The Wall Street Journal today published a response from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), to an opinion piece written earlier this week by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Read the full letter to the editor HERE and below:
by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont)
RFK Jr.’s Dangerous Designs for Public Health
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. writes that “We’re Restoring Public Trust in the CDC” (op-ed, Sept. 3). That would be laughable if it weren’t dangerously wrong. In my view, Mr. Kennedy is waging a war against science and the well-being of the American people.
Let’s not forget. At the height of the Covid pandemic, we were losing 3,000 people every day, hospitals were overwhelmed, doctors and nurses were dying for lack of personal protective equipment, and workers were afraid to go to their jobs. President Trump’s initial poor leadership—free-wheeling behind the podium, recommending untested cures and sowing confusion—exacerbated this crisis.
Yet once the president recognized the severity of the situation, he did something extremely important. He initiated Operation Warp Speed, which in record time led to the development of lifesaving Covid vaccines. Oddly, Mr. Kennedy doesn’t have a good word to say about what his boss called “one of the greatest miracles in the history of modern-day medicine” that “saved tens of millions of lives worldwide.”
Did people make mistakes in responding to Covid? No question. But nobody, not least the secretary of health and human services, should ignore that these vaccines were an enormous and beneficial breakthrough.
We shouldn’t be surprised, however, by Mr. Kennedy’s refusal to acknowledge that success. While the medical community has understood that vaccines are safe, effective and have led to the elimination of polio, measles, smallpox and other diseases, Mr. Kennedy hasn’t. Throughout his career, and as the founder of the antivaccine Children’s Health Defense Organization, he has made millions sowing doubt about the efficacy of vaccines.
If the president wants to make America healthy again, great. But he shouldn’t expect to achieve that noble goal with a secretary who looks down on modern medicine and undermines our ability to respond to pandemics.
Welch Holds Senate Republicans Accountable for Kennedy’s Tenure at HHS: “We have confirmed a vaccine denier.”
Welch also demands vote on bill to claw back Republicans’ $5 billion handout to Big Pharma
During a Senate Finance Committee hearing today, U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont) delivered a scathing review of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s tenure as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), slamming the Secretary for using his position to undermine vaccines and dismantle the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Senator Welch also grilled Secretary Kennedy about failing to lower health care costs and highlighted the disastrous impact of President Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act on our health care system.
Senator Welch voted against Secretary Kennedy’s nomination in February and called for him to resign last week.
“I believe the Secretary made assurances to this committee, and he has not kept the promises he made. Prices have not come down, they’ve gone up. He assured Senator Cassidy that he would not change the standards for vaccine review. Yet, since his confirmation, all 17 members of the vaccine advisory board have been fired by him. He has limited the use of the COVID-19 vaccine, and he has inexplicably canceled $500 million in vaccine research and funding,” said Senator Welch.
“We have a constitutional responsibility to be a check and balance. And the fear of our founders was that there would be a concentration of power in one branch, and that would lead to catastrophic consequences for our country...We cannot cede power, and there are consequences: a crumbling health care center system, a deficit exploding, and our allies losing faith in us.”
Senator Welch concluded his remarks by challenging Secretary Kennedy to back his legislation holding Big Pharma accountable.
“I ask you to put your policy where your mouth is and join us in supporting that bill to restore price negotiation power so those pharma prices can come down from being the highest in the world to something within range of reason.”
Watch Senator Welch’s full remarks
Read Senator Welch’s full remarks as delivered.
Following the hearing, Senator Welch and Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, demanded a vote on their legislation to repeal changes to Medicaid cost-sharing requirements and $5 billion handout to Big Pharma in the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
In speaking on the Senate floor, Senator Welch urged the Senate to pass the Repealing the Trump Sick Tax Act.
“Secretary Kennedy and President Trump have championed a bill, the One Big Beautiful Bill—so called—that literally is a $5 billion bailout for Pharma by allowing them to get out of, or delay indefinitely, and maybe forever, the obligation to negotiate fair prices,” said Senator Welch. “That is wrong. There's nothing beautiful about it except that it maintains a big, fat profit...I sincerely hope my colleagues will join me in helping pass this bill. Secretary Kennedy and President Trump said that their party wants to lower the price of drugs. I want to do that, and this bill would help us do that. And my goal—we should pass this with unanimous consent.”
Senator Welch has been a staunch opponent of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s appointment to serve as HHS Secretary. Last night, Senator Welch also spoke on the Senate Floor and slammed Secretary Kennedy’s efforts to destroy democratic institutions and undermine the CDC.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 – Sanders, Welch
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