WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s long record of doubting the safety of childhood vaccinations persisted as a flash point for him Thursday in a confirmation hearing where senators, including a key Republican, shared intensely personal details about the impact vaccine skepticism had on their lives.
In one response, Kennedy refused to flatly reject a long-discredited theory that vaccines cause autism, despite years of studies and research that have found they do not.
His vaccine views could jeopardize his standing with just a few Republicans and has certainly not helped him win over any votes among Democrats in his bid to become health secretary. If all Democrats reject Kennedy’s nomination, he can only afford to lose three Republican votes.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who has been viewed as a key swing vote on several controversial Trump nominees, asked Kennedy about his past vaccine criticism.
“We need good science, and I’m going to bring that in,” Kennedy said. “I’m going to restore trust, and that will restore vaccine uptake.”
Collins did not further press Kennedy on that but then asked him if he would oppose development of a vaccine for Lyme disease, noting the number of Mainers who work outdoors and could be exposed to the disease spread to humans by bites from infected ticks. Kennedy replied he would not block vaccine efforts, noting he and his family have previously had the disease.
Much attention was focused on the questions from Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Republican chairman of the health committee, who is also a physician. Cassidy, who is up for reelection next year, expressed pointed concern about Kennedy’s vaccines views, noting that the nominee’s broad popularity had given him a powerful platform on the subject.
“Whether it’s justified or not, I have constituents who partly credit you for their decision to not vaccinate their child,” Cassidy told the nominee.
He shared with Kennedy a personal story about an 18-year-old woman whose liver was failing from a hepatitis infection.
“It was the worst day of my medical career because I thought $50 of vaccines could have prevented this all,” Cassidy said.
He then asked Kennedy to promise as health secretary that he would unequivocally reassure parents that the Hepatitis B and measles vaccines do not cause autism.
Kennedy would not. Instead he avoided answering directly, saying “if the data is there, I will absolutely do that.”
Then, in a rare show of across-the-aisle cooperation, Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, followed up on Cassidy’s line of questioning.
Again, Kennedy refused to give a definitive answer.
At times, the questioning was intensely personal. Sen. Maggie Hassan, Democrat of New Hampshire, shared her anguish as a mother who has spent decades wondering what caused her 36-year-old son’s cerebral palsy. She worried about whether vaccines contributed to her son’s condition after an infamous study years ago falsely found a link between autism and vaccines. That study has since been roundly discredited.
Hassan said Kennedy’s suggestions that vaccines could cause autism were hurting families.
“He is re-litigating and churning settled science so we can’t go forward and find out what the cause of autism is and treat these kids and help these families,” she said, later adding: “When you continue to sow doubt about settled science, it makes it impossible for us to move forward.”
Aside from Cassidy, Republicans on the health committee remained friendly to Kennedy. Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, who said his two sons wanted to vote for Kennedy in the presidential election, told the hearing that granddaughter, due in the coming weeks, would not “be a pincushion” when it came to vaccines.
Two others expressed doubts about the safety of vaccines, although both said they’ve vaccinated their own children.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican, chided his colleagues for scrutinizing Kennedy’s skeptical stances on vaccinations.
“We can’t question science?” Mullin asked.
In his opening remarks, Kennedy once again rejected the “anti-vaccine” label and instead said he is “pro-safety.” He repeated many of the same lines he offered to the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday.
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, where the Gardasil vaccine to guard against cervical cancer is made, questioned Kennedy’s financial disclosure forms, which state that he still plans to collect fees in cases referred to the law firm in a suit against that vaccine. Last year, Kennedy made $850,000 off the deal.
“How can folks who need to have confidence in federal vaccine programs trust you to be independent and science-based when you stand to gain significant funding if lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers are successful?” Kaine asked.
Kennedy told Kaine he has given away his rights in the case.
Democrats and Republicans alike repeatedly pressed the nominee on his plans around abortion, with Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina asking if he would appoint “pro-life” deputies and several Democrats asking him how he would handle the abortion drug mifepristone.
The Biden administration defended lawsuits against the use of the drug, including its availability over telehealth. Kennedy said no decision had yet been made about how to handle the controversial drug, which the Food and Drug Administration approved to end pregnancies safely more than two decades ago.
“With mifepristone, President Trump has not chosen a policy and I will implement his policy,” Kennedy told the committee.
Kennedy wants to lead the $1.7 trillion agency that oversees health care coverage — Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act marketplace — for roughly half the country, approves then recommends vaccines for deadly diseases and conducts safety inspections of food and hospitals.
During a three-hour hearing on Wednesday before the finance committee, which will ultimately decide whether to send Kennedy’s nomination to the Senate floor for a vote, Kennedy misstated basic facts about Medicare and Medicaid. But Republicans mostly expressed support for his proposals to push healthier foods to Americans and research the root of chronic diseases like obesity.
BDN writer Billy Kobin contributed reporting.
