The shouting match of RFK Jr., lawmakers over Americans’ health

The health secretary’s “defiant performance at the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, his critics say, put on vivid display what happens when someone with no medical or scientific training and a conspiracy-minded approach takes charge of the nation’s public health,” says a New York Times analysis. 

“Instead of being guided by rigorous research and nuanced debate over complex issues that defy easy answers, the country’s health secretary rejects facts that do not fit his theories and casts out experts who are not aligned with him. He is buoyed by the support of a vocal populist base that shares his suspicions of organized medicine and is energized by his push for a new approach,” the Times says.

Kennedy’s distrust of his department’s scientists and doctors has created turmoil in the nation’s public health agencies, especially the CDC, says the Times. Mass firings and restructuring have stripped the CDC of expertise. The health secretary dismissed an entire panel of vaccine experts. And he fired CDC Director Susan Monarez — whom he’d called a “brilliant microbiologist and a tech wizard” — just a month after the Senate confirmed her.

At Thursday’s hearing, GOP Sens. Bill Cassidy, La., and John Barrasso, Wyo., both medical doctors, joined Democrats in criticizing Kennedy for undermining vaccines.

Here are highlights of the hearing, from PBS.

And here is a fact check, from The Associated Press.

Here is an opinion article by fired CDC Director Monarez, in The Wall Street Journal.

In recent days, Kennedy’s sister Kerry and his nephew, former Rep. Joe Kennedy III, D-Mass., have called for him to step down. And three former surgeons general, including Dr. Jerome Adams, who served during the first Trump administration, write in a USA Today essay that Kennedy is jeopardizing the integrity of the CDC and public health.

Meanwhile, as Florida takes steps to be the first state to eliminate school vaccine mandates, other states are pledging to protect vaccines for children and adults, AP reports.