Sunflower State News

U.S. Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas questioned Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during a hearing on vaccine transparency, the science behind vaccine recommendations, and the effectiveness of Operation Warp Speed.

During the session, Marshall emphasized the need for clear communication from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regarding vaccine guidelines. He referenced current CDC recommendations that call for children to receive multiple vaccinations by adulthood. “Welcome, Mr. Secretary. One of your themes for the CDC is transparency. And I think when I hear you talk about transparency, I think part of that is sharing what you know, what the CDC knows, with parents so that they can make decisions.

“Behind me, yeah, I know it’s gonna be hard to see from there, I can barely read it. This is the current CDC recommendations for vaccines for children. On day number one, they get their first jab, the hepatitis vaccine. By the time they’re 18 months, they’ve had 18 jabs. By the time they get old enough to vote, they have 76 jabs.

“Now, when we talk, when I listen, what I hear you say is that, look, vaccines are drugs. We need a measured response, and… when do we use this? It’s interesting that the United States has put age 65 and older for the COVID-19 vaccine. The UK has chosen 75 and France 80. Obviously scientists disagree exactly when that should or shouldn’t be. The Hepatitis B vaccine makes no sense to me. I’ve only delivered 5000 babies but we do a hepatitis test on every mom... Can you just speak a little bit when you talk about transparency and trying to empower and make vaccines available? These should be treated just like a medication.”

Kennedy responded by underscoring his position on medical interventions: “I mean, you know, I say I’m not anti-vaccine. Saying I’m anti-vaccine is like saying I’m anti-medicine... Some medicines harm people... And so there are two Hepatitis vaccines... one of them had a safety study that lasted for four days on 143 kids... The risk profile prior to introduction of the vaccine... was one in 7 million.”

Marshall clarified his stance further: “And I guess before the press labels me wrong. I’m not anti-Vax either... What I feel difference is sometimes my friends across aisle feel like there’s a one-size-fits-all all... And what you and I are fighting for is that we want to empower parents to make these decisions...

“I want to talk about mortality of Covid for just a second.... There’s a big difference.... When this monster virus was made in laboratory in Wuhan China ... But today every American’s had Covid a dozen times probably ... It was a miracle; Warp speed was a miracle ... but it’s also true that it probably killed some people.... So both things are true.”

Kennedy commented on Operation Warp Speed's role: “Well,I think you just cleared it up.The COVID vaccine was critical.President Trump’s leadership got it to us when our society was locked down and allowed us to open up.It was ... perfectly matched to a virus ... so it was a miracle.

“Right now we’re dealing with completely different circumstances where virus has mutated ... if you just want turn everything into sound bite…you can’t have grown-up conversation.

“But,you know there were more reports VAERS ... injuries deaths from that vaccine than all vaccines put together in history.We have acknowledge cause,we acknowledge benefit,we can’t quantify either one because data chaos at CDC.And that's all I'm saying...

“And they think I'm being evasive,because won’t make kind statement almost religious in nature.Did save million lives? Well,no data support that…there's no study … there's modeling studies … there's faulty data.I'm not going sign onto something if can't make scientific certainty.It doesn't mean … I'm anti-vax.It just means I'm pro-science.”