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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appears before the Senate Finance Committee at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Sept. 4, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON \u2014 Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u00a0 vehemently defended his actions on vaccines and other public health issues under questioning by both Republican and Democratic senators during a contentious hearing Thursday.<\/p>\n
Kennedy, confirmed on a mostly party-line vote earlier this year, repeatedly justified firing everyone on an influential vaccine advisory panel, as well as the president\u2019s\u00a0decision to remove<\/a> a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director who\u2019d served for less than a month after confirmation by the Senate.<\/p>\n \u201cIn your confirmation hearings, you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines. Since then, I\u2019ve grown deeply concerned,\u201d said Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo. \u201cThe public has seen measles outbreaks. Leadership of the National Institutes of Health questioning the use of mRNA vaccines. The recently confirmed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fired. Americans don\u2019t know who to rely on.\u201d<\/p>\n Video courtesy of C-SPAN.<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Barrasso, an orthopedic surgeon, sought to reinforce support for vaccines to Kennedy during the Senate Finance Committee hearing, saying they \u201care estimated to have saved 154 million lives worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician who received several concessions from Kennedy in exchange for voting to confirm him as HHS secretary, raised numerous questions about Kennedy\u2019s behavior. Cassidy is the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.<\/p>\n Cassidy appeared to box in Kennedy on the COVID-19 vaccine by saying President Donald Trump should receive the Nobel Prize for Operation Warp Speed, which led to the development of the shot during his first term.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kennedy agreed Trump should \u201cabsolutely\u201d get the prize, leading Cassidy to question why he\u2019d taken actions as HHS secretary to erode trust and eliminate funding for vaccine development activities.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt surprises me that you think so highly of Operation Warp Speed when, as an attorney, you attempted to restrict access,\u201d Cassidy said. \u201cIt also surprises me because you\u2019ve canceled, or HHS did, but apparently under your direction, $500 million in contracts using the mRNA vaccine platform that was critical to Operation Warp Speed.\u201d<\/p>\n Cassidy said the cancellation represents not only \u201can incredible waste of money but it also seems like a commentary upon what the president did in Operation Warp Speed, which is to create a platform by which to create vaccines.\u201d<\/p>\n Cassidy also questioned Kennedy\u2019s actions eliminating everyone on the CDC\u2019s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and replacing them with his own choices.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf we put people who are paid witnesses for people suing vaccines, that actually seems like a conflict of interest,\u201d Cassidy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kennedy disagreed, testifying that \u201cit may be a bias. And that bias, if disclosed, is okay.\u201d<\/p>\n North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis asked Kennedy a series of questions but said he wanted the secretary to submit his answers in writing in order to clarify several of his positions.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSome of your statements seem to contradict what you said in the prior hearing,\u201d Tillis said. \u201cYou said you\u2019re going to empower the scientists at HHS to do their job. I\u2019d just like to see evidence where you\u2019ve done that, and I\u2019m sure that you will have some.\u201d<\/p>\n Tillis said he wanted Kennedy to respond to reports that he\u2019s gone back on his commitments to senators to not do anything \u201cthat makes it difficult or discourages people from taking vaccines\u201d and that Kennedy would not \u201cimpose my belief over any of yours.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat, again, seems to be contradictory to the firing of the CDC director, the canceling of mRNA research contracts, firing advisory board members, attempting to stall NIH funding, eliminating funding for I think a half a billion dollars for further mRNA research,\u201d he said, referring to the National Institutes of Health.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tillis said he was having difficulty understanding why former CDC Director Susan Monarez, whom Trump nominated in March and the Senate voted to confirm in late July, had been fired so quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t see how you go \u2026 from a public health expert with unimpeachable scientific credentials, a long-time champion of MAHA values, caring and compassionate and brilliant microbiologist \u2014 and four weeks later, fire her,\u201d Tillis said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock questioned Kennedy at length over the firing of Monarez as well as\u00a0a shooting at the Atlanta-based agency<\/a> this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kennedy testified that he doesn\u2019t believe he criticized Monarez during a meeting in late August over her comments following the CDC shooting that \u201cmisinformation can be dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n During that meeting, Kennedy said he did demand that Monarez fire career CDC scientists but testified he didn\u2019t tell her to accept the recommendations of the vaccine advisory panel without further review.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I asked her about is, she had made a statement that she was going to not sign on and I wanted clarification about that,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cI told her I didn\u2019t want her to have a role if she\u2019s not going to sign onto it.\u201d<\/p>\n Monarez wrote in\u00a0an op-ed<\/a> published in the Wall Street Journal just hours before the hearing began that during the meeting with Kennedy she \u201cwas told to preapprove the recommendations of a vaccine advisory panel newly filled with people who have publicly expressed antivaccine rhetoric.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat panel\u2019s next meeting is scheduled for Sept. 18-19,\u201d Monarez wrote. \u201cIt is imperative that the panel\u2019s recommendations aren\u2019t rubber-stamped but instead are rigorously and scientifically reviewed before being accepted or rejected.\u201d<\/p>\n Warnock asked Kennedy if he said that the CDC was the \u201cmost corrupt federal agency in the history of the world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Kennedy testified he didn\u2019t say that exactly but did say \u201cit\u2019s the most corrupt agency at HHS and maybe the government.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Warnock concluded his five minutes of questions telling Kennedy that \u201cit\u2019s clear you\u2019re carrying out your extremist beliefs\u201d and that he represents \u201ca threat to the public health of the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor the first time, we\u2019re seeing deaths from children from measles,\u201d Warnock said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t seen that in two decades. We\u2019re seeing that under your watch. You are a hazard to the health of the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n Several senators, including Oklahoma Republican James Lankford and Montana Republican Steve Daines, asked Kennedy about the ongoing review of mifepristone, one of two prescription pharmaceuticals used in medication abortion.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kennedy said he spoke with FDA Commissioner Marty Makary about the topic just yesterday and committed to keeping senators informed, but didn\u2019t appear to know much more than that.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if they\u2019re going to do an insurance claim study. That\u2019s one way to do it. I don\u2019t know exactly whether they\u2019re doing epidemiological studies or observational studies. I don\u2019t know exactly what they\u2019re doing,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cBut I know I talked to Marty Makary about it yesterday, and he said those studies are progressing and that they\u2019re ongoing. So I will keep your office informed at every stage.\u201d<\/p>\n Kennedy testified that he didn\u2019t know when exactly the studies would be completed.\u00a0<\/p>\n The FDA first approved mifepristone in 2000 before updating the prescribing guidelines in 2016 and during the coronavirus pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s currently approved for up to 10 weeks gestation and can be prescribed via telehealth and shipped to patients. Mifepristone is the first pharmaceutical of medication abortion and is typically followed by misoprostol.\u00a0<\/p>\n Medication abortion accounted for about 64% of all abortions in 2023, according to\u00a0research<\/a> from the Guttmacher Institute.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nTillis asks RFK Jr. to respond in writing<\/h4>\n
CDC shooting, Monarez firing probed<\/h4>\n
Lankford, Daines ask about medication abortion<\/h4>\n