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Senate to Vote on RFK Jr. 02/13 07:17
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate is expected to vote Thursday on the
confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent lawyer and vocal vaccine
critic, as the nation's health secretary, controlling $1.7 trillion in spending
for vaccines, food safety and health insurance programs for roughly half the
country.
Despite several Republicans expressing deep skepticism about his views on
vaccines, Kennedy is expected to win confirmation, absent any last-minute
changes.
Kennedy, 71, whose famous name and family tragedies have put him in the
national spotlight since he was a child, has earned a formidable following with
his populist -- and sometimes extreme -- views on food, chemicals and vaccines.
His audience only grew during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Kennedy devoted
much of his time to a nonprofit that sued vaccine makers and harnessed social
media campaigns to erode trust in vaccines as well as the government agencies
that promote them.
With the backing of Republican President Donald Trump, Kennedy believes he
is "uniquely positioned" to revive trust in those public health agencies, which
include the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, and the National Institutes for Health.
Republican senators have largely embraced Kennedy's vision, reciting his
newly hatched slogan to "Make America Healthy Again" in speeches.
Last week, North Carolina GOP Sen. Thom Tillis said he hopes Kennedy "goes
wild" on reigning in health care costs and improving Americans' health. But one
holdout -- GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana doctor -- required assurances
that Kennedy would not make changes to existing vaccine recommendations before
agreeing to back him.
Democrats have remained skeptical, unsuccessfully prodding Kennedy during
hearings to deny a long discredited theory that vaccines cause autism. And some
have raised alarms about Kennedy financially benefiting from changing vaccine
guidelines or weakening federal lawsuit protections against vaccine makers.
Kennedy made more than $850,000 last year from an arrangement referring
clients to a law firm that has sued the makers of Gardasil, a human
papillomavirus vaccine that protects against cervical cancer. While serving as
health secretary, he has promised to reroute fees collected from the
arrangement to his son.
Kennedy is expected to take over the agency in the midst of a massive
federal government shakeup, led by billionaire Elon Musk, that has shut off --
even if temporarily -- billions of taxpayer dollars in public health funding
and left thousands of federal workers unsure about their jobs.
On Friday, the NIH announced it would cap billions of dollars in medical
research given to universities and cancer being used to develop treatments for
diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's.
Kennedy, too, has called for a staffing overhaul at the NIH, FDA and CDC.
Last year, he vowed to fire 600 employees at the NIH, the nation's largest
funder of biomedical research.
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