Measles, bioweapons, bird flu, and abortion rights: RFK Jr repeatedly pounded with his past comments at tumultuous hearing

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the nation’s top health department, was repeatedly pounded with his own past remarks on Wednesday at a tumultuous confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C.

Appearing before members of the Senate, the former presidential candidate frequently sought to deny that he had made controversial statements on topics ranging from vaccines to pervasive H5N1 bird flu that is currently proliferating around the U.S.

“I believe that vaccines play a critical role in health care,” he told the committee.

But, many of Kennedy’s previous statements have been at odds with his current positions, raising concerns about what stances he might take in the future, should he be confirmed.

Kennedy said Wednesday that he is not anti-vaccine.

He has previously called Covid vaccine shots the “deadliest” vaccines ever made, saying it was “criminal malpractice” to give them to children. Studies have shown that vaccines helped to prevent millions of deaths in the U.S.

Kennedy has falsely linked vaccines to various medical conditions, including autism.

“I do believe that autism does come from vaccines,” he said last year in an interview with Fox News’ Jesse Watters.

The neurodevelopmental disability is caused by differences in the brain that affect communication and social interaction.

In December, The New York Times reported that the lawyer helping Kennedy pick federal health officials for the incoming administration had petitioned the government to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine.

Kennedy is also the former chairman of Children’s Health Defense, a non-profit group that regularly publishes stories calling the effectiveness of multiple vaccines into question.

“I support the measles vaccine. I support the polio vaccine,” Kennedy said Wednesday. “I will do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking either of those vaccines.”

As bird flu continues to spread across the country this month, Kennedy told hearing attendees that he believes the H5N1 virus is responsible for the outbreak.

Citing a recent book that she did not name, Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith said Kennedy had questioned the scientific basis for germs causing disease and the power of vaccine and antibiotics.

“I’ve never questioned that, senator,” Kennedy replied.

Over the summer, when human cases were lower, Kennedy wondered why the government needed a vaccine.

“Will there be another lab-derived pandemic? Not on my watch!” he wrote.

In May of 2022, just months into the current outbreak, he wrote that bird flu is “notoriously harmless to humans, but accused billionaire Bill Gates and the nation’s former top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci of funding research to “develop a bird flu pathogen capable of infecting humans.”

Kennedy is the author of a book denouncing Fauci.

Of the cases reported in the Western Pacific Region from January 2003 through this past September, the World Health Organization said that there was a fatality rate of 54 percent.

Kennedy has promoted raw milk, which has been tied to exposure to the virus.

Kennedy has previously stated that Covid-19 could be a bioweapon that may have been “ethnically targeted.”

“Covid-19. There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. Covid-19 attacks certain races disproportionately,” Kennedy told The New York Post in 2023. “Covid-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”

“I didn’t say it was deliberately targeted; I just quoted an NIH-funded and NIH published study,” he said Wednesday.

Scientists said Kennedy’s statements distorted the study’s findings.

Kennedy also told Colorado Sen. Michael Bennett he “probably” said Lyme disease is highly likely a militarily-engineered bioweapon.

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection transmitted to humans and animals through the bites of infected ticks.

Kennedy would not accept responsibility for a drop in vaccinations and subsequent deaths in Samoa following a trip there in 2019, saying it had “nothing to do with vaccines.”

While he was there, Kennedy met with government officials and anti-vaccine activists. One influencer posted a photo of herself and Kennedy on Instagram, calling the meeting “profoundly monumental” for the movement.

A few months later, a deadly measles epidemic broke out, resulting in the deaths of dozens. Hawaii Gov. Josh Green and subsequent media reports have blamed Kennedy for the deaths.

Kennedy has previously denied having anything to do with people not getting vaccinated.

“You can not find a single Samoan who will say, ‘I didn’t get a vaccine because of Bobby Kennedy,’” he said Wednesday. “I went in June of 2019. The measles outbreak started in August. So, clearly I had nothing to do with the measles.”

Kennedy confirmed he had said that he is “pro-choice,” but agrees with Trump that “every abortion is a tragedy” now.

“You have clearly stated in the past that bodily autonomy is one of your core values. The question is, ‘Do you stand for that value or not?’” asked New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan. “When was it that you decided to sell out the values you’ve had your whole life in order to be given power by President Trump?”

When questioned about whether federal law protects a pregnant woman’s right to emergency care if she has a life-threatening, incomplete miscarriage in an emergency room in a state where abortion is restricted, he said he didn’t know.

Last year, during an interview with podcaster Sage Steele, he said he would support allowing women to have abortions at full term.

But, days later, wrote that he would allow “appropriate restrictions on abortion in the final months of pregnancy, just as Roe v. Wade did.”

“I serve at the pleasure of the president. I’m going to implement his policies,” Kennedy said Wednesday.

With reporting from The Associated Press