In hearings Wednesday and Thursday, senators questioned President Trump’s candidate for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., over his physical fitness to be the nation’s leading health authorities and manage the massive $1.7 trillion firm.

Kennedy would concern the function not with a background in medication, public health, or science however as a previous ecological attorney who has actually turned into one of the most popular and prominent anti-vaccine supporters in the nation. For years, Kennedy has actually spread out false information about lifesaving vaccines, planted doubt about their security, and marketed different conspiracy theories.

That includes his steadfast incorrect claim– regardless of years of research study on the contrary and numerous debunkings– that vaccines are connected to autism (they are not). Kennedy has actually likewise made the unusual incorrect claim that Lyme illness, a bacterial infection spread out by tick bites, is “highly likely” to be a military bioweapon (it is not). When inquired about this by Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) in the Senate Finance Committee hearing Wednesday, Kennedy confessed, “I probably did say that.” In the hearing Thursday, held by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), Kennedy did not reject incorrectly declaring that AIDS is a various illness in Africa than it remains in the United States.

The hearings were naturally controversial, sometimes raucous and psychological, and filled with shocking, reality-bending remarks and minutes. Here are our leading 10:

1. “I am pro-vaccine,” Kennedy attempted to claim.

For much of the 2 hearings, Kennedy attempted to stroll back his decadeslong history of assaulting and weakening vaccines, declaring that he is not anti-vaccine however rather in favor of following the science and making sure security. His declarations in and out of the hearings were clashing. In the hearing, he promoted that all of his kids were immunized. In previous public declarations, he has stated that he would “do anything, pay anything” to return in time and not immunize his kids.

At various times, senators attempted to pin Kennedy down on his position on vaccines in general, along with on particular vaccines. Typically, Kennedy reacted that if the senators personally revealed him information suggesting that a vaccine is safe, he would alter his views and even “publicly apologize” for being incorrect. (A promise he could not make if he believed they were safe now.) He declined to state that vaccines do not trigger autism.

A few of the senators attempted to reveal him information, referencing the deep clinical literature supporting the security and effectiveness of vaccines, consisting of the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Vaccine (MMR) and the HPV vaccine. Some even held up stacks of research studies. “The evidence IS there,” Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) stated powerfully. Kennedy constantly raised quibbles with whatever research studies senators provided and stated he would talk about specific research studies with senators after the hearing.

At the conclusion of the HELP hearing Thursday, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a previous gastroenterologist, challenged Kennedy with a premium meta-analysis finding no link in between autism and vaccines. Kennedy once again dismissed it and referred Cassidy to a post released online by an anti-vaccine supporter.

Cassidy then searched for the research study while another senator questioned Kennedy and raised the problem in his closing remarks. “I looked at the article by Dr. Mawson and it seems to… have some issues,” Cassidy stated. “I’ll simply put that to the side.

“And that is why I’ve been struggling with your nomination,” he continued. Cassidy kept in mind that he concurred with Kennedy’s talk about subjects such as persistent health problems and weight problems, however “as someone who had discussed immunizations with thousands of people… I have approached it using the preponderance of evidence to reassure, and you have approached it using selective evidence to cast doubt.”

Cassidy questioned aloud: “Does a 71-year-old man who has spent decades criticizing vaccines and is financially invested in finding faults with vaccines, can he change his attitudes and approach now that he’ll have the most important position influencing vaccine policy in the United States?… Will you overturn a new leaf?”

2. “An ideal metaphor”

Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) raised issue that Kennedy not just called into question vaccine security, however had actually stated that individuals who run the nation’s vaccine program must remain in prison, comparing them to Nazis and pedophiles. Murphy priced quote Kennedy stating in 2013, “To me this is like Nazi death camps. Look at what it does to the families who participate in the vaccine program. I can’t tell why someone would do something like that, I can’t tell you why ordinary Germans participated in the Holocaust. I can’t tell you what was going on in their minds.”

Murphy likewise kept in mind that Kennedy called the Catholic church’s sexual assault cases a “perfect metaphor” for the vaccine program in the United States.

In his reaction to Murphy, Kennedy just doubled down on the claims, arguing that specific members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine program had, like members of the Catholic church, “written off a generation of kids” due to “misplaced institutional loyalty to the CDC and because of entanglements with the drug companies.”

“You said it was a perfect metaphor,” Murphy pushed, still alarmed by the contrast of immunization to kid sex abuse.

“Well, if you have 1 in 36 kids with neurological injuries and if that is linked, then that’s something we should study,” Kennedy responded, describing the rate of autism (once again incorrectly connecting the condition to vaccines).

3. “She’s not going to be a pincushion”

In spite of the slips, Kennedy kept attempting to encourage senators that he was not anti-vaccine. Other senators, on the other hand, appeared to commemorate Kennedy’s performance history.

“You brought to light the vaccines over the last couple years,” Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) stated. “I’ve had my first granddaughter here in a couple of weeks and my son and his wife have done their research about vaccines, and she’s not going to be a pin cushion. We’re not going to allow that to happen. But you brought that up… I appreciate you doing that.”

