The health secretary dodged any blame for imploding the CDC’s leadership and appeared to endorse anti-vaccination talking points.
Fresh off the internal collapse of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s senior leadership, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. testified before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday. There, Kennedy deflected and denied any harmful impacts from the CDC’s implosion, while repeatedly spouting misinformation about vaccines and other health issues.
The hearing comes after much of the CDC’s leadership resigned or were fired in last week. Former CDC director Susan Monarez was fired on Tuesday for reportedly refusing to support Kennedy’s vaccine agenda without review, and specifically, to follow the recommendations issued by an influential but independent vaccine advisory panel—the same panel that Kennedy recently purged and restocked with people who have criticized or voiced skepticism toward vaccines before.Deflection and denial
Kennedy, in both an opening statement and subsequent responses to Senate Finance Committee members, appeared to minimize the fallout from what happened at the CDC. He instead argued that the agency’s track record, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, merited a kind of reset, adding that it was “absolutely necessary” to wipe the slate clean.
