Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services, doesn’t know how many Americans died from COVID, or how many people were saved from death by the COVID vaccines, which he nonetheless wants to put behind prescriptions now.
We learned this today under questioning in a Senate Finance Committee hearing from U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who, like the rest of us, was incredulous at the revelations.
“You’ve had this job for eight months, and you don’t know the data about whether the vaccine saved lives. The Secretary of Health and Human Services doesn’t know how many Americans died from COVID. He doesn’t know if the vaccine helped prevent any deaths. And you are sitting as Secretary of Health and Human Services? How can you be that ignorant?” Warner said to Kennedy, who, unfortunately for us, is that ignorant.
It was a bipartisan beatdown for RFK Jr.
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, a doctor, said, succinctly, that “vaccines work,” and that he’s “deeply concerned” with the direction of HHS under Kennedy.
“The public has seen measles outbreaks, leadership of the National Institute of Health questioning the use of mRNA vaccines, the recently confirmed director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fired. Americans don’t know who to rely on,” Barrasso said.
Another Republican, Bill Cassidy, who is also a doctor, trapped the clueless Kennedy with a fawning reference to Donald Trump, saying he thought Trump deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for authorizing the work on the COVID vaccine in 2020, then asking Kennedy if he agreed.
When Kennedy said “absolutely,” Cassidy asked him why he had “engaged in multiple lawsuits attempting to restrict access to the COVID vaccine” as a private attorney, and “canceled $500 million in contracts” using the mRNA platform that was essential in the development of the vaccine as the head of HHS.
Kennedy’s response: “Is this a question, Sen. Cassidy, or is this a speech you don’t want me to answer?”
Between audibly heavy breaths, Kennedy insisted that there have been no cuts to Medicaid, even as the rest of us know that the Big Ugly Bill that MAGA Republicans passed and Trump signed into law on July 4 will cut more than a trillion with a t- from Medicaid.
We’re already feeling the effects of that here locally, with Augusta Health announcing Thursday that it is closing three primary care facilities, citing the Medicaid cuts in the bill that RFK Jr. insists aren’t there.
Highlight of the hearing for me came in this exchange between Warner and Kennedy:
WARNER: I’ve got two kids, as we discussed when you met, that have chronic illnesses. I’m not sure that the focus on red dye and seed oils are going to fully solve that problem.
KENNEDY: Of course they won’t.
WARNER: I would say this: that seems where your emphasis is.
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Chris Graham
