Senators question RFK Jr. on vaccines: What to know

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here.

Welcome to The Logoff: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had a disastrous day in front of the US Senate today, facing calls for his resignation during a multi-hour hearing that raised more alarms about the state of US public health agencies.

What was the hearing about? Senators from both parties pushed Kennedy on vaccine policy and availability, as well as firings and resignations at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

CDC director Susan Monarez was pushed out last week along with four top agency officials who resigned in protest over her departure, and earlier this year, Kennedy removed every member of a CDC advisory panel on vaccines.

The Food and Drug Administration also issued new guidelines last week sharply limiting access to the Covid vaccine after the agency’s top vaccine regulator overruled FDA scientists, and in early August, Kennedy cut $500 million in federal mRNA vaccine contracts intended to combat respiratory viruses like bird flu.

What did senators say? Three Republican senators — two of them doctors — were sharply critical of Kennedy. Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), a member of Republican leadership, said he had “grown deeply concerned,” while Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) remarked that “effectively, we’re denying people [the Covid] vaccine” under Kennedy’s leadership.

What’s the big picture? Thursday’s hearing was a big deal chiefly for how Kennedy conducted himself: Despite bipartisan criticism, he was defiant, confrontational, and at times outright rude. He also continued to amplify false claims about vaccines, telling Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) that he agreed that “mRNA vaccines cause serious harm, including death, especially among young people.”

What’s next? Kennedy has unquestionably damaged the vaccine consensus in the US, and as he continues to chip away at federal public health infrastructure, states are moving in dramatically different directions.

On Wednesday, Florida’s surgeon general announced the state would end all vaccine mandates for schoolchildren; in contrast, Massachusetts said this week it would begin mandating insurance coverage for vaccines at a state level, and California, Oregon, and Washington announced plans to create their own “West Coast Health Alliance.”

Speaking of bad days for RFK Jr., did you catch Vox’s latest scoop? This morning, my colleague Dylan Scott uncovered that Kennedy’s agency — with White House backing — buried a major federal study showing alcohol’s cancer risks, leaving Americans poised to get new dietary guidelines that ignore the best science we have. You can read his reporting here to get the whole story.

And with that, it’s time to log off…

This article, by Josh Dzieza at Vox’s sister publication The Verge, isn’t quite as upbeat as a lot of what I include here — among other things, it’s about how Wikipedia has come under attack, in the US and abroad, for its steady devotion to facts. But it’s also a great feature about how one of the internet’s greatest accomplishments came to be, how it operates, and the dedicated community trying to protect and maintain it, which all feels pretty hopeful to me. You can read it here — enjoy, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!