From PBS NewsHour.
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., pressed HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday about whether vaccines would be accessible to parents who want to vaccinate their children as his agency moves to narrow its recommendations.
Doctors and scientists have slammed Kennedy’s anti-vaccine rhetoric and his changes in vaccine policy since taking office. Bennet accused Kennedy of making vaccine decisions without transparency, and infringing on parents’ freedom to get their children vaccinated. Kennedy denied Bennet’s claims and accused vaccine experts of being picked by the pharmaceutical industry.
"Let me just say, Mr. Secretary, all these vaccines that we’re talking about today are free and accessible to parents today in America who have the freedom to be able to make that choice for their children. Will that be true after your hand-picked panel makes their judgments about these vaccines?" Bennet asked.
"I assume they will be," Kennedy said.
"I will hold you to that," Bennet replied.
"This is the last thing, by the way, our parents need when their kids are going back to school, is to have the kind of confusion, expense and scarcity that you’re creating as a result of your ideology,” Bennet added.
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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