Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the US Department of Health and Human Services, told a US Senate committee that he would not stop anyone from getting polio and measles vaccines.
Near the start of the contentious hearing, Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking Democratic senator on the committee, said Kennedy “has embraced conspiracy theories, quacks, charlatans, especially when it comes to the safety and efficacy of vaccines.”
After Wyden referred to a 2023 podcast where Kennedy said that “there’s no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective” the nominee said it was taken out of context and he had been about to qualify it before he was interrupted. Bringing it up again was “dishonest,” Kennedy said.
“I support the measles vaccine. I support the polio vaccine,” he said.
Kennedy also promised that his approach to the HHS will be “radical transparency” and promised to release information from various HHS agencies promptly without redactions.
Protesters repeatedly interrupted the hearing and had to be removed, including one who shouted, “he lies – first do no harm,” after Kennedy said he doesn’t oppose vaccines.
Kennedy, a prominent vaccine critic during the Covid-19 pandemic and former Democratic presidential candidate who earlier supported abortion, has worked to convince Senators that he no longer thinks that way.
If confirmed by the Senate for the top health role in Trump’s administration, Kennedy could change some of the nation’s public health practices.
He would have influence over the Food and Drug Administration, which decides whether to approve cutting-edge treatments, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which makes recommendations for vaccine use. The HHS has widespread reach into the lives and health of all Americans, accounting for about a quarter of the federal budget.
Kennedy ran for the Democratic nomination against President Joe Biden. After he withdrew from the race and endorsed Trump, Kennedy rebranded his campaign website as Make America Healthy Again, a play on Trump’s Make America Great Again campaign slogan, and brought many critics of chemicals in US food supplies into the Trump fold.
At the hearing on Wednesday, Kennedy pointed to the number of “MAHA moms” in attendance who waved back at him before being cautioned by police.
(c) 2025, Bloomberg · Robert Langreth and Antonia Mufarech
Please report honest news. When covid came out he said that it only affects whites and blacks NOT JEWS.
He said that the polios vaccines cause cancer. The list of his crazy conspiracy goes on. Do some research on him.
Why was my comment deleted? Why can’t you post different opinions? .
Your stupid comment was deleted because you have brains where you sit. How’s that?
The media and the left wing democrats are petrified of RFK jr getting anywhere near the white house. There is nothing they can do to stop him. The Republicans have the majority in the Congress and the Senate.
“Kennedy, a prominent vaccine critic during the Covid-19 pandemic…”
This is of course an emotional attempt to deride him. Not as sleazy as AP’s usual “standards”, at least.
All of a sudden RFK changed his mind? Isn’t it the measles vaccines that causes autism? The Amish who do not vaccinate their children at all (except for this idiots who think they know better) have zero autism.
RFK 4 months ago:
MEASLES VACCINE
• WOULD YOU give your kids the measles and mumps vaccines?
—— NO, Absolutely
—— it is very hard to kill a healthy child with any infectious disease, particularly with measles.
—— WHO themselves say Vitamin A is an absolute cure for measles.
• Kids who are exposed to measles as a child are much healthier when they grow up.
—— they’re much more resistant to cancers, atopic diseases, allergies, and heart disease.
HEPATITIS B VACCINE
• the CDC’s own data in 1989 showed that babies that got the hepatitis b vaccin within the first 30 days had a 1,350% chance that child would develop autism. Wow.
DO VACCINES CAUSE AUTISM?
• Yes, Vaccines cause autism
—— all of these ‘studies’ trying to disprove that are paid handsomely by the CDC.
—— one of the most referenced and cited studies used was/is from a Chief Scientist named Paul Thornsen.
—— Paul Thornsen is now a fugitive and wanted by Interpol and stole millions of dollars from the CDC and spent that money on a luxurious lifestyle and instead of studies.
Bobby Kennedy will be confirmed so all your crying is for naught.
“Please report honest news. When covid came out he said that it only affects whites and blacks NOT JEWS.
He said that the polios vaccines cause cancer. The list of his crazy conspiracy goes on. Do some research on him.”
If you’d have done more research on him, you’d have realized that that line was completely taken out of context. He was referencing a theory that’s out there, and only in order to bring out a point about the mechanisms on disease. He lumped Chinese together with Ashkenazi Jews. And He was not endorsing that view; and said it in a private setting where he didn’t think it would become viral, and be taken out of context. We should have alot of Hakaros Hatov towards him for being a vocal pro-israel voice; even debating anti-Israel people. He also put out a statement praising the Lubavicher Rebbe when he was smeared by Candace Owens. There are enough real anti-semites; we can’t afford to smear people who are clearly not.
True. Biden’s transgender appointee, Rachel Levine, was by far a better candidate. Maybe you can get the white racist homophobic Trump to hire her/him/it/X again.