📝 usncan Note: RFK Jr Faces Senate Finance Committee. Here’s What They Should Ask
Disclaimer: This content has been prepared based on currently trending topics to increase your awareness.
WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 14: U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before the House Appropriations Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on May 14, 2025 in Washington, DC. Kennedy is testifying before the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies on the Department of Health and Human Services’ proposed 2026 fiscal year budget. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
Getty Images
Robert F. Kennedy Jr has been asked to testify tomorrow, September 4, 2025, before the Senate Finance Committee about his “Make America Healthy Again” plans as the Secretary of Health.
The committee will undoubtedly ask Kennedy about firing the Center for Disease Control’s director, Dr. Susan Monarez, less than a month into her tenure.
Access to COVID-19 vaccines should be on the agenda, after his broken promise that they would be available to anyone who wanted one.
So should Kennedy’s long-promised report on the causes of autism.
Debacle At The CDC
Last week, CDC director Susan Monarez was fired for reportedly refusing Kennedy’s request that she rescind approvals for COVID-19 vaccines. Then, at least four other top experts at the CDC quickly quit in protest—Debra Houry, Demetre Daskalakis, Jennifer Layden, and Dan Jernigan. Dr. Monarez has been replaced by Jim O’Neill, a biotech investor, former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, and an ally of Peter Thiel.
Since then, criticism of Kennedy has been growing among a number of public health-related groups and even Congress. While no Republicans have so far called for RFK’s resignation, two senior senators have expressed concern. Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Dr. Bill Cassidy (R-La), is particularly concerned about the vaccine advisory committee. Susan Collins (R-Me) is alarmed enough about Monarez’s firing to say that “this matter warrants congressional oversight.”
Nine previous CDC directors—from 1977 until recently—penned an op-ed, “We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health. They said, “None of us would have agreed to the secretary’s demands, and we applaud Dr. Monarez for standing up for the agency and the health of our communities.” They concluded, “Congress must exercise its oversight authority over Health and Human Services.”
COVID-19 Vaccines
Last week, @SecKennedy announced on X (formerly Twitter), his usual platform for official health announcements, that he had accomplished four goals regarding the vaccine.
Goal 2: “to keep vaccines available to people who want them, especially the vulnerable.”
Kennedy’s restrictions on the vaccine belie this “accomplishment.”
The COVID-19 vaccine will only be available to children and adults younger than 65 if they have a high-risk condition, as defined by HHS. Others who have conditions which are not specified are not eligible.
Notably, people who live with vulnerable patients or are their caretakers are excluded. So are healthcare workers and teachers, who are at heightened risk of infection from their front-facing jobs.
Pregnancy is a particularly high-risk condition for COVID-19, with a variety of serious complications including pneumonia and blood clots, miscarriage or preterm birth, and an 8-fold increased risk of death. Despite compelling evidence of the harms of infection and contradicting the CDC’s own recommendations, Kennedy has excluded pregnant women and children from receiving boosters. As a result, major professional societies, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Pediatrics, have issued their own recommendations. This was previously unheard of.
The issue of eligibility for boosters is still unsettled. It is scheduled to be discussed by the newly comprised ACIP in mid-September. But Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) has called for that meeting to be put on hold, stating, “Serious allegations have been made about the meeting agenda, membership, and lack of scientific process being followed for the now announced September ACIP meeting.” He added, “If the meeting proceeds, any recommendations made should be rejected as lacking legitimacy given the seriousness of the allegations and the current turmoil in CDC leadership.”
If healthier people younger than 65 wish the booster, they may be able to get it with their physician’s approval (aka “shared decision-making”). However, pharmacies may refuse to administer the vaccine without ACIP’s approval. Also, the patient will likely have to pay out of pocket, with the booster costing approximately $200.
Autism Report
In April, Kennedy promised to have a new report on the causes of autism and proposed an autism registry, which was widely panned as being unethical.
Kennedy also hired David Geier to head a study of the relationship between vaccines and autism. The Maryland Board of Medicine disciplined Geier for practicing medicine without a license and fined him $10,000. He had previously worked with his father, Mark Geier, whose license was suspended.
