In public confirmation hearings last month, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s candidate to direct the country’s health agencies, confirmed that he said that Lyme disease was most likely a biological weapon engineering, refused to say that vaccines did not provoke autism and that we trip to identify the basic aspects of Medicare and Medicaid.
The statement concerning Lyme disease is a conspiracy theory of several decades, dozens of studies have shown no link between vaccines and autism and medicare and medication are programs of several dollars that Kennedy would supervise.
According to the American senator Patty Murray, Kennedy’s statements at a private meeting with her before her confirmation audiences were even more disturbing.
Murray, who has been in the Senate for 32 years, said that her conversation with Kennedy was the most disturbing meeting she ever had with a cabinet candidate.
The two met in the Murray office on January 15. It is customary that the candidates meet the senators before being ready for a confirmation vote.
“I got out of my meeting with him because he threw so many nonsense and insensitive questions and statements that she was filming,” said Murray.
Among the claims made by Kennedy, according to Murray: he said that 99% of the deaths were in people who were deficient in vitamin D; He said we “did not study security on vaccines”; And he said, “There are a whole generation of damaged children.”
“I look at him and as I challenge him, he does not start, he simply relied on all these scandalous affirmations,” said Murray. “I was really amazed. I interviewed members of the cabinet for a very long time with republican and democratic administrations. They are generally very well prepared. They know who they talk to, they are ready to answer difficult questions. »»
Kennedy did not respond to an email, sent by his former presidential campaign, asking for comments.
The two Democratic Senators of Washington, Murray and Senator Maria Cantwell, both announced that they will oppose the appointment of Kennedy. Cantwell, after her public hearings, said that she wanted to support her appointment, but could not have heard Kennedy’s answer to the question of a republican senator.
Senator Bill Cassidy, R-La., A doctor, asked Kennedy to indicate unequivocally that measles vaccines and hepatitis B do not cause autism.
Kennedy refused, saying rather “if the data is there, I will absolutely do it.”
“He couldn’t even give him the answer,” Cantwell said in a prepared statement, “that yes, the data is there to support vaccines today.”
Kennedy’s criticism on Vaccines go back decades. In his confirmation hearings, he said that he was not “antivaccine”.
Murray said that at her meeting, she had presented a number of her past statements to Kennedy and rather than defending or withdrawing the statements he simply denied making them.
She said that she had asked questions about her statement that he would dismiss 600 people from the National Institutes of Health on the first day of the Trump administration.
“He said,” Oh, I didn’t say that, “said Murray. “And I’m sitting there by looking at a quote he said. It was therefore the most bizarre and incredible way for anyone who presents himself as someone who was legitimate and qualified. »»
Kennedy, to a event in Arizona after the elections in November, said: “We have to act quickly, and we want these people in place on January 20 so that on January 21, 600 people will enter the NIH offices and that 600 people will leave.”
As a health secretary, Kennedy would have great power on the country’s vaccination programs, including the Ability to cut contracts with vaccines which provide vaccines for more than half of the country’s children.
But as disturbing as the material effect he may have on vaccinations, said Murray, is the message that his confirmation of the Senate would send.
“This will send a message to the families of this country,” she said. “The fact that he does not think that vaccines are safe will be heard by people, and this will affect and affect the health of our country for future generations.”