In a speech on the Senate floor, Durbin warns that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s dangerous and irresponsible views could jeopardize children’s health
WASHINGTON – In a speech on the Senate floor, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today spoke out against the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), citing the nominee’s false and irresponsible views on vaccines. In his remarks, Durbin pointed to specific examples of Kennedy spreading lies about vaccines, fluoride, and other measures with proven scientific history of safety and improving health.
“Every day HHS makes life or death decisions. That [department] oversees the Food and Drug Administration to make sure that what we eat is safe, to make sure the drugs that are sold to us are effective and safe as well. The National Institutes of Health, the premier medical research agency in the world, with $48 billion spent each year to find cures, to find new drugs, to move us toward a better America. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to make sure that whatever is going around, as they say, doesn’t hit our families. We count on them every single day. It’s a big job, it requires responsible leadership and honesty,” Durbin began.
Durbin acknowledged that he has some common ground with Kennedy, specifically related to curbing pharmaceutical advertisements, which mirrors a policy laid out in Durbin’s DTC Act.
“There may be some certain areas where we agree, such as curbing drug ads or improving the quality of food supply… I can work with him on those issues,” Durbin said.
“But on the fundamentals… his leadership is troublesome. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is dangerously, dangerously unqualified and entirely irresponsible in his judgement. He embraces quack science and cherry-picks information to fulfill his numerous conspiracy theories,” Durbin said.
Durbin spoke to Kennedy’s record of spreading lies about the efficacy and safety of vaccines. Durbin quoted Kennedy directly during his remarks, reiterating that Kennedy has said as recently as July 2023 that, “there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective.”
“His decades-long crusade to spread lies about vaccines is just one example,” Durbin said. “Contrary to scientific fact, he has also said that ‘I do believe that autism does come from vaccines.’”
Durbin explained that Kennedy helped to publish, promote, and wrote the foreword for a book called Cause Unknown, which included faulty, unsubstantiated claims linking COVID-19 vaccines and deaths in children. The book’s cover features the face of 12-year-old Braden Fahey, implying that COVID-19 vaccines played a role in Braden’s death. However, Braden never received a COVID-19 vaccine—he died at football practice due to a malformed blood vessel in his brain, but the book included Braden’s photo without the knowledge or consent of his grieving parents.
“The height of irresponsibility. Mr. Kennedy pushes facts aside when he wants to tell us about his agenda. The Hippocratic Oath for doctors states: first, do no harm. But I am fearful that if we put Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in charge of our nation’s health, innocent children will die,” Durbin continued.
“It’s no secret what he would do. Mr. Kennedy himself petitioned the FDA to rescind authorization of all COVID vaccines in 2021. And a key associate of his has petitioned to remove the polio vaccine,” Durbin said.
“In 1952, polio paralyzed more than 21,000 Americans and killed more than 3,000. But thanks to researcher Jonas Salk, a vaccine was discovered and studied among 1.3 million children… It was proven safe,” Durbin said.
As Durbin points out, Kennedy has travelled internationally to spread doubt and falsehoods about the safety and efficacy of the measles vaccine.
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has spread conspiracy theories to discourage uptake of the measles vaccine, for example – including travelling to Samoa to spread lies about its safety, fueling an outbreak that took 80 lives,” Durbin continued. “Before the measles vaccine, 48,000 people were hospitalized each year—with thousands experiencing life-threatening brain swelling. By 2000, measles was declared eliminated because of vaccines.”
Durbin then spoke about Kennedy’s unsupported claims that fluoride in water is unhealthy despite clear scientific evidence proving that fluoride helps prevent cavities and dental surgery.
“Mr. Kennedy’s dangerous, anti-science views don’t stop… He has also targeted the fluoride in drinking water. We’ve been adding… fluoride in our drinking water for over 70 years in the United States. We have tested it every way you can imagine, as we should, to make sure that it is safe for all of us to drink,” Durbin said.
“This man is not a scientist… He has no special knowledge or authority when it comes to these issues and sadly, [he] buys into a myriad of conspiracy theories,” Durbin said. “God forbid we encounter another pandemic or infectious disease threat. Do you really want this vaccine denier, Robert Kennedy Jr., at the helm?”
Durbin concluded his floor speech by calling on his Senate colleagues to stand against Kennedy’s nomination for the sake of public health.
“I issue a challenge to my 99 Senate colleagues: go ask your local children’s hospital if they think this nominee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., would help or harm their work to treat sick children,” Durbin said. “The United States Senate is better than this. I urge my colleagues to think twice before voting for this irresponsible nominee… This is the wrong nominee for this critical agency.”