US senators pit Kennedy against Trump on vaccine policy

By Ahmed Aboulenein

WASHINGTON, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Democrats and Republicans pushed U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy's Jr. on his recent vaccine policies and their stark contrast to President Donald Trump's successful first-term pandemic initiative to speed vaccine development during a combative three-hour Senate hearing on Thursday.

Half a dozen heated exchanges focused on the details of his decision to fire Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez, who had started the job with Kennedy's support only a month earlier. Kennedy said she lied about the reason she was dismissed.

Republican U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana praised Trump for having accelerated the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in 2020.

His line of questioning - mirrored by two other members of his and Trump's party - underscored the tightrope Republicans critical of Kennedy needed to walk in order to push back against his vaccine policies without criticizing the president.

Cassidy, a former physician, asked Kennedy during the Senate Finance Committee hearing if he agreed with him that Trump deserved a Nobel Peace Prize for the COVID vaccine initiative. Kennedy said he did.

Why then had Kennedy said the vaccines killed more people than COVID? Cassidy asked. Kennedy denied making the statement, would not agree that the vaccines saved lives, and in a later exchange acknowledged the shots prevented deaths but not how many, citing chaotic data from the Biden administration.

COVID vaccines in the first year of their use saved some 14.4 million lives globally, according to a study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.

Republicans Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Barrasso of Wyoming, who like Cassidy is a physician, adopted Cassidy's tactic, as did Senate Democrats Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Raphael Warnock of Georgia, where the CDC is headquartered, and Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats.

"Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines. Since then, I've grown deeply concerned," said Barrasso.

"The public has seen measles outbreaks, leadership in the National Institutes of Health questioning the use of mRNA vaccines, the recently confirmed Director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fired," the senator added.

Under fiery questioning from Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the committee's top-ranking Democrat, most Democrats, and some Republicans, Kennedy defended the ousting of Monarez, adding that he might need to fire even more people at the agency.

Trump fired Monarez after she resisted changes to vaccine policy advanced by Kennedy that she believed contradicted scientific evidence, further destabilizing the already embattled agency.

In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, Monarez said she had been directed to preapprove vaccine recommendations and fire career CDC officials, describing her ouster as part of a broader push to weaken U.S. vaccine standards.

Kennedy said he had never told Monarez she needed to preapprove decisions but that he did order her to fire officials, which she refused to do.

CALLS FOR KENNEDY RESIGNATION

Kennedy said the CDC during the COVID-19 pandemic had lied to Americans, pointing to recommendations on mask wearing, vaccine boosters and social distancing and statements that the vaccine would prevent transmission.

"I need to fire some of those people and make sure this doesn't happen again," Kennedy said.

During the COVID pandemic, the CDC came under fire as Americans became frustrated, particularly with school closures, although its changing recommendations were based on past experience with virus transmission and what was known about the novel coronavirus at the time.

By late 2021, as more real-world data on the vaccines accumulated, the CDC acknowledged the shots could not stop COVID infection and transmission, but were highly effective in preventing severe cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

Since taking the job, Kennedy has made a series of controversial changes to U.S. vaccine policy, including narrowing who is eligible for COVID shots and firing all 17 expert members of a CDC vaccine advisory panel, choosing some fellow anti-vaccine activists to replace them.

Kennedy has faced criticism from some Republicans and calls to resign by several Democrats since Monarez's firing, which triggered resignations of four senior agency officials who cited anti-vaccine policies and misinformation pushed by Kennedy and his team.

Wyden called for his resignation on Thursday at the beginning of the hearing, as have other senators and over 1,000 current and former health employees.

No senators asked about Florida's announcement on Wednesday that it planned to get rid of all vaccine mandates.

Cassidy, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, has said the CDC upheaval warrants oversight. He was the deciding vote during Kennedy's confirmation process after receiving assurances the longtime anti-vaccine crusader would not interfere with vaccine policy.

On Thursday, he pressed Kennedy on his decision to cancel $500 million in funding for research on the mRNA technology used in making the most widely used COVID vaccines.