Sunflower State News

On Sunday, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), appeared on Fox News’ Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy to discuss topics including Operation Warp Speed, vaccine safety, and a recent Senate hearing with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

During the interview, Senator Marshall reflected on the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic and vaccine rollout: “Trey, it’s great to be with you, and there’s no doubt that warp speed was a miracle, that vaccine did save millions of lives, but today is so different than that. We had a new virus that came to us, a novel virus out of a lab in Wuhan, China, a horrible virus that none of our immune systems had seen. But today, most of us have had Covid five times, maybe more, and we have a lot of self-immunity, natural immunity.

“So I think that some people need a Covid vaccine and some don’t. And that’s what Bobby Kennedy is trying to restore. He’s trying to restore trust in the CDC, and that’s what we want to do. We want to empower you and your doctor to make the decision what’s best for you when it comes to a vaccine.”

Marshall addressed questions about personal autonomy regarding vaccinations or medical freedom: “Yeah, so I think the answer is both, but at what level? I think that as a doctor or nurse, where you’re constantly exposed to other people in a hospital, then you probably need to do more vaccines to protect the people you’re around. If you’re a doctor or nurse in a hospital, you’re exposed to hepatitis, then you probably should have a hepatitis vaccine.

“But a one-day-old baby… and we know that Mom has a negative hepatitis screen, we know she’s in a stable, monogamous relationship. Nobody in the household has hepatitis. What is the advantage? What is the [upside] of giving that baby a vaccine at one day for hepatitis? So I think that you have to constantly weigh the risk and the benefit… vaccines are drugs, and that’s why you and your doctor or parents and the doctor should discuss the pros and cons and risk and benefits of each one of these.”

He also commented on keeping special interests out of vaccination approval processes: “I wish I could find the answer to that, Trey. I mean, you take the hearing very recently with RFK Jr. I mean, we should give the Democrats a Platinum Award Card for Trump Derangement Syndrome. You just mention the word Covid, and everyone you know jumps to their own side of the ring and starts fighting… I’ve never seen anything quite like it.

“I’m ready to get beyond Covid. There’s so many more important things we should be talking about 60- 70% of Americans have a chronic disease. Our children, at least 20% of them are obese, have a chronic disease taking medicines. So I think there’s other important things to talk about other than just vaccines. But absolutely our goal let’s be as transparent as possible get the doctors to give the parents,the patients all information,and let you make these decisions.”