The Secretary in the United States of Health and Social Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., testifies before a hearing of the Senate finance committee on the agenda for President Donald Trump in 2026, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, United States, September 4, 2025.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
The Secretary of Health and Social Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., doubled the false allegations concerning vaccines on Wednesday during his testimony to the Senate, while the senators toasted him on his radical changes to the federal vaccination and health agencies.
Kennedy said he made a declaration made by a newly appointed member of a key government’s vaccination committee that mRNA vaccines have a dangerous risk for people. Many studies have shown that plans using mRNA technology, including vaccines wearing Pfizer And Modernare safe and effective, and serious side effects have occurred in extremely rare cases.
Senator Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Noted that the member of the Committee, Dr. Retsef Levi, said that evidence mounted that mRNA vaccines cause “serious damages, including death, especially among young people,” apparently referring to a post pinned to Levi’s X account. Kennedy has appointed Levi to the Vaccination Practices Advisory Committee, which advises centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccination recommendations and insurance coverage.
Kennedy said he was not aware of Levi’s comments, but added: “I agree with that.”
Kennedy’s comments before the Senate finance committee came after having repeatedly promised the panel in January that he would do nothing as a secretary of the HHS who makes things more difficult or discourages people to take vaccines. Since then, he has canceled the financing of the development of mRNA fire and has made other changes in the vaccination policy which could limit access to vaccinations, in particular by avoiding the CDC vaccine panel and by removing cocoded shooting recommendations for certain groups.
His comments also follow a reshuffle of leadership to the centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The White House last week dismissed the director of the CDC Susan Monarez, and four senior officials of the agency resigned shortly after, some citing the agency’s politicization and a threat to public health. In an opinion article Thursday, Monarez accused Kennedy of “a deliberate effort to weaken the public health system and vaccine protections”.
Kennedy has praised skepticism around coasty vaccines, despite proofs of their safety and efficiency.
“We were told again and again that the vaccines would prevent transmission, they prevent infection. It was not true. They knew it from the start,” said Kennedy.
He also said that he did not know how many people died of Covid and if the vaccines prevented the death of the virus.
“I would like to see the data and talk about the data,” said Kennedy.
But the data is easily available in dozens of studies. An article in August believes that coastal vaccines have saved more than 2 million lives, mainly among the elderly, worldwide between 2020 and October 2024.
The CDC website also indicates that co -voted vaccines from the 2023 to 2024 season have reduced the risk of serious illness by almost 70% in the first two months after vaccination in adults aged 18 and over, with protection gradually decreasing over time.
These shots also decreased the risk of hospitalization due to COVID by around 50% in the first two months of vaccination in the same population. Covated vaccines have shown similar advantages in the elderly.
Kennedy also defended his decision to dismiss the 17 previous members of the CDC vaccine committee, saying that he had not politicized the committee.
“What we have done is that we got rid of conflicts of interest. … We have depoliticized and put great scientists from a very diverse group,” said HHS secretary. “They are very, very pro-Vaccin.”
But a new analysis published last month with the USC researchers revealed that conflicts of interest on this panel have been in “historic stockings for years” before Kennedy found it with new members, some of whom are widely known vaccine reviews.
