NBC News
The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS, in English), Robert F. Kennedy Jr., eluded on Wednesday questions about vaccines and if he would choose to vaccinate his children today against a series of diseases, saying: “I don’t think people should follow my medical advice.”
Kennedy’s comment was in response to representative Mark Pocan, Democrat by Wisconsin, during an audience of the Assignments Committee of the House of Representatives.
In the midst of a measles outbreak in western Texas and other parts of the United States that has caused the death of two children and an adult, all of them without vaccinating, Kennedy has promoted remedies without proven effectiveness, as a steroid called Budesonide, an antibiotic called clarithromycin and cod liver oil, a supplement rich in vitamin A.
According to experts, none of them is a proven treatment against measles. High doses of vitamin A can cause nausea, vomiting and liver damage, especially in young children.
Kennedy has sometimes offered warm support for the measles, paper and rubella, but often undermines that message with false statements about its harmful effects and the lack of long -term protection.
Kennedy told Pocan that “Probably” would vaccinate their children Against measles today, but added: “My opinions about vaccines are irrelevant.”
Pocan then asked Kennedy if he would vaccinate his children today against chickenpox and polyomyelitis.
Kennedy refused to respond and replied: “I don’t want to give advice.”
Kennedy’s children are vaccinated, a decision that, he said, regrets.
Doctors generally consider that the three vaccines are safe and effective.
In her final comments, the representative Rosa Delauro, Democrat by Connecticut and an outstanding member of the Committee, criticized her comments about vaccines by emphasizing that both Kennedy and HHS “make medical decisions every day,” and pointed to the two children who died of measles this year in the United States.
“You are the HHS secretary. You have enormous power over health policy,” he said. “It is really frightening Do not encourage families to vaccinate their children against measles, chickenpox and polyomyelitis. Vaccines are one of the public health pillars. Vaccines do, save lives, and the fact that the Secretary of Health and Human Services refuses to encourage children to vaccinate is a tragedy. ”
Public health experts also rejected Kennedy’s response.
Although Kennedy has no medical training, “The problem is that the first line of the description of its position is that of the Nation’s Head of Health strategist,” said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, during a call with journalists on Wednesday. “His work is to give people the best advice they can”.
“I wonder what would happen if the Secretary of Transportation refused to answer a question about whether it would fly,” said Dr. Marissa Levine, Professor of Public Health Practice at the University of Southern Florida, on the same call.
The audience of the House of Representatives began what was expected to be a controversial day for Kennedy after the budget cuts and mass layoffs in the HHS. Kennedy Jr. also testified in the afternoon before the Senate Health, Labor, Labor, Labor and Pension Committee.
During the audience on Wednesday morning, Kennedy defended the United States response to measles outbreak and said the agency was doing a better job than other countries.
He pointed out the highest per capita measles rates in Mexico, Canada and Western Europe.
“Mexico has approximately the same number with one third of our population,” he said.
So far this year they have registered More than 1,000 measles cases in the United States. Measles was declared eradicated in the country in 2000. The only year since then with more cases was 2019.
Experts claim that the figures are likely to be higher than known, since it is very likely that many cases are not reported.
Protests during the audience
Ben Cohen, co -founder of the ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s, was one of the seven people detained this Wednesday after a protest during the hearing in which Kennedy Jr. testified, a spokesman for the Capitol Police A NBC News reported.
Police forcibly expelled seven protesters in favor of Gaza from the hearing this afternoon and accused them of agglomeration, obstruction and alteration of public order, a minor crime. Protesting within the buildings of Congress is illegal.
All of them, except Cohen, also face positions of resistance to authority and aggression to a police officer, a Capitol Police spokesman said.
Cohen was later released.
