'Lies!' Senator calls out RFK Jr. for questioning science behind vaccines
Sen. Michael Bennett (D-CO) got into a heated exchange with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his views on vaccines against Covid, measles and other preventable illnesses.
MSNBC interrupted a commercial to join the Colorado Democrat's showdown with President Donald Trump's pick to oversee public health, and Bennett challenged Kennedy to justify whether his hand-picked vaccine panel should change recommendations for administering those medicines.
"Later this month, your new panel will meet to consider changing vaccine recommendations for American children," Bennett said. "In addition to the Covid-19 vaccines, they are set to review recommendations for the hepatitis B vaccine, for measles, for mumps, rubella and varicella vaccine and the RSV vaccine. These are common back-to-school vaccinations for children all over the industrialized world. If you change that, you owe parents in Colorado and across the country the benefit of some transparency. I think if your panel recommends changing the vaccine schedule for children, do you anticipate that fewer children will receive these common vaccine vaccinations? Yes or no?"
Kennedy started to answer, and the senator reminded him the question was a yes-or-no proposition, and when he continued to dodge the question, Bennett said the obvious answer was yes, and he moved on to a related question.
"Should parents and schools of Colorado be prepared for more measles outbreaks as a result of that, Mr. Secretary?" Bennett said. "How about more mumps outbreaks?"
Kennedy stated that he did not anticipate a change in the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine recommended for infants and young children, and he defended the panel as independent, but Bennett wasn't satisfied.
"It's a panel you just put those folks on, far from what you said," Bennett said. "There are people with ideas that are completely outside the mainstream."
Kennedy countered, characterizing the scientific mainstream as "the pharmaceutical paradigm," and the two officials parried over whether the freedom of parents to choose what's right for their children should include having access to vaccines, and the secretary agreed.
"I will hold you to that, Secretary Kennedy, because this is not a podcast," Bennett said. "It is the American people's health that's on the line here. This is the last thing, by the way, our parents need when their kids are going back to school is to have the kind of confusion and expense and scarcity that you're creating as a result of your ideology. I think it's critical for you to share the evidence that this panel will rely on. Will you give the American people six months or six weeks in advance, the record that they're going to rely on to make these decisions? Will you make it transparent for the American people?"
Kennedy insisted all that evidence was transparent, but he seemingly changed the subject when the senator asked whether the public would be given that evidence in advance of a decision and be given a chance to comment before those recommendations were made.
"It's transparent for the first time in history, and you were never there complaining when the pharmaceutical companies were picking those people and then running their products through with no safety," Kennedy said, and the senator cut him off.
"You can make, you can characterize it any way you want," Bennett said. "I quoted them today. What I said was accurate, what you said were lies. What you said were lies."
Kennedy interrupted and asked whether Bennett believed the mRNA vaccine had no association with myocarditis and pericarditis, and the senator reclaimed his time.
"I am simply trying to say that the people that you have put on that panel, after firing the entire," Bennett said, but Kennedy interrupted to accuse him of evading the question. "You know, I'm asking the questions. I'm asking the questions, Mr. Kennedy, on behalf of parents and schools and teachers all over the United States of America who deserve so much better than your leadership. That's what this conversation is about."
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