Kennedy defends CDC upheaval in contentious hearing
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced tough questions from senators over the course of a nearly three-hour Senate hearing Thursday.
Kennedy was at times both dismissive and annoyed by questions, often getting into shouting matches with Democrats.
Kennedy repeated vaccine misinformation, attacked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and offered differing explanations on his vision for remaking the agency. Kennedy has upended HHS in just six months on the job, but the CDC has borne the brunt of his efforts.
The CDC has lost thousands of employees and nearly half its budget. Within the span of just a month, the agency faced a fatal shooting at its Atlanta headquarters, laid off 600 workers and lost five of its top leaders.
Kennedy’s testimony came a little more than a week after he ousted former CDC director Susan Monarez, prompting four other top officials to resign in protest and roiling the agency.
Kennedy indicated the agency’s remake was just getting started. He called it the most corrupt agency in the federal government and said it was responsible for the rise of chronic illness in the country.
“We are the sickest country in the world. That’s why we have to fire people at the CDC. They did not do their job,” Kennedy said. “I need to fire some of those people to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
Democrats hammered Kennedy on his changes to vaccine policy, as well as his CDC changes.
“It’s been obvious from the start that Robert Kennedy’s primary interest is to take vaccines away from Americans,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said.
But he was also pressed on vaccines by Republicans, notably Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.).
“Effectively, we’re denying people vaccine,” Cassidy said.
Kennedy shouted at Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H) for “just making stuff up” after she said his actions have made it more difficult for Americans to get vaccines.
Kennedy also said he did not know how many Americans died of COVID-19 and whether the vaccines prevented COVID-related deaths, even though the safety and efficacy data from hundreds of reports is readily available and public.
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