Kennedy appears before Senate committee amid CDC turmoil

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared before a congressional committee Thursday, where he was expected to face questions about turmoil at federal health agencies.

The Senate Finance Committee called Kennedy to a hearing about his plans to “Make America Healthy Again.”

But Senators also were likely to ask about layoffs and planned budget cuts that detractors say is wrecking the nation’s ability to prevent disease.

At issue were the events of last week, when the Trump administration fired the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention less than a month into her tenure.

Several top CDC leaders resigned in protect, leaving the agency in turmoil.

The ousted director, Susan Monarez, wrote in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that Kennedy was trying to weaken public health protections.

“I was told to preapprove the recommendations of a vaccine advisory panel newly filled with people who have publicly expressed antivaccine rhetoric,” Monarez wrote. “It is imperative that the panel’s recommendations aren’t rubber-stamped but instead are rigorously and scientifically reviewed before being accepted or rejected.”

In a statement last week, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon — the highest ranking Democrat on the committee — said Kennedy must “answer to the public and their representatives about the chaos, confusion, and harm his actions are inflicting on American families.”

Republicans including Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician and vaccines supporter, are also likely to press Kennedy.

Asked if he has confidence in the health secretary, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican on the committee, said he wants to hear from Kennedy in person.

“He’s got to reconcile what he said during his confirmation process with what we’ve seen over the past few months, particularly on vaccine policy,” Tillis said.

In May, Kennedy — a longtime leader in the anti-vaccine movement — announced COVID-19 vaccines would no longer be recommended for healthy children and pregnant women, a move opposed by medical and public health groups.

In June, he abruptly a panel of experts that had been advising the government on vaccine policy. He replaced them with a handpicked group that included several vaccine skeptics, and then shut the door to several doctors groups that had long helped form the committee’s recommendations.

A number of medical groups say Kennedy can’t be counted on to make decisions based on robust medical evidence. In a statement Wednesday, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and 20 other medical and public health organizations issued a joint statement calling on Kennedy to resign.

“Our country needs leadership that will promote open, honest dialogue, not disregard decades of lifesaving science, spread misinformation, reverse medical progress and decimate programs that keep us safe,” the statement said.

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Stobbe reported from New York. Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

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