In sharply worded questions, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) tangled with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about mRNA vaccines and conflicts of interest among Kennedy’s handpicked panel of vaccine advisers.
Cassidy, a physician, was reluctant to support Kennedy’s confirmation but ultimately cast the deciding vote for his nomination to advance out of committee after receiving assurances about vaccine policy.
The at times fiery exchange, during a Thursday Senate Finance Committee hearing, marks the strongest pushback and most contentious public exchange between the two since Kennedy’s term began.
Cassidy first asked Kennedy if he thought President Trump deserved the Nobel Prize for Operation Warp Speed, the project that accelerated the development of COVID-19 vaccines and treatment during Trump’s first term.
When Kennedy answered affirmatively, Cassidy pressed him about his opposition to mRNA technology and why his agency cut more than $500 million in contracts for mRNA research.
“As lead attorney for the Children’s Health Defense, you engaged in multiple lawsuits attempting to restrict access to the COVID vaccine,” Cassidy said. “It surprises me that you think so highly of Operation Warp Speed when as an attorney, you attempted to restrict access to the COVID vaccine.”
Kennedy said he supported the COVID-19 vaccine initially because there were so many people getting seriously sick and low levels of natural immunity to the virus.
He also said he supported the effort because the vaccine was “perfectly” matched to the virus and there were no mandates under Trump.
Cassidy then pressed Kennedy about conflicts of interest on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel.
Kennedy said he fired the panel’s previous members because they had conflicts of interest with drug companies that made them unable to participate as independent advisers.
Cassidy asked if Kennedy thought it was a conflict of interest to appoint panelists who are paid expert witnesses in litigation against vaccine manufacturers.
Kennedy said it’s a “bias” but an allowable one so long as it’s disclosed.
Cassidy also read from a letter he received from a physician friend who said patients 65 and older can’t get a COVID-19 shot.
“I would say effectively we are denying people vaccine,” Cassidy said.
“You’re wrong,” Kennedy told him.
