Kennedy on defensive over his vaccine views as a key confirmation vote hangs in the balance
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WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s long record of questioning the safety of childhood vaccinations persisted as a flash point for him Thursday during a confirmation hearing in which senators, including a key Republican, shared intensely personal details about the impact vaccine skepticism had on their lives.
In one response, Kennedy refused to flatly reject a long-discredited claim that vaccines cause autism, despite years of studies and research that have found they do not.
His vaccine views could jeopardize his standing with just a few Republicans and has not helped him win over any votes among Democrats in his bid to become health secretary. If all Democrats reject Kennedy’s nomination, he can afford to lose only three Republican votes.
Much attention was focused on the questions from Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Republican chairman of the health committee, who is also a physician. Cassidy, who is up for reelection next year, expressed pointed concern about Kennedy’s vaccine views, noting that the nominee’s broad popularity had given him a powerful platform on the subject.
“Whether it’s justified or not, I have constituents who partly credit you for their decision to not vaccinate their child,” Cassidy told the nominee.
He shared with Kennedy a personal story about an 18-year-old woman whose liver was failing from a hepatitis infection.
The anti-vaccine activist could oversee the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.
“It was the worst day of my medical career because I thought $50 of vaccines could have prevented this all,” Cassidy said.
In a letter to senators, Caroline Kennedy etches a damning sketch of her cousin, the latest condemnation Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has received from members of his family.
He then bore into Kennedy’s views on common vaccines, Lyme disease and approvals for future vaccines.
“If you are approved to this position, will you say unequivocally, will you reassure mothers unequivocally and without qualification that the measles and hepatitis B vaccines do not cause autism?” Cassidy asked.
Kennedy would not. Instead he avoided answering directly, saying “if the data is there, I will absolutely do that.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced aggressive questions about his skepticism of vaccines and other issues during the first of two scheduled Senate confirmation hearings.
In a rare show of across-the-aisle cooperation, Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with the Democrats, followed up on Cassidy’s line of questioning.
Again, Kennedy refused to give a definitive answer.
Then, in the closing moments of the hearing, Cassidy offered Kennedy studies that have proved vaccinations do not cause autism, prodding him to accept the research. Kennedy would not, instead responding with an article — one that Cassidy said had “issues.”
Saying clearly that vaccines do not cause autism “would have incredible impact,” Cassidy told him. “That would have incredible impact. That’s your power.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends infants receive doses of the hepatitis vaccination.
At times, the questioning was intensely personal. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) shared her anguish as a mother who has spent decades wondering what caused her 36-year-old son’s cerebral palsy. She worried about whether vaccines contributed to her son’s condition after an infamous study years ago falsely found a link between autism and vaccines. That study has since been roundly discredited.
Hassan said Kennedy’s suggestions that vaccines could cause autism were hurting families.
“He is relitigating and churning settled science so we can’t go forward and find out what the cause of autism is and treat these kids and help these families,” she said, later adding: “When you continue to sow doubt about settled science, it makes it impossible for us to move forward.”
Aside from Cassidy, Republicans on the health committee remained friendly to Kennedy. Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama told the hearing that his granddaughter, due in the coming weeks, would not “be a pincushion” when it came to vaccines.
Two others expressed doubts about the safety of vaccines, although both said they’ve vaccinated their own children.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) chided his colleagues for scrutinizing Kennedy’s skeptical stances on vaccinations: “We can’t question science?”
In his opening remarks, Kennedy once again rejected the “anti-vaccine” label and instead said he is “pro-safety.” He repeated many of the same lines he offered to the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday.
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, where the Gardasil vaccine to guard against cervical cancer is made, questioned Kennedy’s financial disclosure forms, which state that he still plans to collect fees in cases referred to the law firm in a suit against that vaccine. Last year, Kennedy made $850,000 off the deal.
“How can folks who need to have confidence in federal vaccine programs trust you to be independent and science-based when you stand to gain significant funding if lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers are successful?” Kaine asked.
Kennedy told Kaine he has given away his rights in the case.
Kaine also questioned Kennedy for saying on social media that he would not “take sides” as conspiracy theorists question what happened during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Kennedy responded that he had been taught from a young age to question authority, saying, “My father told me when I was 13 years old, he said, ‘People in authority lie.’”
Democrats and Republicans alike repeatedly pressed the nominee on his plans around abortion, with Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) asking if he would appoint “pro-life” deputies and several Democrats asking him how he would handle the abortion drug mifepristone.
The Biden administration defended lawsuits against the use of the drug, including its availability over telehealth. Kennedy said no decision had yet been made about how to handle the drug, which the Food and Drug Administration approved to end pregnancies safely more than two decades ago.
“With mifepristone, President Trump has not chosen a policy and I will implement his policy,” Kennedy told the committee.
Kennedy wants to lead the $1.7-trillion agency that oversees healthcare coverage — Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act marketplace — for roughly half the country, approves then recommends vaccines for deadly diseases and conducts safety inspections of food and hospitals.
The Senate finance committee, on which Cassidy sits, will ultimately decide whether to send Kennedy’s nomination to the Senate floor for a vote.
During a three-hour hearing with that committee on Wednesday, Kennedy misstated basic facts about Medicare and Medicaid. But Republicans mostly expressed support for his proposals to push healthier foods to Americans and research the root of chronic diseases such as obesity.
Seitz and Groves write for the Associated Press.
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