From PBS NewsHour.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during Senate testimony Thursday that he did not know how many people died of COVID-19 and did not know whether vaccines had prevented more deaths.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., questioned HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday in a hearing about President Donald Trump’s health care agenda.
“I want to go back to some basic facts. Do you accept the fact that a million Americans died from COVID?” Warner asked.
“I don’t know how many died,” Kennedy replied. ‘I don’t think anybody knows.”
Kennedy said this was because of “data chaos” at the CDC.
More than 1.2 million Americans have died of COVID, according to federal data.
Warner asked Kennedy whether he believed vaccines had prevented COVID deaths.
Kennedy demurred. “I would like to see the data and talk about the data,” Kennedy said.
“How can you be so ignorant?” Warner replied.
Kennedy appeared before the Senate Committee on Finance a day after more than 20 medical societies and organizations called for his resignation. They cited “repeated efforts to undermine science and public health,” most recently the firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez over vaccine science and the resulting resignations of other leaders at the organization.
During his tenure, the health secretary and former anti-vaccine advocate has narrowed long-standing U.S. vaccine recommendations. He’s also replaced a key panel of medical experts with his hand-picked candidates ahead of the start of the respiratory virus season in the United States.
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