The Geiers are widely viewed with contempt as promoters of unsubstantiated claims that vaccines cause autism. Learning of Geier’s appointment to oversee this review study, Dr. Paul Offitt, a vaccine expert, stated, “I think one can expect that with David Geier at the helm and Kennedy as head of HHS, we may soon see a study that shows that vaccines cause autism, even though they don’t — which will further scare parents, further cause them to forego vaccines for their children, and further increase the rates of vaccine-preventable diseases.”
Houry reported that vaccine advisors (likely Geier and Lyn Redwood, another anti-vaccine advocate and former leader of Kennedy’s anti-vax Children’s Health Defense) were making recommendations before even reviewing data.
Dan Jernigan reported that he was asked to review long-established findings about vaccine safety data by the two Kennedy appointees. He said he questioned HHS officials on whether their work was legal, scientifically sound, and ethically responsible.
Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the former chief of the immunization division at CDC, has also expressed concern about the apparent underlying intent in some of Kennedy’s recommendations.
Daskalakis was disturbed by Kennedy’s comments that chickens that survive H5N1 bird flu are genetically superior and that the stronger children who get measles will survive. For him, saying “that person has superior genetics—that is eugenics. Wake up. This is a red flag. This is where fascism lives.”
Also, while Kennedy has said that addressing autism is a top priority, the administration cut an estimated 26% of NIH’s research funding related to autism. At the same time, this spring he announced the Autism Data Science Initiative (ADSI), offering up to US$50 million to fund studies on the causes of autism.
In 2020, a child named Hannah Poling developed a bad reaction after receiving routine immunizations. Months later, she was diagnosed with encephalopathy, including some features of autism spectrum disorder, caused by a mitochondrial enzyme deficit. They won compensation from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, despite overwhelming evidence that vaccines don’t cause autism.
Recently, Kennedy said, “I’m looking at kids as I walk through the airports today. . .and I see these kids that are just overburdened with mitochondrial challenges, inflammation – you can tell from their faces, movements, and lack of social connection,” suggesting he is conflating autism, mitochondrial disease, and vaccines. He also said, “If you’ve ever compared an unvaccinated kid to a vaccinated kid, you see the bright eyes and the engagement, and the social interactions, and the curiosity, and the affection, and you compare ‘em to a child who even had one or two vaccines and they’re completely different.” Mitochondria are parts of a cell important in producing energy. Except for perhaps an experienced neurologist or geneticist carefully examining someone, people can’t recognize mitochondrial disease by looking at someone as Kennedy claims to. There is no characteristic “look.”
Defend Public Health, a 4000+ all-volunteer network of public health researchers, healthcare workers, advocates, and allies, has just issued their own report, “Risk Factors for Autism Spectrum Disorder: What We Already Know From Scientific Evidence (Vaccines are Not One of Them).
In their report, DPH authors use science-based evidence to debunk many of Kennedy’s previous claims. For example, the number of diagnosed cases of ASD has increased over time, not because of worsening conditions, but because of changing definitions and better diagnostics. “We have gotten much better at identifying, diagnosing and reporting cases, so that people can have access to the treatments and services that they need. That is good news, not an ‘epidemic.’”
Genetics is thought to contribute to up to 90% of the risk for ASD, particularly based on twin studies. The DPH authors also examine a number of other possible factors, including both viral and bacterial infections in early childhood or prenatally. Children infected by their mothers during pregnancy with measles, mumps, and influenza, and other pathogens were 30% more likely to develop ASD.
Additional risks include low birth weight, birth via Caesarian section, maternal obesity, and even parental age older than 40.
While Kennedy has focused on thimerosal being “toxic” and insisted on having it removed from vaccines, the rates of ASD diagnoses have continued to rise despite the removal.
Similarly, although an extensive Danish study showed no link between aluminum in vaccines and ASD, Kennedy demanded that the Annals of Internal Medicine, a prestigious medical journal, retract the study.
Senator Ron Wyden D-Or, the ranking member on the Finance Committee has sent Kennedy numerous questions that senators have asked since his appointment and promise of “radical transparency.” They have all gone unanswered. These are but a few of the issues that are likely to face Kennedy.
