The Secretary of Health and Human Services of the United States, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., testifies to an audience of the Senate Finance Committee on the Medical Care Agenda of President Donald Trump on the Medical Care Agenda of 2026, in Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, USA. UU., September 4, 2025.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., doubled the false claims about vaccines and said that he is not limiting access to Covid shots during his testimony of the Senate on Thursday, since senators interrogated him in his radical changes in immunization policy and federal health agencies.
Kennedy said he supports a statement made by a newly designated member of a key government vaccine panel that MRNA vaccines represent a dangerous risk for people. Numerous studies have shown that shots that use RNM technology, including COVID vaccines Pfizer and ModernThey are safe and effective, and the serious side effects have occurred in extremely rare cases.
Senator Michael Bennet, D-Col. Kennedy appointed Levi for the Immunization Practices Advisory Committee, who advises the centers for the control and prevention of diseases on vaccine recommendations and insurance coverage.
Kennedy said he was not aware of Levi's comments, but added: “I agree with that.”
He also said that anyone could receive a Covid reinforcement opportunity, while recognizing that access “depends on the State” and that the government no longer recommends vaccines for healthy people.
The food and medication administration approved a new round of COVID shooting with new limits, only eliminated them for adults over 65 and people with a medical condition that puts them at risk of serious illness. The CDC and their vaccine panel will decide who to recommend shots at the end of this month.
“I don't take them to people,” Kennedy said, referring to vaccines.
But Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Argued that not everyone can enter a pharmacy and receive a Covid shot now.
The new limits of the FDA have complicated Covid Shot's access in the United States, which now depends on the age and level of risk of a patient, laws and policies in their state, insurance coverage and medical care provider. Waiting for the CDC guide, some pharmacies have added prescription requirements for COVID vaccines in certain states.
“Clearly you are removing vaccines,” he said after a long shout game with Kennedy.
Kennedy's comments before the Senate Finance Committee after he repeatedly promised the panel in January that he would do nothing as HHS secretary who makes people more difficult or discouragement to take vaccines. Since then, he has canceled funds for the development of RNM and shots made other changes in the vaccine policy that could limit access to immunizations, including the destruction of the Vaccine panel of the CDC and the elimination of covid shoot recommendations for certain groups.
Their comments also follow a leadership shake in the centers for disease control and prevention. The White House Week dismissed last week, the director of the CDC, Susan Monarch, and four senior agency officials renounced shortly after, and some of them cite the politicization of the agency and a threat to public health. In an opinion article on Thursday, Monarrez accused Kennedy of “a deliberate effort to weaken the United States public health system and vaccine protections.”
The White House Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, published in X in support of Kennedy on Thursday, writing that “she is taking Flak because she has overcome the goal” and said that the Democrats were attacking the “common sense effort” of the Trump administration.
Kennedy promoted skepticism around vaccines that have, despite the evidence of their safety and effectiveness.
“They told us again and again that the vaccines would avoid transmission, avoid the infection. It was not true. They knew it from the beginning,” Kennedy said.
He also said he doesn't know how many people died of Covid and if vaccines prevented virus deaths.
“I would like to see the data and talk about the data,” Kennedy said.
But the data is easily available from dozens of studies. An article in August estimates that Covid vaccines saved more than 2 million lives, mainly among older adults, worldwide between 2020 and October 2024.
The CDC website also says that COVID vaccines from the 2023 to 2024 season reduced the risk of COVID's serious illness in almost 70% in the first two months after vaccination in adults over 18, and protection gradually decreases over time.
These shots also decreased the risk of hospitalization due to COVID in about 50% in the first two months of vaccination in that same population. Covid vaccines showed similar benefits in older adults.
Kennedy also defended his decision to fire the 17 previous members of the CDC vaccine panel, saying he did not politicize the committee.
“What we did is get rid of conflicts of interest … we depoliticated and put great scientists from a very diverse group,” said the HHS secretary. “They are very, very pro-vaccas.”
But a new analysis published last month of the USC researchers discovered that conflicts of interest on that panel had been in “historical minimums for years” before Kennedy forwarded him with new members, some of whom are critics of widely known vaccines.
Correction: Kennedy testified to the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday. An earlier version indicated the day badly.
