ICYMI: Senator Hassan Calls Out Secretary Kennedy for Threatening the Health and Safety of American Families by Limiting Vaccine Access

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a Senate Finance Committee hearing with Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Senator Hassan – Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Health Subcommittee – called out the Secretary for making it harder for Americans to get vaccinated. Last week’s hearing came amid the resignation and firings of top Centers for Disease Control leadership, and hundreds of past and present public health leaders sounding the alarm on Secretary Kennedy’s agenda which has included leading the Food and Drug Administration to change guidelines around the COVID-19 vaccine behind closed doors and appointing vaccine conspiracy theorists to key positions in America’s health agencies.

In case you missed it, watch Senator Hassan’s questioning at the hearing HERE. And see more below as Senator Hassan spoke out following the hearing to make clear the threat that Secretary Kennedy poses to Americans’ health and wellbeing and to reiterate her repeated calls for the Secretary to resign:

Key quotes from Senator Hassan’s interviews on MSNBC, CNN, and WMUR include:

• “When you present him with information that doesn’t fit his narrative, he says you’re making things up. And the thing here is that it is fine to question science; questioning is foundational to science, and it’s what leads us to better and better science, to the truth, ultimately. But that isn’t what Secretary Kennedy is about. When he is presented with information that conflicts with his worldview, he just accuses whoever presents it to him of lying or doesn’t accept the information as real.”

• “And he did that again and again today, even when, you know, I presented to him the fact that there are multiple studies that say that the COVID-19 vaccine saved at least 3 million lives, American lives, and millions more around the globe. He dismissed that study. And I think that that’s what you’re hearing from the CDC leadership, the director who was fired, but the people who resigned in protest of her firing. According to them, they’ve offered to brief the Secretary, but he wouldn’t accept the briefing.”

• “We are trying to make sure that the American people understand that Secretary Kennedy is not accurate, deliberately at times misleads people about the safety of vaccines, about what the President’s Big Ugly Bill did. I mean, our nonpartisan congressional budget office said millions and millions of Americans will lose their health insurance coverage and have less access to health care because of the cuts to Medicaid, among other things, in that big, terrible bill that they passed. And Secretary Kennedy said that wasn’t true yesterday.”

• “So, what I want Americans to understand is that Secretary Kennedy is not interested in data. He is not interested in any data or science or math unless it agrees with his vaccine cynicism, I’ll say, unless it makes him look like he’s right. And so, what I am focused on right now is working with my colleagues, working with the health care providers, with insurance companies to make sure people can continue to get the health care they need. And I hope reverse some of the actions that the Secretary has taken and that my Republican colleagues took in that bill they passed just last month.”

• “What Secretary Kennedy is doing is really, really dangerous. We appreciate both freedom and common-sense in New Hampshire and we need both. But more than anything, we need a top science official – a top health official in this country – who believes in science.”

###