RFK Jr, Day One
Nominated as Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Trump Administration, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr faces two days of Senate confirmation hearings
This morning Robert F. Kennedy, Jr testified before the Senate Finance Committee, regarding his nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services. Outside the chambers, an impressive press conference preceeded, as physicians, consumer protection advocates, public health leaders and scientists delineated reasons that they felt Kennedy should block Senate confirmation of Kennedy. The presser featured representatives of more than 27,000 physicians and thousands of scientists and public health leaders. Among their stated concerns were:
Kennedy has denied that HIV causes AIDS.
Kennedy is a litigator, with pharmaceutical companies as his primary targets. He has garnered millions of dollars of wealth, personally, and for his firm, by suing, claiming health damage caused by vaccines.
Kennedy was instrumental in opposing measles vaccination during an epidemic of the disease in Samoa – 70 people, including children died as a result.
Kennedy opposed COVID vaccination, and filed a lawsuit against Moderna and Pfizer alleging their products were so poisonous that more people would likely die from the products than from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Kennedy has called for “complete cessation” of infectious diseases research for eight years at the NIH, declaring that under his MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) program of exercise, vitamin supplements and diet, America will become slimmer, stronger and have no need for most pharmaceutical products.
Kennedy has backed a number of what the protestors terms “quack drugs” and food supplements.
Kennedy’s legal group has called for cessation of polio vaccination.
Kennedy has shown no interest in, or understanding of the global health efforts carried out by multiple UN and nonprofit organizations worldwide.
Kennedy has never managed a private corporation or large company; he is ill-suited to tackling HHS, which has a budget of $1.84 trillion, and more than 80,000 employees, located all over the world.
Kennedy claims much illness is derived from environmental pollution – a point most agree with. But he supports Trump’s intended dismantling of the EPA, down-sizing of USDA, and overall deregulation of the government.
Kennedy has openly disparaged all aspects of public health, likening CDC to “Nazi death camps”, and directly attacking former NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, saying the scientist should be imprisoned
Kennedy believes the FDA colludes with the pharmaceutical industry, and must be completely reorganized to more closely scrutinize pharmaceuticals, while allowing quick licensing and distribution of herbal remedies, supplements and “alternative medicine,” without the same level of scientific safety and efficacy studies.
Kennedy has especially targeted the vaccine that prevents cervical and anal carcinomas, controlling the HPV virus. He has advocated banning the first truly effective cancer vaccine.
Before the Hearing Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, RFK’s cousin, issued a blistering denunciation of the former presidential candidate, begging Senators to decline confirmation of the President’s nominee. His niece released copies of emailed correspondence between she and Uncle Bobby, in which he promoted antivaccine sentiments, including refusing COVID immunization.
Kennedy opened the Hearing with brief remarks, starting with, "I want to make sure the committee is clear about a few things. News reports have claimed that I am anti-vaccine or anti-industry. Well, I am neither; I am pro-safety.”
In the Hearing, Kennedy displayed little understanding of how Medicare, Medicaid and the ACA work, interchangeably referring to them. He insisted, “People do not like the Affordable Care Act. They would prefer to be on private insurance.” And to hold down costs, “people must be made accountable for their own health,” paying more, or getting less insurance coverage if they, for example, smoke tobacco or are obese.
“Medicaid is a critical program, but it’s not working as it ought to be. Most Americans are not happy with it. Too much money is going to the insurance industry,” Kennedy asserted, adding, “President Trump has not told me to cut Medicaid, he’s told me to make it better.”
“We had a higher death count that any other country in the world,” to COVID, he (accurately) stated. He claimed it’s because, “we have the sickest people in the world.”
“Social distancing did not have any scientific basis,” in the COVID fight, Kennedy said. When asked, “Did you say that COVID was designed to spare Ashkenazi Jews?” Kennedy responded, “I quoted a study that said that.”
Asked if he’d said that Lyme Disease is a genetically engineered illness, Kennedy responded, “Yes, I said that.” Did he claim that it is “undeniable” that African AIDS is a different disease than AIDS in America? He responded, “I‘m not sure.”
When campaigning with Trump, Kennedy said that he would immediately eliminate 2,000 scientists’ jobs at the NIH. Which ones, he was asked. “There’s 3,750 political appointees at NIH,” declining to further delineate. He would not promise to retain food safety scientists.
Georgia’s Senator Warnock noted that his State is home to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, and cited Kennedy’s statements comparing the agency to “Nazi death camps,” and its employees to Catholic priests that sexually abused children.
“I was not comparing the CDC to Nazi death camps, I was comparing the injury rate of our children to other catastrophes,” he said, adding “that 97% of people at CDC have conflicts. I don’t believe that’s right.”
In questioning about mental health and pharmaceutical treatment of children Kennedy was very critical of SSRI antidepressants, claiming they were as addictive as heroin — or worse. When Senator Smith (D-VT), who said she had been treated successfully for depression, challenged Kennedy’s addiction claim with data showing heroin is far more addictive, by an order of magnitude, Kennedy declined to retract his statement.
Overall, Kennedy demonstrated legal skills, deftly dodging potential traps laid by crafty Democrats. But his overall MAHA pitch seemed doomed to collide with the MAGA agenda. Though he has changed his views on abortion to accomodate those of President Trump, Kennedy appears far more critical of corporate America — especially the insurance and pharmaceutical industries — than mainstream GOP, including Republican Senators in the Hearing. Though his boss stopped the flow of cash to cover medical research, HIV treatments in Africa, Medicaid, children’s health programs and a long list of other efforts that fall under HHS, Kennedy vowed swift restoration of life-saving programs.
Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitestone (Dem) wasn’t buying Kennedy’s recent conversion to anti-abortion positions in harmony with the Right to Life Movement. In the final moments of the Hearing, Whitestone emotionally described how, and why, want-to-be-moms are compelled to undergo late term abortions, because they are in a “childbirth gone wrong,” where quick heart-wrenching choices must be made to save either the mother or baby. “And at that point the question became who lives and who dies” – Mom, child or both. “Government has no place in that room at that point,” Whitestone, his voice trembling, said to Kennedy. “To try to shove the State Legislature into that room is really offensive, really wrong.”
Tomorrow (January 30) Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will appear before tghe Senate Committee on Health, Labor and Pensions, starting at 10 am EST.
References
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RFK Jr. disparaged vaccines dozens of times in recent years and made baseless claims on race
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Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is NOT a “vaccine skeptic. ” He is antivax. Period.
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