WASHINGTON – Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.) on Tuesday tore into Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for his decades of lies about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, saying she will blame him every time someone dies from a vaccine-preventable disease on his watch.
“You have lied to the American people,” Schrier, who is a pediatrician, charged as Kennedy sat silently before a House committee. “You have lied to parents about vaccines for 20 years.”
“And I also want to be clear that I will lay all responsibility for every death from a vaccine-preventable illness at your feet,” she said.
Here is a clip of their exchange.
Kennedy, who has a long history of peddling dangerous misinformation about vaccines, was testifying before the House panel about his agency’s budget request when Schrier began describing what happens when unvaccinated babies and children get sick with things like measles, bacterial meningitis or whooping cough.
“Have you ever treated measles?” she asked.
Kennedy replied, “No.”
“Well, I have. Let me tell you how miserable it is,” said the Democratic congresswoman. “These kids have high fevers, struggling to breathe and they are crying. They suffer. The great news is there’s a vaccine to prevent it.”
Schrier went on, describing babies in the emergency room “so sick,” “floppy” and with high fevers because they have bacterial meningitis. She recalled treating one baby who came down with whooping cough, who was weeks old and had “stopped breathing and turned blue.”
“Let me tell you how scared those parents were,” she said to Kennedy. “I’ve treated a bunch of older kids with it. They cough so hard they vomit. They run out of air. They break ribs. If you don’t catch it before two weeks, antibiotics don’t even work.”
“You know what‘s great? There’s a vaccine that prevents this,” Schrier said. “Of course, here’s the thing: Vaccines only work if you actually give them. And we know your record on this.”
Kennedy’s record includes pushing the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism. He’s floated bizarre conspiracy theories about COVID-19 being “ethnically targeted” to spare Jewish and Chinese people. He’s referenced the Holocaust when talking about vaccines and public health mandates.
As HHS secretary, he has said that getting vaccinated is a personal choice instead of citing science-based evidence that vaccines are safe, effective and strongly recommended. He’s called for cutting billions in funding for a program that provides vaccines to children in low-income families, and he directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to no longer recommend COVID vaccine boosters for children and pregnant women.
“We believe Sen. Cassidy more than we trust you when it comes to vaccinations.”
– Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.)
During Tuesday’s hearing, Schrier also accused Kennedy of pulling a fast one on Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who only voted to confirm Kennedy to his current post because he said he got assurances that the HHS secretary wouldn’t make changes to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a panel of medical and public health experts that provides recommendations on vaccine guidance for various diseases.
Kennedy fired all 17 members of that panel earlier this month, saying in a statement that the move was about “prioritizing the restoration of public trust above any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda” with a plan to replace the panelists. His actions inevitably mean that, going forward, HHS’s guidance on vaccine safety will be rooted in misinformation and views from outside the scientific community, one vaccine policy expert told HuffPost.
“Did you lie to Sen. Cassidy when you told him you would not change this panel of experts?” she asked.
“I never made that agreement,” Kennedy replied.
After some back and forth, Schrier said she simply doesn’t believe him.
“I just want to tell you that for most of us sitting here right now, we believe Sen. Cassidy more than we trust you when it comes to vaccinations,” she said.