Throughout his second day of affirmation hearings for HHS secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. mentioned the U.S. “will sink beneath a sea of desperation and debt if we don’t change course and ask the elemental query, ‘Why are healthcare prices so excessive within the first place?’ The apparent reply to that query is power illness.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hit again at Congress members who attacked his stance on vaccines and the power illness epidemic, suggesting as we speak throughout his second U.S. Senate listening to to guide the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers (HHS) that a number of members have accepted donations from Massive Pharma.
At some point after his first affirmation listening to within the Senate Finance Committee, which included an alternate with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) about onesies bought on the Kids’s Well being Protection (CHD) web site, Kennedy testified earlier than the Senate Well being, Training, Labor and Pensions Committee, for which Sanders is a rating member.
Throughout an alternate with Sanders, Kennedy mentioned, “Corruption is not only within the federal businesses, it’s in Congress too. Nearly all of the members of this panel … together with your self, are accepting hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from the pharmaceutical {industry}.”
🔥 MIC DROP: @RobertKennedyJr calls out Bernie Sanders for his Massive Pharma cash. pic.twitter.com/Gm7uLIsmZ8
— Kids’s Well being Protection (@ChildrensHD) January 30, 2025
This was one among a number of contentious moments throughout as we speak’s assembly, which additionally targeted on vaccine security, the power illness epidemic and conflicts of curiosity in scientific analysis.
Kennedy continuously questioned the effectiveness of U.S. public well being businesses in addressing the power well being epidemic, which he mentioned has come at a fantastic price each when it comes to fatalities and the epidemic’s financial burden.
“The main target is on infectious illness, and we virtually altogether ignore power illness, which causes 92% of the deaths on this nation,” Kennedy mentioned. Noting that the U.S. had a disproportionate share of COVID-19-related deaths through the pandemic, Kennedy mentioned it’s as a result of “we’re the sickest individuals on earth.”
🚨 WAKE UP: The CDC Is Protecting You Sick!
“Throughout COVID, we had the very best demise price of any nation on this planet… and also you ask @CDCgov why was that? They mentioned, ‘as a result of now we have the sickest individuals on earth.’” @RobertKennedyJr pic.twitter.com/VlQDopSGQK
— Kids’s Well being Protection (@ChildrensHD) January 30, 2025
Kennedy pledged to reverse this pattern, if confirmed as HHS secretary, by emphasizing transparency and “good science.”
‘I’m pro-good science’
In contrast to yesterday’s listening to, as we speak’s listening to targeted extensively on Kennedy’s views on vaccines and vaccine security. Kennedy responded to claims he’s “anti-vaccine” and “anti-industry.”
“I’m neither. I’m pro-safety. I’m pro-good science,” Kennedy mentioned. “We should always at all times comply with the proof it doesn’t matter what it says.” Kennedy mentioned he wouldn’t “impose” his opinions on HHS scientists. As a substitute, he would help inspecting “all the info” by empowering HHS scientists to do their job.
“We can have one of the best vaccine requirements, with security research,” Kennedy mentioned.
A lot of the dialogue about vaccines centered on rising autism charges, with Kennedy noting that they’ve elevated from 1 in 10,000 to as excessive as 1 in 34, calling this an “explosion” that public well being businesses have lengthy ignored.
Kennedy referred to a current peer-reviewed examine of 47,000 9-year-olds to reply to claims by members of the committee that the hyperlink between autism and vaccines has been definitively debunked. The examine discovered that autism charges had been greater amongst vaccinated youngsters and elevated because the variety of vaccinations grew.
“I simply wish to comply with the science.” @RobertKennedyJr pic.twitter.com/JJ4YKUP3Tq
— Kids’s Well being Protection (@ChildrensHD) January 30, 2025
“Why don’t we all know what’s inflicting this epidemic?” Kennedy requested. “Why hasn’t CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] been taking a look at different hypotheses to find out the etiology of why we’ve had this dramatic 1,000% enhance on this illness that’s destroying our youngsters?”
A number of members of the committee overtly agreed with Kennedy’s stance on autism.
SEN. MULLIN: “1-in-36. If that’s not a pandemic, then what’s? It was 1-in-10,000 have autism. Can any of you guys with a straight face say that we shouldn’t have a look at each side to what we’re placing in our youngsters, be it from the meals to the vaccines?” pic.twitter.com/lzgGQF9IlQ
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) January 30, 2025
“1-in-36. If that’s not a pandemic, then what’s?” requested Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.). “Can any of you guys with a straight face say that we shouldn’t have a look at each side to what we’re placing in our youngsters, be it from the meals to the vaccines?”
