A vaccine skeptic is leading public health in the US. Today, RFK Jr. faced questions
Consider This from NPR
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4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 4 September 2025
⏱️ 12 minutes
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Summary
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced a scathing line of questioning from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers in the Senate on Thursday.
Kennedy is a vaccine skeptic and is using his position as Secretary of Health and Human Services to radically change vaccine policy.
In recent weeks, there have been a number of public health officials who have resigned or been fired, creating chaos at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health agencies.
Federal employees are also speaking out, including more than 1,000 former and current HHS employees who penned a letter urging Kennedy to resign.
Now, some states are taking vaccine policy into their own hands
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It was a tense three hours as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before a Senate |
| 0:05.8 | committee. Criticism came from senators on both sides of the aisle with a particular focus on |
| 0:10.7 | vaccine policy. You promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines. Since then, I've grown |
| 0:17.0 | deeply concerned. I would say effectively we're denying people vaccine. I'm asking the questions for Mr. Kennedy. |
| 0:23.4 | On behalf of parents and schools and teachers all over the United States of America, |
| 0:31.4 | who deserve so much better than your leadership. |
| 0:35.2 | That was Republican John Barrasso of Wyoming, |
| 0:39.6 | Republican Tom Tillis of North Carolina, |
| 0:44.1 | and Democrat Michael Bennett of Colorado, just a taste of the hearing today. |
| 0:48.6 | Inside the public health community, federal workers are also speaking out. |
| 0:53.8 | I swore an oath, even if I have resigned, I'm going to hold by that oath for the rest of my life. And that is to speak out when I believe the Constitution and the American people are in jeopardy. |
| 0:59.1 | That's Dr. Elizabeth Soda. |
| 1:00.6 | She's one of more than a thousand current and former federal health workers who signed a letter |
| 1:05.2 | urging Health Secretary Kennedy to resign. |
| 1:08.5 | She was a physician with the CDC's National Center for Emerging |
| 1:12.0 | Ensonotic Infectious Diseases until her resignation earlier this week. |
| 1:16.8 | I think his stance on vaccines is one very clear example of how he is politicizing the important |
| 1:25.0 | public health action of vaccines, and it's going to have very serious consequences for all Americans at this point. |
| 1:31.4 | Consider this. A vaccine skeptic is in charge of the nation's health care system. |
| 1:36.5 | He's using that position to radically change vaccine policy. |
| 1:40.3 | How might Congress and individual states step in? |
| 1:48.3 | Music How might Congress and individual states step in? From NPR, I'm Ari Shapiro. |
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