RFK Jr. Accuses Congressman of Being Paid by Massive Pharma to Assist Vaccines

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of Well being and Human Companies, confronted over three hours of questioning at a Home subcommittee listening to on Tuesday that lined every part from the stunning errors in his first main health report to his full ignorance of federal lawsuits towards main medical health insurance corporations. However one of many standout moments throughout the listening to occurred when Kennedy instructed {that a} sitting member of Congress solely opposed the well being secretary’s actions as a result of he was purchased and paid for by the massive pharmaceutical corporations.

Kennedy made his title as an anti-vaccine extremist and has purged the CDC, NIH, and FDA of prime advisors who consider in vaccines, together with all the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Kennedy was requested Tuesday by Rep. Frank Pallone, a Democrat from New Jersey, why he had prevented getting any public enter on his drastic choices about vaccines, and the well being secretary defended his actions by saying there was already a committee that oversees these items. Pallone identified that Kennedy had fired the committee.

However it was after Pallone’s time had formally expired that the true drama of the listening to would start. The chairman of the committee moved on to a extra MAHA-friendly member of Congress, Rep. Neal Dunn, a Republican from Florida. And as Kennedy began to reply to Dunn’s softball query, he would rapidly transfer on to handle Pallone, an uncommon transfer that’s not sometimes permitted beneath the principles.

Kennedy mentioned that Pallone had beforehand been a champion of people that had been harmed by vaccines and solely modified his tune after receiving cash from the pharmaceutical trade.

“If I can take a minute simply to reply to one thing that Congressman Pallone mentioned, and I’ll handle you, Congressman Pallone,” Kennedy mentioned. “Fifteen years in the past, you and I met; you have been at the moment a champion, for individuals who had suffered accidents from vaccines. You have been very adamant about it, you have been the main member of Congress on that situation.”

Kennedy then moved on to the cash half, and the fireworks began.

“Since then, you’ve accepted $2 million from pharmaceutical corporations in contributions, greater than some other member of this committee,” Kennedy mentioned. “And your enthusiasm for supporting the outdated ACIP committee, which was utterly rife and pervasive with pharmaceutical conflicts, appears to be an end result of these contributions.”

Certainly one of Pallone’s fellow members of Congress objected as a result of Pallone apparently didn’t hear what was being mentioned about him. As soon as it was defined to the chairman that he was impugning the popularity of a member of Congress, Kennedy was requested to retract his assertion. Kennedy solely did so with a smirk.

There have been many different moments from the listening to that have been jaw-dropping, as Kennedy usually insisted he wasn’t really slicing packages that he had certainly reduce. Different instances, Kennedy defended the cuts with extremely dangerous logic. For instance, Kennedy was requested by Rep. Troy Carter of Louisiana about why he’d reduce funding for research on an HIV vaccine. The secretary had the gall to insist it was as a result of a vaccine for HIV had been promised for many years with out outcomes.

Do you assume that sort of logic would fly for different illnesses like most cancers? We haven’t cured most cancers but, so naturally, it’s best to quit on discovering new remedies?

Lawmakers usually identified that most of the cuts have been for congressionally authorized packages, and he had no authority to simply unilaterally determine to chop issues he didn’t like. However that’s what he did, similar to Elon Musk regularly did as the pinnacle of the so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE).

Rep. Nanette Barragan, a Democrat from California, grilled Kennedy over his cuts to Alzheimer’s research. Kennedy insisted he didn’t learn about any of these cuts and repeatedly mentioned he didn’t know if what Barragan was saying was true. Kennedy claimed ignorance about issues he ought to know all through the listening to.

The well being secretary is wildly unqualified for his function and wrote in a latest ebook that he doesn’t even believe in germ theory, one of the vital staple items anybody wants to just accept with a purpose to perceive fashionable medication. As an alternative, Kennedy believes in miasma, or dangerous air, a idea that was final in style within the nineteenth century.

Kennedy additionally made some wild feedback about his plans for each American to put on a wearable gadget that may track glucose. Trump’s decide for Surgeon Basic, who has but to be confirmed by the Senate, owns an organization that sells a wearable which would appear to suit with Kennedy’s “imaginative and prescient” for well being monitoring. Casey Means was nominated by Trump, reportedly at Kennedy’s suggestion, after questions have been raised concerning the president’s first decide for the job, Janette Nesheiwat, and her credentials. Means, a 37-year-old holistic medication physician, co-owns a company known as Ranges that sells merchandise for monitoring glucose ranges. Shoppers pay a minimum of $200 for a one-year subscription to Ranges.

Individuals who aren’t diabetic don’t must be always monitoring their glucose ranges, however Means is satisfied that it’s one of many keys to well being. And Kennedy clearly shares that view, since glucose was the very first thing he talked about throughout his testimony Tuesday as one thing that must be monitored.

Kennedy’s name for each American to put on a well being tracker is relatively amusing, given the right-wing conspiracy theories about how the federal government needs to trace you and poison your well being. It was extraordinarily frequent when the covid-19 vaccine was launched to listen to folks insist that they contained a microchip put there by Invoice Gates to attach everybody to 5G wi-fi alerts. These crackpots, for sure, at the moment are a few of Kennedy’s largest defenders within the “MAHA motion.”

Rep. Balderson requested Kennedy about privateness and wearables. However the well being secretary didn’t acknowledge the privateness side, as an alternative speaking about how he personally had friends who “modified their lives from sporting a glucose meter.”

“They’ve misplaced weight, they’ve misplaced their diabetes, and also you see that occur time and again,” Kennedy mentioned. “And it actually has a miraculous influence on well being in our nation. It’s 80 bucks a month and we’re exploring methods of creating certain that these prices might be paid for.”

It’s not clear what Kennedy means by how these prices might be paid for, however it could clearly be an enormous windfall for any firm that makes glucose displays in the event that they have been all of a sudden reimbursed by Medicare for individuals who didn’t really want to watch their glucose.

“The Ozempic is costing $1,300 a month. When you can obtain the identical factor with an $80 wearable, it’s quite a bit higher for the American folks,” Kennedy mentioned.

Kennedy’s first main report, launched in Could, cited studies that merely don’t exist. He’s hawking merchandise that folks don’t want, and it feels like he’s planning to launch an enormous marketing campaign subsequent week for a product that his fellow MAHA cultists would possibly become profitable from. And there seem like no guardrails to cease any of it. Members of Congress can ask all of the robust questions they like. However so long as Trump’s in energy, the MAHA motion goes to maneuver full velocity forward.