“I simply wish to comply with the science the place it leads, with out presupposition,” mentioned Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)
We’ll know for sure what causes autism, if @RobertKennedyJr is confirmed as Secretary of HHS. pic.twitter.com/kCzi1XQJyq
— Kids’s Well being Protection (@ChildrensHD) January 30, 2025
‘We’d like a reliable authorities’
Kennedy additionally addressed the COVID-19 vaccines, stating that mandates and an absence of public belief of their security have contributed to waning vaccination charges.
“If we would like uptake of vaccines, we’d like a reliable authorities,” Kennedy mentioned. “That’s what I wish to restore to the American individuals and the vaccine program. I would like individuals to know if the federal government says one thing, it’s true. It’s not manipulative.”
(Atleast) 77% Of People No Longer Belief CDC
Watch @RobertKennedyJr guarantee this modification when he’s Secretary of HHS. 👇 pic.twitter.com/s2CsLFlSXg
— Kids’s Well being Protection (@ChildrensHD) January 30, 2025
Kennedy responded to claims by some committee members that the COVID-19 vaccines saved hundreds of thousands of lives, declaring that this assertion can’t be made definitively as a result of public well being businesses “don’t have a great surveillance system.”
Kennedy cited a 2021 lawsuit he filed towards the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) over its approval of the COVID-19 vaccines, for example of deficiencies within the security testing by public well being businesses.
🔥 RFK Jr. Corrects @SenatorBaldwin on Submit Surveillance Security Research
WILD IDEA: Possibly lend an ear to listen to from the scientists from opposing viewpoints fairly than settle for these damaged techniques, Senator? pic.twitter.com/mjB5b5cIIu
— Kids’s Well being Protection (@ChildrensHD) January 30, 2025
“I filed that lawsuit after CDC advisable the vaccine for 6-year-old youngsters with none proof that it might profit them and with out testing,” Kennedy mentioned.
Kennedy mentioned he would “help the vaccine program” — however by making certain “that now we have gold-standard, evidence-based science.”
‘A technology of children’ has been ‘written off’
Kennedy instructed that company seize and the entanglement of Massive Pharma with drug regulation and security, have adversely affected People’ well being outcomes.
“Pharmaceuticals at the moment are the third-largest reason for demise in our nation … People are getting much less and fewer wholesome. Seventy % of pharmaceutical income globally come from our nation, which has 4.2% of the world’s inhabitants. We’re the one nation that enables full-scale pharmaceutical adverts on TV,” Kennedy mentioned.
“A technology of children” has been “written off” on account of components akin to “misplaced institutional loyalty” and “entanglements with the drug firms,” Kennedy mentioned.
A technology of children have been written off due to drug firm entanglements. Time to vary that. pic.twitter.com/3bswPQShsJ
— Kids’s Well being Protection (@ChildrensHD) January 30, 2025
“Our nation will sink beneath a sea of desperation and debt if we don’t change course and ask the elemental query, ‘Why are healthcare prices so excessive within the first place?’ The apparent reply to that query is power illness,” Kennedy mentioned.
In line with Kennedy, “a little or no, low share” of the price range of the Nationwide Institutes of Well being (NIH) is dedicated to learning power illness — and the toxins that trigger them. He vowed to vary this if confirmed.
Why are they permitting firms to mass poison our youngsters? pic.twitter.com/nFlw4rOdCf
— Kids’s Well being Protection (@ChildrensHD) January 30, 2025
“We’re permitting these firms — due to their affect over this physique, over our regulatory businesses, to mass-poison American youngsters. And that’s flawed. It wants to finish,” Kennedy mentioned. “The president’s pledge is to not make some People wholesome once more, however to make all People wholesome once more.”
Kennedy’s message drew the help of a few of the committee’s members together with Paul, who in a put up on X mentioned, “RFK Jr. has my vote.” Regardless of his contentious sequence of exchanges with Kennedy, Sanders additionally expressed help for Kennedy’s agenda to “Make America Wholesome Once more.”
In line with Kim Mack Rosenberg, common counsel for CHD, as we speak’s listening to was “a courtesy listening to.” Yesterday’s listening to earlier than the Senate Finance Committee “is the decisive vote that can take the ultimate vote to the Senate flooring.”
Kennedy will then require a easy majority vote within the Senate to be confirmed as HHS secretary. If confirmed, Kennedy will lead a division that oversees 13 public well being businesses, together with the CDC, FDA and NIH.
