US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy (RFK) Jr has been pressed on his changes to vaccine guidelines, firings at health agencies, and Covid-19 viewpoints in a fiery three-hour-long congressional hearing.
In what were arguably the most combative proceedings to play out before the Senate so far this year, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) chief testified before Democratic and Republican senators on a range of health topics and many of his policies that have engulfed the administration in a bipartisan storm.
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Pharmaceutical Technology has pulled together the five most important quotes from the hearing.
CDC firings “absolutely necessary”
In his opening statement, RFK Jr promptly addressed the shakeups at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that have engulfed Capitol Hill in a political storm. Last week, the health secretary fired CDC director Dr Susan Monarez.
Lawyers representing Dr Monarez have said her sacking was illegal, and alleged she was targeted by Kennedy because she refused “to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives”.
At least three senior CDC leaders have since resigned from the agency, citing disagreement over vaccine policy and HHS leadership. The resignations also came soon after RFK Jr cut $500m worth of federal mRNA vaccine funding.
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By GlobalDataRFK Jr emphatically stated: “The recent shakeups at CDC…were absolutely necessary adjustments to restore the agency to its role as the world’s gold standard public health agency.
“The CDC failed that responsibility miserably during Covid-19 with its disastrous, nonsensical policies.”
The people at the CDC who oversaw this process are the ones who are leaving, RFK Jr said, adding that bold and new leadership is needed at the agency. Jim O’Neill, who currently serves as deputy health secretary, has been named as Monarez’s replacement.
“I depoliticised ACIP”
One of the early interrogations came from Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, who pressed the health secretary on his overhaul of the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP). ACIP is the committee responsible for reviewing vaccine data and issuing official government recommendations on immunisations.
RFK Jr fired off the entirety of the previous slate in June, replacing them with known vaccine sceptics and individuals lacking public health expertise.
“I depoliticised ACIP,” RFK Jr asserted, adding that plenty of doctors and scientists backed his choice.
One of those who criticised the overhaul was the American Academy of Pediatrics, which stated it was “deeply troubled and alarmed” at the time of the ousting.
RFK Jr said during the hearing that the academy is “gravely conflicted,” claiming that their biggest financial contributors are pharmaceutical companies.
Dr Robert Malone, one of those put on the panel by RFK Jr, previously declared that mRNA vaccines cause AIDS, a claim with no scientific evidence. The health secretary evaded this statement when it was put to him during the hearing.
“We were lied to about everything [during Covid-19]”
RFK Jr has been continually outspoken in his disagreement with how the Covid-19 pandemic was handled. Although the president at the time was Donald Trump, much of RFK Jr’s quarrels lie with the transparency of science and data from the CDC and vaccine manufacturers.
“We were lied to about everything [during Covid-19]”, the health secretary said, alluding to his disagreements with natural immunity, the ability of vaccines to prevent transmission and infection, and the efficacy of masks.
Studies have shown that Covid-19 vaccines significantly reduced infections and serious disease in individuals.
RFK Jr has overseen significant changes in the Covid-19 policy this year. This includes restricting booster doses to certain age groups in the population and requiring underlying conditions in individuals who wish to take Covid-19 mRNA vaccines.
“The whole process was politicised….and my job is to eliminate the politics from science,” he remarked in response to a question from Republican Senator John Cornyn.
“Nobody knows” how many died from Covid-19
Democratic Senator Mark Warner engaged in an exchange with the health secretary that frequently became a shouting match.
Kennedy was asked if he knew how many Americans died because of Covid-19, to which he responded: “I don’t think anybody knows.”
“You’ve had this job for eight months, and you don’t know the data about whether the vaccines saved lives?” Warner contested.
“The data by the Biden administration is absolutely dismal,” RFK Jr swiftly rebuffed.
According to data from the CDC, around 1.2 million Americans have died of Covid-19 between January 2020 and August 2025.
Through statistical models, some scientists estimate that Covid-19 vaccines prevented 2.5 million deaths globally between 2020 and 2024 in the US.
Later in the hearing, when questioned by Bernie Sanders, Kennedy eventually conceded that vaccines “saved quite a few” lives.
“I’m not taking vaccines away”
Senator Elizabeth Warren homed in on changes to vaccine guidelines in the US on RFK Jr’s watch. She said these changes mean that not everyone is eligible for a jab. As with other questions during the hearing, the exchange was pointed towards changes to vaccine eligibility.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently restricted eligibility of the booster shot for the upcoming respiratory illness season, meaning only those aged 65 years and over will be offered the vaccine as part of a routine immunisation schedule.
Despite Warren’s claims, RFK Jr maintained that he “is not taking vaccines away”.
“We’re not going to recommend a product for which there is no clinical data for that indication,” he added.
Warren then questioned whether Monarez had to resign because she refused to sign off on changes to the childhood vaccination schedule.
Kennedy claims: “I told her she had to resign because I asked her, ‘Are you a trustworthy person?’ And she said no.”
In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal on 3 September, Monarez wrote that RFK Jr told her to approve actions that went against science.
Warren echoed a letter sent from the HHS on the same day as the hearing, calling for RFK Jr’s resignation.
