Robert F. Kennedy Jr. leads the United States Department of Health and Human Services, but according to congressional evidence given on Wednesday, May 14, he is not a medical specialist.
During a House Appropriations Committee hearing, Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan and others challenged Kennedy on his previous views concerning vaccines.
Just a few weeks after making misleading claims regarding the MMR vaccination, which protects against measles, mumps, and rubella, RFK Jr. was asked if he would choose to vaccinate his children now.
Kennedy, who has previously claimed that he regrets vaccinating his six children, avoided answering the topic, adding, “I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me.”
When asked, he stated that he would “probably” choose to vaccinate his children but emphasized that his beliefs on vaccinations are immaterial. I do not wish to provide counsel.”
Prior to his nomination at HHS, Kennedy was an outspoken anti-vaccine advocate who continued to push untested therapies throughout an ongoing measles outbreak that has reached over 1,000 cases, spread to 31 states, and resulted in three deaths, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Members of Congress lambasted him for refusing to speak up on the issue.
In her closing remarks, ranking committee member Rep. Rosa DeLauro stated that Kennedy, as the secretary of HHS and President Donald Trump’s top health adviser, “makes medical decisions every day.”
“You are the Secretary of HHS. “You have enormous power over health policy,” she stated. “[It is] truly horrifying that you will not encourage families to vaccinate their children against measles, chickenpox, and polio.” Vaccines are a key component of public health. Vaccines do save lives, and the fact that the Secretary of Health and Human Services refuses to urge children to get vaccinated is a tragedy.”
Kennedy’s newest contentious remarks came just weeks after he was accused of inciting panic by erroneously saying that the MMR vaccination contained “aborted fetus debris.”
“There are people in our country who are particularly affected, such as the Mennonites in Texas, and they have religious concerns about immunization since the MMR vaccine contains a lot of aborted baby material and DNA particles.” So they don’t want to take it,” Kennedy said to Chris Cuomo during a NewsNation town hall. “Therefore, we should ensure that those populations receive proper care when they become ill, which is one of the responsibilities that the CDC has failed to fulfill.”
Numerous health specialists instantly rejected Kennedy’s comments and decried the dissemination of misinformation.
“The claim that the MMR vaccine contains ‘fetal debris’ is not only scientifically inaccurate, but it’s dangerously misleading,” Dr. Tyler Evans, former chief medical officer of New York City, told The Independent. “We produced the rubella component of the MMR vaccination decades ago using a well-established human cell line, which we have duplicated several times. The vaccination contains no genuine fetal tissue.
Evans kept going: “It’s time we stop politicizing science and return to evidence-based public health, because mistrust fueled by misinformation puts our most vulnerable communities at risk.”
Dr. Shira Doron, chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine and hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center, told Health that the vaccines do not include fetal components, detritus, or cells. “However, it is true that the viruses required for vaccine production are produced in cells,” in some cases, human cells.”
Doron went on to say that of all vaccinations, “the MMR vaccine is by far among the safest,” since it has been used and tested “extensively.”