Robert Kennedy Jr. takes bipartisan heat during hearing before Senate Finance Committee

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., vigorously defended his leadership and President Donald Trump’s health care agenda in the face of intense questioning from both Democrats and Republicans at a Senate committee hearing Thursday.

The secretary was brought in for questioning, at least in part due to his firing of the Trump-appointed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director, Susan Monarez, who held her post for less than a month. But senators interrogated Kennedy over a number of topics with marked hostility – even from some Republicans – accusing him of endangering public health, politicizing science and going back on his word.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., himself a physician, pressed Kennedy on why he voiced support for Trump’s fast-tracking of COVID-19 vaccines in 2020, yet recently canceled $500 million in HHS contracts for mRNA vaccine development – the same type of vaccine used for COVID-19.

Kennedy said he supported Operation Warp Speed because he believed it met the needs of the moment without violating Americans’ personal autonomy.

“It got the vaccine to mark that was perfectly matched to the virus at that time when it was badly needed because there was low natural immunity, and there were people getting very badly injured by COVID,” Kennedy said. “But [Trump also] brought in therapeutics like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin and protocols for treatments and all. And there were no mandates.”

Cassidy seemed dissatisfied with that response but moved on to Kennedy’s overhaul of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The secretary terminated all 17 of its members and replaced them with eight people he appointed.

The senator said he agreed with statements Kennedy had made about restricting “participation in agencies for those with conflicts of interest” but suggested that Kennedy ignored that principle with his appointments to the panel.

“Many of those whom you've nominated for ACIP have received revenue serving as expert witnesses for plaintiffs’ attorneys suing vaccine makers,” Cassidy said. “If we put people who are paid witnesses for people suing vaccines, that actually seems like a conflict of interest… Do you agree with that?”

“No, I don’t,” Kennedy replied. “It may be a bias, and that bias, if disclosed, is okay…”

Kennedy continued to answer but trailed off as Cassidy insisted Kennedy let him finish his line of questioning.

The senator’s final question had to do with Americans’ access to vaccines under the current administration. Kennedy has been an outspoken critic of vaccines, saying they cause autism and other health problems. Monarez wrote in an op-ed published by The Wall Street Journal that disagreement over vaccines triggered her firing.

However, Kennedy has also said at different times that he wants people to have access to the vaccines they want.

Cassidy read from letters he had received from a fellow physician who said that physicians and pharmacists are afraid to give the latest COVID vaccine to patients because they’re unclear about the new restrictions. Another person wrote in and said his wife was unable to get the vaccine, even though she has stage four lung cancer.

The Food and Drug Administration recently approved new versions of the vaccines but with stricter limitations.

“I would say effectively we’re denying people vaccines,” Cassidy said.

Another Republican senator, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, asked the secretary if he had gone back on his word to keep HHS out of developing farming regulations and leave it to the Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency.

“We are working very, very closely with Brooke Rollins and with the agricultural community. We’ve met with over 140 farm interests over the past three months to incorporate them to make sure that the MAHA agenda is consistent with their agenda,” Kennedy said. “We’re consulting every stakeholder in the farm community in everything that we do.”

“Some of the farmers in my state have been raising questions about some of the things that they think you said. Whether it was out of context or not, I just thought I'd raise this question so that you would keep by what you told us back in January at your confirmation hearing,” Grassley said.

Despite even more aggressive questioning from Democratic senators, Kennedy unwaveringly defended his department and its vision.

In response to questions from Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., suggesting that Kennedy’s overhaul of the advisory committee would endanger children and make them more vulnerable to disease, Kennedy stood by his actions.

“Congress has been investigating that committee for 23 years, because it is, it is pervaded with conflicts of interest. What we did is we got rid of the conflicts of interest when we depoliticized and put great scientists on it from a very diverse group,” Kennedy said.

Senators can submit more questions to Kennedy as part of the investigation through Thursday, Sept. 11.