RFK Jr. will appear before Congress amid the turmoil of the CDC – News Democrats
Associated Press
U.S. Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The U.S. Senate Finance Committee has called on Kennedy to hear his plan to “make America healthy again.” But health secretary is expected to face issues concerning layoffs and planned budget cuts, which these critics say undermine the U.S. ability to prevent disease.
Kennedy recently fired Susan Monarez, a long-time government scientist who served as a director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for less than a month and tried to reshape the country’s vaccine policy to match his long-standing safety and effectiveness of the lens.
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Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who faced the main challenger, made cautious progress on the CDC and RFK Jr.
Cassidy’s support is crucial to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Louisiana lawmakers and physicians are in a narrow state as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fires and resignations have now attracted attention to the leadership collapse of the leading public health agency in the United States.
The two-term senator – who publicly expressed concern about Kennedy’s anti-vac vaccine position before the vote confirmed him – was clamoring for “serious allegations” on the CDC and calling for oversight without blaming Kennedy.
But when he returned to Washington this week after the Senate’s August recess, he was carefully choosing his words and preparing to ask Kennedy at a Finance Committee meeting scheduled for Thursday. Cassidy told reporters that he hadn’t decided to ask Kennedy yet, saying: “I want to ask questions carefully.”
▶Read more about Republican Senator Bill Cassidy
Senior Democrats say little RFK must “answer the public”
In a statement last week, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the highest-ranked Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said: “JFK’s answer to the public and its representatives is more important than ever, and has had an impact on his chaos, chaos and behavior that harms him.”
Kennedy’s past as Secretary of Health
In May, Kennedy – a long-time leader of the anti-vaccine campaign – announced that it would no longer recommend healthy children and pregnant women who are opposed by medical and public health groups, and no longer recommend the use of the Covid-19-19 vaccine.
In June, he suddenly disbanded a group of experts who have been providing advice to the government on vaccine policies. He replaced them with a carefully selected group that included several vaccine skeptics, and then closed the door to multiple long-standing groups of doctors that have helped form the committee’s recommendations.
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