From PBS NewsHour.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., had a heated exchange Thursday with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his conflicting statements on vaccine access.

Warren accused Kennedy of removing access to COVID vaccines for people who want them, despite promises he made during his confirmation hearing that he wouldn’t do so.

In a hearing about President Donald Trump’s health care agenda, Warren asked Kennedy to clarify the Food and Drug Administration’s COVID vaccine recommendation, noting that last week he said the vaccines would be available to high-risk people and “all patients who choose them after consulting with their doctors.”

Kennedy replied that “anybody can get the booster.”

“So you’re saying that is now the official rule of HHS: Anybody is eligible to get a booster by just walking into the pharmacy?” Warren asked.

“It’s not recommended for healthy people,” Kennedy responded.

“No, no. If you don’t recommend, then the consequence of that in many states is that you can’t walk into a pharmacy and get one,” Warren said. That’s because insurance companies are only required to cover federally recommended vaccines, not vaccines taken voluntarily.

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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