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. Young

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., confronted a barrage of questions from U.S. senators at present throughout his affirmation listening to for his nomination for secretary of the Division of Well being and Human Providers. The listening to targeted on views Kennedy, an environmental lawyer with no medical coaching, has expressed on a number of vital points dealing with Individuals’ public well being at present, together with vaccines, power illness and federal well being care applications equivalent to Medicaid. Kennedy’s responses may 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 Providers 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, beneath questioning from each Republican and Democratic senators, the areas the place there’s clearly not quite a lot of familiarity on Kennedy’s half relating to main parts of the HHS portfolio.”

Kennedy has made unsupported and harmful claims about fluoridation, raw 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 at present’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 appear to be.

Vaccines

Kennedy has an extended file of antivaccine activism, although his personal youngsters 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 acknowledged 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 visit to Samoa in 2019, which occurred months earlier than a measles outbreak that killed 83 individuals, lots of them youngsters. Vaccination charges have been already low following a tragic incident the earlier 12 months, when two nurses by chance mixed the MMR vaccine towards measles, mumps and rubella with a muscle relaxant, resulting in the deaths of two youngsters. 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 may have precipitated the infections. Within the affirmation listening to Kennedy denied duty for any position within the lethal outbreak, nevertheless.

Through 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 mentioned he was towards the vaccines’ use in six-year previous youngsters and cited a deceptive declare that that age group doesn’t get severely unwell from COVID. But well being consultants acknowledge the vaccines probably saved hundreds of thousands of lives, together with youngsters’s.

“The information clearly present that there was loads of danger of COVID in younger youngsters, and whereas it’s not as widespread a trigger of significant sickness or dying as it’s in older people, nobody would argue that it isn’t nonetheless a major well being concern, and there’s an excellent purpose to proceed to suggest vaccination in younger youngsters,” Schwartz says.

Medicaid

Through the listening to, Kennedy was requested about his views on Medicaid, the federal government insurance coverage program that helps nearly 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 quickly going offline, which meant that individuals couldn’t test 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 evidence to the contrary. When questioned about whether or not he would minimize Medicaid, he gave oblique solutions stating he would comply with President Donald Trump’s need to reform it.

Abortion

Prior to now Kennedy has been supportive of abortion, however in current months and throughout 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 mentioned 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 simply too many. He additionally mentioned he helps Trump’s view that states ought to determine on abortion entry, but just like the president, he additionally opposes “late-term abortions” (that are virtually at all times done for medical reasons) and helps so-called conscience exemptions (by which a supplier can select to not present abortion take care of spiritual causes).

Power Illness

A lot of the Republicans’ questioning of Kennedy targeted on his perception that the nation is dealing with a power 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 power ailments, equivalent to diabetes and autoimmune sicknesses, and autism have mushroomed, notably in youngsters. He has pointed to processed meals and food additives as main drivers of this pattern. Some proof has linked consumption of ultraprocessed foods to health harms, nevertheless it’s unclear what, if any, actions Kennedy would take as HHS secretary to fight it. President Trump has taken a deregulatory strategy to authorities, so the concept of his administration’s HHS regulating meals firms or college lunches doesn’t seem probably.

Infectious Ailments

Because the listening to wrapped up, the questions turned to Kennedy’s earlier statements about shifting HHS’s priorities away from infectious ailments to power 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 learning infectious ailments for the subsequent eight years. When Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota requested, “Do you propose to provide analysis on bird flu a break?”—referring to a illness that has precipitated 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 forestall pandemics. His earlier file of opposing vaccines and different important well being measures recommend in any other case.

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

Extra reporting by Lauren J. Younger.