4. “We can’t progress”

Without concern, the most psychological minute of both hearings was throughout questioning by Senator Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), who mentioned how the incorrect link in between vaccines and autism had actually impacted her and her household. “You may not know that I am the proud mother of a 36-year-old young man with severe cerebral palsy,” she stated, her voice splitting. “And a day does not go by when I don’t think about what did I do when I was pregnant with him that might have caused the hydrocephalus that has so impacted his life. So, please do not suggest that anybody in this body of either political party doesn’t want to know what the cause of autism is,” she stated, her voice increasing.

“Mr. Kennedy, that first autism study rocked my world,” Hassan continued, describing the deeply flawed, now withdrawed 1998 research study released in the Lancet by Andrew Wakefield, who initially declared to discover a connection in between the MMR vaccine and autism. “Like every mother I worried about whether in fact the vaccine had done something to my son,” she stated. The research study was little (12 kids, just 8 with autism), and editors later on discovered “clear evidence of falsification of data.”

“Over time, the scientific community studied and studied and studied and found that it was wrong,” Hassan stated. The research study was pulled back in 2010. “Sometime science is wrong. We make progress, we build on the work, and we become more successful. And when you continue to sow doubt about settled science it makes it impossible for us to move forward. So that’s what the problem is here—it’s the relitigating and rehashing and continuing to sow doubt so we can’t move forward. And it freezes us in place.”

5. “It will cast a shadow”

In addition to stalled development, numerous senators revealed deep issue that Kennedy’s verification might cause needless suffering and deaths from vaccine-preventable illness. Cassidy took the possibility one action even more.

“As a patriotic American, I want President Trump’s policies to succeed,” Cassidy specified. “But if there is someone that is not vaccinated because of policies or attitudes you [Kennedy] bring to the department, and there’s another 18-year-old who dies of a vaccine-preventable disease… it’ll be blown up in the press. The greatest tragedy will be her death. But I can also tell you an associated tragedy: that will cast a shadow over President Trump’s legacy.”

6. “Of the ages”

Throughout Sanders’ questioning Thursday, he accentuated another vaccine: COVID-19 vaccines. Sanders referenced a research study that approximated the vaccines conserved more than 3 million lives in the United States and avoided more than 18 million hospitalizations. President Trump, on the other hand, when called them “one of the greatest miracles of the ages,” Sanders kept in mind.

Sanders pointed out that Kennedy had, throughout the height of the pandemic, petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to withdraw permission of COVID-19 vaccines and refrain from authorizing any future COVID-19 vaccines.

Sanders asked Kennedy if the researchers and the president were incorrect.

“Senator I filed that lawsuit after CDC recommended the vaccine for 6-year-old children without any evidence that it would benefit them and without testing on 6-year-old children and that was my reason for filing that lawsuit,” Kennedy reacted.

This response was deceptive, at finest. The 2021 petition Kennedy submitted was particularly to withdraw existing permission and obstruct all future COVID-19 vaccines for “all demographic groups,” not simply kids. It even more asked for the FDA to forbid minors from taking part in COVID-19 vaccine trials and to avoid providing any permissions for minors under age 16 to get Pfizer’s vaccine or under age 18 to get any other COVID-19 vaccine.

Sanders then pushed Kennedy if the COVID-19 vaccine conserved lives.

Kennedy reacted: “I don’t know. We don’t have a good surveillance system, unfortunately.”

Sanders: “We don’t know?”

Kennedy: “I don’t think anybody can say that. If you show me science that shows that…”

Sanders: “You know, Bobby, you say ‘If I show you’—you’re applying for the job. I mean, clearly, you should know this. And that is that the scientific community has established that—that [the] COVID vaccine saved millions of lives—and you’re casting doubt. That is really problematic.”

7. The fundamentals

Beyond vaccination, Kennedy stumbled through fundamental descriptions of Medicare and Medicaid, which are handled by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) housed within the HHS. On Wednesday, Kennedy explained Medicaid as “fully paid for” by the federal government– that is inaccurate; it is collectively moneyed by the federal government and states. He likewise entirely flubbed understanding that CMS has the authority to impose the Emergency Medical Treatment & & Labor Act (EMTALA).

On Thursday, Hassan asked him to specify the function of Medicare Parts A, B, and C. Kennedy got the responses for all 3 incorrect. He explained Medicare Part A as “mainly for primary care or physicians,” when the response is that it covers inpatient care at health centers. For Part B, Kennedy stated it was “for physicians and doctors,” when the proper description is protection for outpatient care and home health. And Part C, Kennedy referred to as “a program where it’s the full menu of all the services: A, B, C, and D.” Part C covers Medicare Advantage, the personal insurance coverage choice for senior citizens on Medicare. “It appears you don’t know the basics of this program,” Hassan stated.

8. 5G and “other things”

In a fast exchange with Senator Andrew Kim (D-NJ), Kennedy validated a few of his other worrying beliefs. “In the past you said ‘Wi-Fi radiation does all kinds of bad things, including causing cancer,'” Kim started. “Do you still stand by that statement?”

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