{"id":7218,"date":"2025-09-07T17:31:44","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T17:31:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=7218"},"modified":"2025-09-07T17:31:44","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T17:31:44","slug":"we-are-the-sickest-country-in-the-world-claimed-hhs-secretary-kennedy-at-scorching-senate-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=7218","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We Are the Sickest Country in the World,\u2019 Claimed HHS Secretary Kennedy at Scorching Senate Hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
By<\/span> Sunita Sohrabji<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

At a Finance Committee hearing Sept. 4, senators on both sides of the aisle lambasted Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., claiming he had broken his promise not to restrict vaccine access.<\/p>\n

Several senators loudly vocalized their concerns about Kennedy\u2019s firing of all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices \u2014 ACIP \u2014 and replacing the panel with 8 members of his own choosing. Several of Kennedy\u2019s ACIP panel picks are believed to be anti-vaccine.<\/p>\n

ACIP will meet Sept. 18-19 to issue guidances for several vaccines, including Covid-19, Hepatitis-B, measles, mumps, and rubella, and others. American Community Media will host a news briefing Sept. 26 with a panel of experts who will offer guidance on ACIP\u2019s recommendations.<\/p>\n

Three West Coast states \u2014 California, Oregon, and Washington \u2014 announced this week they were forming the \u201cWest Coast Health Alliance\u201d to deliver credible information about vaccines \u201cbased on science, not politics,\u201d according to a news release. Hawaii has also joined the alliance.<\/p>\n

Conversely, Florida became the first state in the nation to end vaccine mandates for its school children. Unvaccinated children will be allowed to attend school, under Florida\u2019s new guidance.<\/p>\n

Confusing Guidance<\/h2>\n

Senators also expressed concern about the abrupt firing<\/a> of former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez. Kennedy defended the decision, saying that Monarez had \u201clied\u201d to him about her trustworthiness.<\/p>\n

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who is a physician, was one of the most vocal critics during the three hour hearing. Cassidy read out a letter from a constituent, whose wife has Stage 4 cancer. \u201cThanks to the current mess at HHS, CVS pharmacy is unable to get her a Covid vaccine,\u201d he read from the letter.<\/p>\n

Cassidy read another letter from a physician friend. \u201cHey, Bill, I\u2019m not even sure what I\u2019m asking you. But we\u2019re all confused and concerned about who can get the COVID vaccine. There\u2019s no firm guidance and concern about liability if vaccines are given to a patient who requests it, but is not on the current CDC recommended list. Pharmacists are requiring a prescription now even for patients over 65, creating a huge headache.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201dWe are denying people vaccine,\u201d stated Cassidy.<\/p>\n

Funding Cuts<\/h2>\n

He noted that Kennedy had cancelled $500 million in research funding for mRNA vaccines, the most commonly-used vaccines around the globe during the Covid-19 pandemic. Kennedy shot back repeatedly during the hearing, saying that mRNA vaccines were associated with myocarditis and pericarditis in teenagers.<\/p>\n

A recent bulletin<\/a> from the CDC noted that myocarditis and pericarditis cases are rare and largely resolve themselves after a few days.<\/p>\n

Cassidy had been critical<\/a> of Kennedy during his confirmation hearings in January, but ended up supporting his nomination nonetheless.<\/p>\n

Senate Republican Whip John Barasso, a physician from Wyoming, said he was worried about Kennedy\u2019s vaccine stance. \u201cOver the last 50 years, vaccines are estimated to have saved 154 million lives worldwide. I support vaccines. I\u2019m a doctor. Vaccines work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn your confirmation hearings, you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines. Since then, I\u2019ve grown deeply concerned,\u201d said Barasso, noting outbreaks of measles, the CDC firing, and HHS leadership expressing concern about mRNA vaccines.<\/p>\n

Undermining Public Health<\/h2>\n

\u201cAmericans don\u2019t know who to rely on,\u201d said Barasso, adding that 81% of Republican voters believe vaccine recommendations should come from trained physicians, scientists, and public health experts. \u201cIf we\u2019re going to make America healthy again, we can\u2019t allow public health to be undermined,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are real concerns that safe, proven vaccines like measles, like Hepatitis-B, and others could be in jeopardy. And that would put Americans at risk and reverse decades of progress,\u201d said Barasso. He sought assurance from Kennedy that ACIP\u2019s recommendations would be based on science, not politics.<\/p>\n

Kennedy dodged the question, noting that \u2014 when he was a child \u2014 only 3 vaccines were required. Today\u2019s children must take about 92 vaccines to be compliant, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to go back and do observational studies on the existing vaccines to see if they\u2019re linked to any of these chronic disease epidemics so that people can understand the risk profile of those products and make good assessments for their own health,\u201d said Kennedy.<\/p>\n

Source: Published without changes from American Community Media<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sunita Sohrabji At a Finance Committee hearing Sept. 4, senators on both sides of the aisle lambasted<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7219,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[255,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america-under-attack","category-health"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7220,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7218\/revisions\/7220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}