RFK Jr. throws doubts about vaccines, clashes with Democrats about Covid Shot Access
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary for health and human services, attested to the Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, USA, September 4, 2026 before a hearing from the Senate Finance Committee on President Donald Trump’s health agenda.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary for health and human services, has doubled false claims about vaccines and claimed that he did not restrict access to Covid shots during his Senate statements on Thursday when the senators enlarged him about his comprehensive changes to the immunization policy and the federal health authorities.
Kennedy said he supported a statement by a newly appointed member of an important state vaccine committee that mRNA vaccines are a dangerous risk for people. Numerous studies have shown that recordings using MRNA technology, including COVID vaccines from Pfizer And Modernare safe and effective, and serious side effects have occurred in extremely rare cases.
Senator Michael Bennet, D-Colo. Kennedy appointed Levi in the advisory committee for immunization practices, which advises the centers for the control and prevention of diseases on vaccine recommendations and insurance protection.
Kennedy said he was not aware of Levi’s comments, but added: “I agree.”
He also claimed that everyone could get a Covid booster shot and at the same time recognized that access “depends on the state” and that the government no longer recommends vaccines for healthy people.
The Food and Drug Administration approved a new round of Covid shots with new borders, whereby they were only cleared for adults from the age of 65 and people with a medical illness that makes them serious illness. The CDC and its vaccine will decide who you should recommend for later this month.
“I don’t take them away from humans,” said Kennedy, referring to the vaccines.
But Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
The new limit values of the FDA have a complicated covid shot access in the USA, which now depends on the age and risk level, laws and guidelines of a patient in their state, insurance coverage and health service providers. Outstanding CDC guidelines have added prescription requirements for covid vaccines in certain conditions.
“They clearly take vaccines away,” she said after a long cry with Kennedy.
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Kennedy’s comments come before the Senate Finance Committee after repeating the committee in January that as a HHS secretary, he would not do anything that makes it more difficult or keeps people from taking vaccines. Since then he has canceled the financing of the MRNA development and made other changes to the vaccine directive that could restrict access to immunizations, including the exertion of the CDC vaccine panel and the deglishment of covid shot recommendations for certain groups.
His comments also follow a tour in the centers for the control and prevention of diseases. The White House released the CDC director Susan Monarez last week, and four senior agency officers resigned shortly afterwards, some of them cited the politicization of the agency and a threat to public health. In an opinion on Thursday, Monarez Kennedy accused “of a conscious effort to weaken the public health system and the vaccine protection of America”.
The press spokesman for the White House, Karoline Leavitt, published on Thursday to support Kennedy on X and wrote that he “takes flak because he is the goal of the goal” and said that the Democrats attacked the “Commonsense effort of the Trump government”.
Despite her safety and effectiveness, Kennedy was emblazoned with covid vaccines.
“We were told again and again and again the vaccines would prevent the transmission, they prevent an infection. It was not true. They knew it from the start,” said Kennedy.
He also said he didn’t know how many people died of covid and whether the vaccines prevented death from the virus.
“I would like to see the data and talk about the data,” said Kennedy.
However, data is easily available from dozens of studies. In a work in August, Covid vaccines between 2020 and October 2024 saved more than 2 million lives worldwide, mainly in older adults.
The CDC website also states that Covid vaccines from the 2023 season to 2024 reduced the risk of a serious illness of Covid in the first two months after vaccination in adults aged 18 and over by almost 70%, with protection gradually decreasing over time.
These shots also reduced the hospital risk by about 50%in the first two months of vaccination in the first two months of vaccination in the same population. The Covid vaccines showed similar advantages in older adults.
Kennedy also defended his decision to relieve all 17 former members of the CDC vaccine committee, and said he had not politicized the committee.
“We have eliminated the conflicts of interest. … We have big scientists from a very diverse group,” said the HHS secretary. “You are very, very pro-accine.”
A new analysis published by USC researchers last month showed that conflicts of interest in this body were in “historical lows for years” before Kennedy repeated them with new members, some of whom are well -known vaccine critics.
Correction: Kennedy testified on Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee. An earlier version incorrectly stated the day.
