Washington (AP) – Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The bid of the highest health official of the country is uncertain after a key republican joined Democrats to raise persistent concerns concerning the deep skepticism of the candidate for infantile routine vaccinations that prevent fatal diseases.
Senator Bill CassidyA Louisiana republican, ended a three-hour confirmation hearing on Thursday by telling Kennedy that he “fought” with his appointment and could call him during the weekend, although he did not have said how he would vote.
Cassidy, a liver doctor who regularly encouraged his voters to vaccinate COVID-19 and other diseases, implored Kennedy repeatedly to reject theories that vaccines cause diseases like autism. Kennedy’s refusal to do so clearly disturbed Cassidy.
“If there is a false note, any sapping of a mother’s confidence in vaccines, another person will die from a preventable disease of vaccines,” said Cassidy.
The senator, who is ready to re -elect next year, presented the dilemma in front of him, as a doctor who saw how vaccines can save lives and as a republican who is aware of Kennedy’s formidable support and wants Help President Donald Trump to advance his policies. Cassidy is no stranger to these predicates and the outcry that they could arouse – he voted to condemn Trump on charges of indictment after his first mandate in 2021.
Kennedy vaccine views Could compromise his position with some crucial Republicans and certainly did not help him win votes among the Democrats in his attempt as secretary to health. If all the Democrats reject the appointment of Kennedy, he cannot afford to lose three republican votes.
Kennedy will also have to win Sens swing votes. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitch McConnell, who raised concerns about Kennedy and also voted against the candidate of Trump’s defense secretary.
Any republican who plans a “no” will face a maximum pressure campaign of Trump to line up and confirm his candidates. When others have expressed reserves on support for candidates, they met a coordinated campaign of political threats from Trump allies. Kennedy Movement “Make America healthy” Also encouraged followers to submerge the reception boxes and the telephone lines of senators who can emboss.
Kennedy and other nominees in the office like Tulsi Gabbard represent a new coalition built by Trump’s campaign. Kennedy launched his own campaign for the president last year before joining Trump in a shared vision of dismantling the status quo.
Kennedy, an environment lawyer who has become a public health critic, has repeatedly promised the senators that he was not “anti-vaccine” and, in fact, supports inoculations. But the hearing issues of the Senate Health Committee on Thursday exposed Kennedy’s deep distrust in the country’s vaccinations program.
Cassidy directly asked Kennedy if he would unequivocally reassure parents that hepatitis B vaccines and measles do not cause autism.
Kennedy wouldn’t. Instead, he avoided responding directly, saying: “If the data is there, I will absolutely do it.”
In a rare demonstration of cooperation on the other side, Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent of Vermont, followed the questioning line of Cassidy. Again, Kennedy refused to give a final answer.
Then, in the last moments of the hearing, Cassidy offered Kennedy studies which have proven that vaccinations do not cause autism, pushing it to accept research. Kennedy would not respond, rather with an article – the one who, according to Cassidy, had “problems”.
To say clearly that vaccines do not cause autism “would have an incredible impact,” said Cassidy. “It would have an incredible impact. It’s your power.
Sometimes the interrogations of other senators were intensely personal. Senator Maggie Hassan, DNH, shared her anxiety as a mother who spent decades wondering what caused the cerebral paralysis of her 36 -year -old son. She was concerned about whether the vaccines contributed to her son’s state after an infamous study years ago wrongly a link between autism and vaccines. This study has since been discredited.
Hassan said Kennedy’s suggestions that vaccines could cause autism injured families.
“He religious and disseminates established sciences so that we can not move forward and discover what is the cause of autism and treat these children and help these families,” she said, adding later, later, adding later, adding later, adding later, adding later, adding later, adding later, adding later “When you continue to sow doubt about established science, it makes us impossible to move forward.”
Aside from Cassidy, the Republicans of the health committee remained friendly with Kennedy. Republican senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, who said that his two sons wanted to vote for Kennedy in the presidential election, told the hearing that his granddaughter, due in the coming weeks, would not be “A cushion” with regard to vaccines.
Two others expressed doubts about the safety of vaccines, although both said they had vaccinated their own children.
Senator Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma republican, reprimanded his colleagues for examining Kennedy’s skeptical positions on vaccinations.
“We can’t question science?” Mullin asked.
Others have expressed their concerns about Kennedy’s financial participation in the proceedings against vaccines.
The Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginie, where the Gardasil vaccine preserves himself against cervical cancer is made, questioned Kennedy’s financial disclosure forms, which he always declares to perceive fees in Case returned to the law firm in a prosecution against this vaccine. Last year, Kennedy made $ 850,000 on the agreement.
“How do people who need to have confidence in federal vaccine programs trust you to be independent and science based on significant funding if prosecution against vaccine manufacturers succeed?” Asked Kaine.
Kennedy told Kaine that he had given his financial rights in the case.
Kaine also questioned Kennedy for having said on social networks that he “would not take sides” as a conspiracy theorists thanking what happened during the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Kennedy replied that he had been taught of his young age to question authority, saying: “My father told me that at the age of 13, he said:” People in authority lie. “”
The Democrats and the Republicans have repeatedly pressure on the candidate on his plans around abortion, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina asking him if he would name “pro-life” deputies and several Democrats asking him how he would manage the abortion drug mifepristone.
The Biden administration defended the proceedings against the use of the drug, including its availability compared to the telehealth. Kennedy said that no decision had yet been made on how to manage the controversial medication, which Food and Drug Administration approved to end pregnancies more than two decades.
“With Mifepristone, President Trump did not choose a policy and I will implement his policy,” Kennedy told the Committee.
Kennedy wants to lead the agency of $ 1.7 Billion of dollars who oversees health care coverage – Medicare, Medicaid and the affordable care law – for about half of the country, approves and then recommends vaccines for Deadly diseases and leading food safety inspections and hospitals.
The Senate funding committee, on which Cassidy is located, will finally decide how to send Kennedy’s appointment to the Senate for a vote.
During a three -hour hearing with this committee on Wednesday, Kennedy denounced the basic facts on Medicare and Medicaid. But the Republicans have offered a strong support for Kennedy’s proposal to promote healthier food to Americans and seek the root of chronic diseases as obesity.
