A group of Democratic senators previewed several anti-vaccine arguments during a roundtable discussion, including a claim that vaccines cause autism, several days before Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s scheduled confirmation hearings later this week.
Even though Kennedy’s name was “not supposed” to come up during the hearing, according to at least one of the health experts present at the discussion, his nomination to be the next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was invoked frequently by lawmakers seeking answers about how to combat anti-vaccine claims and so-called “misinformation,” including arguments about vaccines that Kennedy has promoted in the past.
One claim the senators asked the public health experts at the roundtable about was whether vaccines cause autism, a claim Kennedy has discussed publicly in interviews.
“This is something that I hear a concern about quite a lot,” Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., asked the panel. “What, if any information, can you give us to help us push back against that?”
Hellbound and Down 