There have been a few particularly dramatic moments in Wednesday’s Senate Health Committee hearing delving into Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s firing of the director of the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention and the next resignations of three high CDC officers.
Apparently, each had been generated by the committee chair, Sen. Invoice Cassidy, R-La.
Cassidy has been taking brickbats in latest months over his vote to verify Kennedy as secretary of Well being and Human Providers in February. A doctor and vaccine supporter, Cassidy had been seen as a possible impediment to Kennedy’s affirmation. However then he voted for Kennedy, explaining that Kennedy had assured him he wouldn’t alter the prevailing suggestions for childhood immunizations.
RFK Jr., as has been properly remarked, reneged on his promise.
However at Wednesday’s listening to, Cassidy began to take steps to climb out of his embarrassing gap. Right here’s what occurred.
Throughout Wednesday’s listening to, the committee took testimony from Susan Monarez, who was fired 29 days after beginning the job. The rationale she was fired, she mentioned, was that she refused Kennedy’s demand that she endorse the findings of his hand-picked vaccine advisory committee upfront, earlier than even seeing them, and that she fireplace CDC personnel he didn’t like. The committee additionally heard from Dr. Debra Houry, who resigned because the CDC’s chief medical officer in sympathy with Monarez.
Monarez mentioned that at her final assembly with Kennedy, he advised her he couldn’t belief her as a result of she had been involved with Cassidy’s committee. She mentioned she replied that “if he couldn’t belief me, he might fireplace me.”
Then the listening to received derailed. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., accused Monarez of mendacity. “Is that actually how the dialog went,” he requested, “as a result of there have been different folks within the room.” He mentioned that what really occurred within the dialog was Kennedy requested her if he might belief her. Mullin implied that she answered within the damaging.
Apparently, that’s the story Kennedy himself advised a Senate listening to earlier this month, to open skepticism from Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
Mullin then unveiled his secret weapon.
“Ma’am,” he mentioned, “it was a recorded assembly.” A shocked silence fell on the room. Mullin continued, “You’ll be able to testify a method, or you’ll be able to show that you just’re mendacity, otherwise you will be trustworthy with this committee.”
Quickly after that, Cassidy confirmed that he was fed up with Mullin, with persistent stonewalling by Kennedy’s company, and fairly probably with the humiliation Kennedy has visited upon him by reneging on his guarantees to Cassidy.
“I’ll notice that supplies have been supplied to Sen. Mullin, and invoked in official committee enterprise; they’re committee information, and all different senators on the committee have the best to see these information,” he mentioned. “I may also notice that if HHS has a recording, I ask that they launch the recording, and I’d additionally prefer to know why it was recorded.”
He complained that Kennedy’s company had failed to satisfy the committee’s demand for “any paperwork or communications that will convey transparency to this case,” which means the Monarez firing. And he concluded: “If a recording doesn’t exist, I ask Sen. Mullin to retract his line of questions. I’m additionally curious why one senator was given this, and why we’re solely listening to about it now.”
Right here’s the punchline: A couple of minutes later, Cassidy reported from the chair that outdoors the listening to room, Mullin advised reporters that “he was mistaken in saying that the RFK-Monarez assembly was recorded.” Cassidy added, sourly, “In case he’s mistaken that he was mistaken, if there’s a recording, it needs to be launched.” A Well being and Human Providers spokesman later confirmed that no recording exists. A spokesman for Mullin mentioned the senator was referring to a transcript of the assembly, not a recording.
Cassidy closed the listening to by expressing concern that Kennedy’s hand-picked vaccine advisory committee, stocked with anti-vaccine activists, was scheduled to satisfy Thursday, at which it appeared poised to change the CDC’s suggestions on childhood vaccinations by eradicating a number of from the advisable listing — a step that horrifies the pediatric and epidemiological communities. (Certainly, the committee voted Thursday to alter recommendation, saying that the mixed measles, mumps, rubella and varicella vaccine “is just not advisable” earlier than age 4.)
Cassidy’s particular concern was in regards to the hepatitis B vaccine, which the CDC has advisable be given at start. Republicans on the committee ridiculed that advice, as a result of hep B is usually transmitted sexually, and what child is having intercourse? The response from physicians is that infants can contract the illness from their moms, even when their moms won’t even know they’re carriers.
Cassidy, because it occurs, is a liver specialist. “I’ve seen folks die from hepatitis,” he mentioned. “This was my apply for 20 years earlier than I entered politics.”
He continued, “For individuals who say why ought to a toddler be vaccinated for a sexually transmitted illness, at start the kid passes by way of the start canal. … That passage by way of the start canal makes that little one weak to the virus. … If that little one is contaminated at start, greater than 90% of them develop persistent, lifelong an infection.” Meaning a lifelong menace of cirrhosis or different lethal liver situations.
“Earlier than 1991, as many as 20,000 infants — infants — had been contaminated” per 12 months, Cassidy mentioned. Within the first decade, by way of 2001, after the vaccine was accredited for newborns, nevertheless, “new child infections of hepatitis B was decreased by 68%. Now, fewer than 20 infants per 12 months get hepatitis B from their mom. That’s an accomplishment to make America wholesome once more,” Cassidy mentioned, mischievously citing RFK Jr.’s coverage mantra.
“We should always rise up and salute the those who made that call,” Cassidy mentioned, “as a result of there are individuals who would in any other case be lifeless if these moms weren’t provided that choice to have their little one vaccinated.”
So, kudos, Sen. Cassidy, for lastly explaining why vaccines are obligatory.
©2025 Los Angeles Occasions. Go to at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
