Reuters US Politics
By Ahmed Aboulenein
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Democrats and Republicans pushed U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on his recent vaccine policies and their stark contrast to President Donald Trump's successful first-term pandemic initiative to speed vaccine development during a combative Senate hearing on Thursday.
Half a dozen heated exchanges focused on the details of Kennedy's decision to fire Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez, who had started the job with Kennedy's support only a month earlier.
Trump, speaking at the White House after the hearing, expressed support for Kennedy, saying he has some "different ideas."
Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, a physician who played a critical role in Kennedy's confirmation, grilled him about the cancellation of $500 million in COVID vaccine contracts, while citing examples of doctors and cancer patients who have been unable to obtain the protection against the potentially deadly disease.
"I would say, effectively, we're denying people vaccines," concluded Cassidy.
"Well, you're wrong," Kennedy responded.
Cassidy, of Louisiana, praised Trump for having accelerated the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in 2020.
His line of questioning - mirrored by two other members of his and Trump's party - underscored the tightrope Republicans critical of Kennedy needed to walk in order to push back against his vaccine policies without criticizing the president.
Cassidy asked Kennedy during the Senate Finance Committee hearing if he agreed with him that Trump deserved a Nobel Peace Prize for the COVID vaccine initiative, known as Operation Warp Speed. Kennedy said he did.
Why then had Kennedy said the vaccines killed more people than COVID? Cassidy asked. Kennedy denied making the statement, would not agree that the vaccines saved lives, and in a later exchange acknowledged the shots prevented deaths but not how many.
COVID vaccines in the first year of their use saved some 14.4 million lives globally, according to a study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.
Kennedy has also canceled $500 million in funding for research on the mRNA technology that yielded the most widely used COVID vaccines under Trump, which Cassidy characterized as denying people vaccines.
Trump told reporters during a White House event with business leaders that Kennedy "means very well, and he's got some little different ideas."
"I guarantee a lot of people at this table like RFK Jr. And I do, but he's got a different take, and we want to listen to all those takes," Trump said when asked if he has confidence in what Kennedy is doing.
Republicans Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Barrasso of Wyoming, who like Cassidy is a physician, adopted Cassidy's tactic, as did Senate Democrats Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Raphael Warnock of Georgia, where the CDC is headquartered, and Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats.
"Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines. Since then, I've grown deeply concerned," said Barrasso.
"The public has seen measles outbreaks, leadership in the National Institutes of Health questioning the use of mRNA vaccines, the recently confirmed Director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fired," the senator added.
Under fiery questioning from most Democrats and some Republicans, Kennedy defended the ousting of Monarez, adding that he might need to fire even more people.
Trump fired Monarez after she resisted changes to vaccine policy advanced by Kennedy that she believed contradicted scientific evidence.
In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, Monarez said she had been directed to preapprove vaccine recommendations and fire career CDC officials, describing her ouster as part of a broader push to weaken U.S. vaccine standards.
Kennedy said she lied and that he had never told Monarez she needed to preapprove decisions, but that he did order her to fire officials, which she refused to do.
"Secretary Kennedy's claims are false, and at times, patently ridiculous. Dr. Monarez stands by what she said in her Wall Street Journal op-ed," her lawyers said in a statement.
CALLS FOR KENNEDY RESIGNATION
Kennedy said the CDC during the COVID-19 pandemic had lied to Americans about mask wearing, social distancing, school closures and the ability of the vaccine to stop transmission.
"I need to fire some of those people and make sure this doesn't happen again," Kennedy said.
The CDC's pandemic recommendations were based on past experience with virus transmission and what was known about the novel coronavirus at the time.
By late 2021, with more real-world data, the CDC acknowledged the shots could not stop COVID infection and transmission, but were highly effective in preventing severe cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
Since taking the job, Kennedy has made a series of controversial changes to U.S. vaccine policy, including narrowing who is eligible for COVID shots and firing all 17 expert members of a CDC vaccine advisory panel, choosing some fellow anti-vaccine activists to replace them.
Vaccination rates in the U.S. have been on the decline. Florida on Wednesday said it plans to end all state vaccine mandates, including for students to attend schools.
Criticism of Kennedy has intensified since Monarez's firing, which triggered resignations of four CDC agency officials who cited anti-vaccine policies and misinformation pushed by him and his team.
Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the committee's top-ranking Democrat, called for Kennedy's resignation, as have Warnock, Sanders, and over 1,000 current and former health employees.
(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein; Additional reporting by Nolan McCaskill and Susan Heavey; Editing by Caroline Humer, Bill Berkrot, Chizu Nomiyama, Diane Craft and Lincoln Feast.)
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