WASHINGTON – Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.) on Tuesday tore into Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for his many years of lies in regards to the security and effectiveness of vaccines, saying she is going to blame him each time somebody dies from a vaccine-preventable illness on his watch.
“You might have lied to the American individuals,” Schrier, who’s a pediatrician, charged as Kennedy sat silently earlier than a Home committee. “You might have lied to folks about vaccines for 20 years.”
“And I additionally wish to be clear that I’ll lay all duty for each dying from a vaccine-preventable sickness at your toes,” she stated.
Here’s a clip of their exchange.
Kennedy, who has a long history of peddling harmful misinformation about vaccines, was testifying earlier than the Home panel about his company’s price range request when Schrier started describing what occurs when unvaccinated infants and kids get sick with issues like measles, bacterial meningitis or whooping cough.
“Have you ever ever handled measles?” she requested.
Kennedy replied, “No.”
“Nicely, I’ve. Let me let you know how depressing it’s,” stated the Democratic congresswoman. “These children have excessive fevers, struggling to breathe and they’re crying. They endure. The good information is there’s a vaccine to forestall it.”
Schrier went on, describing infants within the emergency room “so sick,” “floppy” and with excessive fevers as a result of they’ve bacterial meningitis. She recalled treating one child who got here down with whooping cough, who was weeks outdated and had “stopped respiratory and turned blue.”
“Let me let you know how scared these mother and father had been,” she stated to Kennedy. “I’ve handled a bunch of older children with it. They cough so exhausting they vomit. They run out of air. They break ribs. If you happen to don’t catch it earlier than two weeks, antibiotics don’t even work.”
“You understand what‘s nice? There’s a vaccine that forestalls this,” Schrier stated. “In fact, right here’s the factor: Vaccines solely work if you happen to truly give them. And we all know your file on this.”
Kennedy’s file contains pushing the debunked claim that vaccines trigger autism. He’s floated weird conspiracy theories about COVID-19 being “ethnically targeted” to spare Jewish and Chinese language individuals. He’s referenced the Holocaust when speaking about vaccines and public well being mandates.
As HHS secretary, he has stated that getting vaccinated is a personal choice as an alternative of citing science-based proof that vaccines are protected, efficient and strongly really useful. He’s known as for slicing billions in funding for a program that gives vaccines to kids in low-income households, and he directed the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention to no longer recommend COVID vaccine boosters for youngsters and pregnant ladies.
“We consider Sen. Cassidy greater than we belief you on the subject of vaccinations.”
– Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.)
Throughout Tuesday’s listening to, Schrier additionally accused Kennedy of pulling a quick one on Sen. Invoice Cassidy (R-La.), who solely voted to substantiate Kennedy to his present publish as a result of he stated he acquired assurances that the HHS secretary wouldn’t make adjustments to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a panel of medical and public well being consultants that gives suggestions on vaccine steering for numerous ailments.
Kennedy fired all 17 members of that panel earlier this month, saying in a statement that the transfer was about “prioritizing the restoration of public belief above any particular pro- or anti-vaccine agenda” with a plan to interchange the panelists. His actions inevitably imply that, going ahead, HHS’s steering on vaccine security will probably be rooted in misinformation and views from outdoors the scientific neighborhood, one vaccine coverage skilled told HuffPost.
“Did you misinform Sen. Cassidy while you instructed him you wouldn’t change this panel of consultants?” she requested.
“I by no means made that settlement,” Kennedy replied.
After some forwards and backwards, Schrier stated she merely doesn’t consider him.
“I simply wish to let you know that for many of us sitting right here proper now, we consider Sen. Cassidy greater than we belief you on the subject of vaccinations,” she stated.
