US Health Secretary grilled in Senate on vaccine stance, CDC shake-up

Washington, Sep 5 US Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. faced tough grilling from the Senate Finance Committee over his decision to fire Centres for Disease Control (CDC) Director Susan Monarez and his views on vaccines.

In the three-hour-long hearing held on Thursday, Kennedy faced bipartisan fury -- with many Republican lawmakers joining hands with Democrats to target him.

On the firing of CDC Director Monarez last week, Kennedy said that she was untrustworthy.

Monarez wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday accusing Kennedy of making a "deliberate effort to weaken America's public-health system and vaccine protections".

Kennedy rejected those allegations.

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On Covid-19 vaccines, Warren also accused Kennedy of restricting access to the booster shot.

Kennedy shot back, saying, "It's not recommended for healthy people."

Democratic Senator Mark Warner asked Kennedy whether he agreed that "a million Americans died from Covid", Kennedy Jr. responded: "I don't know how many died."

Republican Senator Bill Cassidy also challenged Kennedy, noting that his constituents are struggling to access Covid-19 booster shots amid confusion created by the revised guidelines.

Since assuming office, Kennedy has introduced several contentious shifts in US vaccine policy -- restricting eligibility for Covid-19 shots and dismissing all 17 members of the CDC's vaccine advisory panel, replacing some with allies from the anti-vaccine movement.

The hearing comes a day after Florida announced that it plans to become the first US state to end all vaccine mandates, including for diseases like chicken pox, measles, polio and mumps.

The American Medical Association criticised the move, warning that "this unprecedented rollback would undermine decades of public health progress and place children and communities at increased risk".

Covid-19 was the third leading cause of death in the US in 2020 and 2021, fourth in 2022 and 10th in 2023, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Data from the World Health Organisation shows the US has reported about 1.2 million total deaths from Covid-19 through mid-August -- about one out of every six Covid deaths worldwide.

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