Just Asking Questions About RFK Jr.’s Senate Hearing
A show trial is an official proceeding that is conducted primarily for propaganda purposes rather than a tribunal seeking truth. That’s what the Senate Finance Committee hearing today on the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) basically amounted to. The committee’s Republicans functioned largely as enthusiastic cheerleaders while the Democrats, for the most part, fully embraced their roles as zealous disparagers.
The senators’ statements and, to the extent they were actually pursued, the questions focused on Kennedy’s long career as an anti-vaccine campaigner, his role as a fierce and richly rewarded litigant against prescription drug companies, his longstanding pro-choice views on abortion, and his ignorance of recondite intricacies of accessing health care under the $900 billion and $1 trillion Medicaid and Medicare programs, respectively.
In his opening statement Kennedy declared, “The first thing I’ve done every morning for the past 20 years is to get on my knees and pray to God that He would put me in a position to end the chronic disease epidemic and to help America’s children.” He promised that under his direction, HHS would “remove financial conflicts of interest from our agencies,” and deploy “honest, unbiased gold standard science” in making decisions. Gold standard science means, he said, among other things, the replication of research studies as a way to check the validity of findings. He commendably advocated “radical transparency” at HHS as a way to restore Americans’ trust in public health agencies.
So far, so good.
But let’s adopt Kennedy’s “I’m just asking questions” style of discourse. Is it really credible that a man who has built much of his career on questioning the safety and efficacy of vaccines and founded the country’s leading anti-vaccine activist group has suddenly become “pro-vaccine”? Â As evidence of his newly burnished pro-vaccine bona fides, in his opening statement, Kennedy declared, “I believe that vaccines played a critical role in health care. All of my kids are vaccinated.” He, however, added what amounts to a sly caveat, “I’m pro-safety.” More on that last claim shortly.
Concerning his kids’ vaccinations, Kennedy is engaging in what amounts to be a bit of revisionist history. As Sen. Ron Wyden (D–Ore.) subsequently pointed out, Kennedy said in a 2020 Children’s Health Defense podcast—the anti-vaccine advocacy group he founded—that if he could back in time, he would not have his children vaccinated. “I would do anything for that. I would pay anything to be able to do that,” he said.
After pointing out the contradiction, Wyden asked, “Are you lying to Congress today when you say that you’re pro-vaccine, or did you lie on all those podcasts?” Only asking questions here.
Just exactly what does Kennedy mean when he says he is “pro-safety” with respect to vaccines? Take the case of human papillomavirus (HPV), which is the chief cause of cervical cancer in women and a leading cause of head and neck cancers in both sexes. Clinical trials show that HPV vaccines are nearly 100 percent effective in preventing the sort of persistent infections that lead to cancer. So far 135 million doses of HPV vaccines have been administered to about 39 percent of children (15 million or so) ages 9 to 17 in the United States. The law firm for which Kennedy has consulted represents 200 cases of alleged injury from Merck’s HPV vaccine. Making the heroic assumption that trial lawyers are disinterested purveyors of truth and that those cases are actually related to the vaccine, the implied rate of vaccination injury out of 80 million doses is 1 in 400,000.
Let’s compare that to the chances of a woman getting cervical cancer. The good news is that due to increased screening, cervical cancer incidence has been falling, but it is still at 7 per 100,000 and the death rate is 2.2 per 100,000 women. Even better news is that since the advent of HPV vaccines the cervical cancer rate in young women (the group most likely to have been vaccinated) has dropped by around half.
The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System recorded around 2,500 serious events after Gardasil vaccination, which yields a rate of injury of 16 out of 100,000. That compares to a rate of injuries for 5- to 14-year-olds treated in hospital emergency rooms for football at 348 per 100,000; golf at 20 per 100,000; fishing at 27 per 100,000; swimming pools at 164 per 100,000; cans at 49 per 100,000; nails at 31 per 100,000; and beds and mattresses at 152 per 100,000. Golf with an emergency room injury rate of 20 per 100,000 is more dangerous than getting a vaccine that prevents cancer.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.), attempted to probe Kennedy’s relationship with the Children’s Health Defense (CHD) anti-vaccination group. The senator displayed onesies offered for the last several months by CHD emblazoned “UNVAXXED, UNAFRAID” and “NO VAX, NO PROBLEM.”
Noting that Kennedy now says that he is pro-vaccine, the senator challenged him to get CHD to take the product off the market. “Senator, I have no power over that organization. I am not part of it. I have resigned from the board,” responded Kennedy, stating again that he is “supportive of vaccines.” Keep in mind that Kennedy officially resigned as chairman of CHD’s board only last month.
With respect to Kennedy’s possible conflicts of interest, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) had a point. She began by noting that Kennedy had said that he would “slam shut the revolving door between government agencies and the companies they regulate.” She then asked if he would commit to not accepting compensation from a dr
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