three-hour look.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

In a couple of minutes, we'll communicate with Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington state who had sharp phrases for Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about his coverage on vaccines at a listening to yesterday. We'll ask her to say extra about what considerations her.

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

First, although, we'll discover out extra about that listening to, which noticed Kennedy conflict repeatedly with senators.

MARTIN: Throughout his nomination for the publish earlier this 12 months, Kennedy assured lawmakers he wouldn't forestall individuals who need vaccines from getting them, regardless of having constructed his popularity and his fortune as an anti-vaccine activist. Since he bought the job, lots of these senators have come to imagine he is taken actions that, mixed, have damaged that promise.

MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin watched the listening to yesterday and is right here to clarify. In order that was some must-see TV, Selena. What questions did...

SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN, BYLINE: Yeah.

MARTÍNEZ: ...The senators have for Kennedy about vaccines?

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Properly, you recognize, fall is coming. Winter is coming, proper? And for lots of people, which means the flu shot and the COVID-19 booster to guard in opposition to the respiratory viruses that begin getting handed round. So this 12 months, the Meals and Drug Administration accepted the COVID booster, with a catch. It isn't accepted for everyone, simply individuals with sure situations and folks over 65. And there is already an enormous quantity of confusion about what which means in actual life, you recognize, for medical doctors, sufferers, insurance coverage firms. However yesterday, within the listening to, Secretary Kennedy insisted that anyone who needs the shot can get it, and he bought actually offended when he was pressed about it. Here is one instance. It was an alternate with Senator Maggie Hassan, Democrat of New Hampshire, who was asking in regards to the COVID-19 booster for teenagers.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MAGGIE HASSAN: Now dad and mom who resolve that they do need their kids to have a COVID vaccine cannot...

ROBERT F KENNEDY JR: You are simply making stuff up, Senator.

HASSAN: I am not making stuff up.

KENNEDY: You are simply making stuff up.

HASSAN: , generally if you make an accusation, it is form of a confession, Mr. Kennedy.

MARTÍNEZ: Wow. All proper. So who's proper? Senator Hassan or Secretary Kennedy?

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Hassan is correct that oldsters of youngsters with out sure situations are most likely going to face obstacles getting the booster shot this 12 months. This approval just for sure teams signifies that simply wanting the vaccine - you recognize, making the private option to get one - may not be sufficient this 12 months. And, you recognize, a giant query mark is what the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices goes to do. You may bear in mind, that is the group that Kennedy stated he would not contact, after which he fired all 17 members and changed them together with his picks, lots of whom have a historical past, like him, of anti-vaccine activism.

MARTÍNEZ: Now, all this is not simply solely about COVID-19 vaccines.

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Yeah, that is proper. The panel, who's assembly later this month, can be set to contemplate routine childhood vaccines, just like the one for measles, mumps and rubella and hepatitis B. Senator Michael Bennet, Democrat of Colorado, requested Kennedy if that meant faculties and fogeys in his state must be ready for extra measles outbreaks.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

KENNEDY: I don't anticipate a change within the MMR vaccine. I - you recognize, ACIP is an impartial panel. So...

MICHAEL BENNET: Properly, it is a panel you simply put these people on. Removed from what you stated, they're individuals with concepts which are utterly exterior the mainstream.

KENNEDY: You imply out of the pharmaceutical paradigm?

BENNET: Let me simply...

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Yeah, that was considered one of a number of occasions within the listening to that Kennedy equated scientific consensus that vaccines are secure and efficient and save lives with researchers by some means being compromised by drug firms. There was a memorable second when Senator Sanders, impartial of Vermont, picked up on that.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BERNIE SANDERS: All people is corrupt however you? Is that what we're ? I do not assume so. And I believe the difficulty now...

KENNEDY: I do not even know what you are speaking about.

SANDERS: Properly, I believe you do know what I am speaking about.

KENNEDY: I do not know what you are...

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: When pressed by Sanders, Kennedy stated, sure, he does assume mainstream medical organizations just like the American Academy of Pediatrics cannot be trusted as a result of they're, quote, "gravely conflicted" and claiming their prime contributors are vaccine-makers.

MARTÍNEZ: That is NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin. Thanks rather a lot.

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: You are welcome.

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