RFK Jr. testifies at Senate hearing today amid backlash over CDC turmoil, vaccine policies Clutch Fire

The HHS secretary released a video late Wednesday outlining his posture toward the CDC, saying it was “once the world’s most trusted guardian of public health,” with a “simple and noble” mission to protect Americans from infectious disease.

“But over the years the agency drifted,” Kennedy said. “Bureaucracy, politicized science and mission creep corroded that mission and squandered the public trust.”

Citing the COVID-19 mandates under the Biden administration, among other things, Kennedy accused the agency of putting “politics ahead of evidence-based medicine.”

“Trust has collapsed,” Kennedy said. “President Trump has asked me to restore that trust and return the CDC to its core mission.”

Kennedy said “the path forward is clear — restore the CDC’s focus on infectious disease, invest in innovation and rebuild trust through transparency, and by restoring confidence.”

“Most CDC staff are honest public servants who are trying hard to accomplish their jobs,” Kennedy said. “With this renewed mission, they can do their jobs without politics or fear. Together we will rebuild CDC so that it will once again be the world’s most trusted authority on infectious disease.” 

A new CBS News poll finds Americans tend to believe Kennedy’s policies are making vaccines less available rather than more available. But the large majority of Americans feels government policy ought to make vaccines more available if people want them.

A sizable third haven’t heard or aren’t sure.

There’s a wide view among Americans that government policy should encourage parents to vaccinate their children for diseases like measles, mumps and rubella, more specifically. Only a scant few think the government should discourage that. 

Even as vaccines — particularly COVID vaccines — have sometimes been a political issue, this view on encouraging children’s vaccinations is true across party lines for the majority of Democrats, Republicans and independents. (Republicans are less likely than Democrats to say outright encourage.)

Read more here.

Ahead of the hearing, more than 1,000 current and former HHS employees penned an open letter on Wednesday calling for Kennedy to either resign or be fired.  

The letter — whose signatories were not publicly named — accused Kennedy of “endangering the nation’s health.” It cited last week’s upheaval at the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to rescind emergency approvals that made the COVID-19 vaccines available for young children and the elevation of what they called “political ideologues who pose as scientific experts” to key vaccine approval posts.

Read more here.

Members of the Senate Finance Committee previewed their questions for Kennedy to reporters this week, with some expressing concern about the recent CDC departures and others offering support for Kennedy.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, told reporters Wednesday that he shares the concerns that Cassidy has expressed. “I need to know why his actions aren’t matching up, or why his words in the confirmation hearing aren’t matching up with some of the deeds,” he said.

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee, said he wants to hear from Kennedy that “vaccine access is what he wants.” 

“What he told the committee during the hearing is very different from what he’s done,” Wyden said, referring to Kennedy’s confirmation hearing in February.

GOP Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas said he’s hoping to give Kennedy a “chance to tell his story and his motivations, rather than jumping off the Democrat narrative, which is just wrapped around the axles on vaccines, like that’s the only thing in life that matters.”

Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, told CBS News: “I fully support what he and President Trump are doing trying to restore integrity and credibility to the federal health agencies and to science.”

When asked what he hopes to hear from Kennedy at the hearing, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Wednesday that “we need stability” following the CDC director’s ouster from her role less than a month after the Senate confirmed her to lead the public health agency. The CDC is part of HHS.

“We go through all the work and confirm somebody to one of these important posts, and then a month later they’re gone,” Thune said. “We need stability. He’s in charge of the department, and he needs to restore public trust in the CDC.”

Thune added that “whoever ends up in that position, it shouldn’t be disqualifying to be in support or in favor of vaccines.” CBS News reported last week that Jim O’Neill, the deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, has been selected to serve as the acting director of the CDC.

Nine former CDC directors penned an op-ed earlier this week condemning Kennedy’s leadership in the aftermath of the firing of the CDC director last week, claiming he is “endangering every American’s health.”

In their op-ed, the former CDC directors who served under both Democrat and Republican administrations, pointed to a number of decisions by Kennedy that they say are “unlike anything we had ever seen at the agency,” including canceling investments into medical research and the move to replace members on a key vaccine advisory committee, among other things. 

“Firing Dr. Monarez — which led to the resignations of top CDC officials — adds considerable fuel to this raging fire,” the former CDC directors added. 

Read more here.