Senate Showdown: RFK Jr Faces Growing Calls for His Resignation

US Department of Health and Human Services

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In a hearing that historians may someday mark as a turning point for American public health, the US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr faced searing bipartisan criticism before the Senate Finance Committee.

The session unfolded against the backdrop of Kennedy’s dismissal of CDC Director Susan Monarez and the subsequent wave of high-level resignations at CDC. At issue is not only Kennedy’s leadership style but also his repeated rejection of established vaccine science and health policies that leave the medical community concerned about the future state of our nation.

(Monarez responded in a commentary in the Wall Street Journal, "Those seeking to undermine vaccines use a familiar playbook: discredit research, weaken advisory committees, and use manipulated outcomes to unravel protections that generations of families have relied on to keep deadly diseases at bay. Once trusted experts are removed and advisory bodies are stacked, the results are predetermined. That isn’t reform. It is sabotage."

Senators Call Out Misinformation
Several senators highlighted what they view as Kennedy’s dangerous pattern of sowing mistrust. Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) said Kennedy had “completely gone against what he pledged to this committee.” Warner denounced the secretary’s vaccine rhetoric as “a giant step backward.”

Other senators zeroed in on Kennedy’s appointments to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). One senator pointedly asked:

“You told the American people that you were, quote, going to bring great people onto the ACIP panel, not anti-vaxers. Are you aware that one of the people you put on the panel, Dr Robert Malone, claimed that the commonly used mRNA vaccine, quote, causes a form of AIDS and can damage children’s brains, their heart, their immune system, and their ability to have children in the future? Yes or no, Mr. Kennedy?”

When pressed further, Kennedy sidestepped, insisting the statements attributed to his appointees were not true, even though those claims are publicly documented and verified. Another senator followed:

“Are you aware that another one of these appointees, Dr Levy, wrote that evidence is mounting and indisputable that mRNA vaccines cause serious harm, including death, especially among young people? Do you agree with that?”

The exchange spotlighted how Kennedy has elevated voices on national vaccine policy who are out of step with every mainstream medical body, spreading misinformation and sowing confusion.

Even Republican lawmakers voiced alarm. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R–LA), who is a physician whose vote was pivotal to Kennedy receiving Senate confirmation, raised a direct challenge: “You said you did not want to take vaccines away from people... effectively, we are denying people vaccines.”

Cassidy also criticized the sudden overhaul of the CDC advisory panel, demanding radical transparency on who is crafting vaccine guidance and whether those decision-makers are clinicians or political appointees.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) cut to the heart of the matter: “What I find a little bit weird in this discussion… On one side, you’ve got the AMA representing hundreds of thousands of doctors, the American Academy of Pediatrics, [and] the American Public Health Association; all of these organizations are telling us that vaccines are safe and effective. You are casting doubt on that. Who are the organizations that are agreeing with you?”

Kennedy responded by citing a handful of contrarian doctors—Marty Makary, Jay Bhattacharya, and Mehmet Oz—before attacking what he called the “scientific establishment” as corrupted by pharmaceutical interests. Sanders shot back: “So you’re telling the American people that the American Medical Association, representing hundreds of thousands of people, has been co-opted? That the American Academy of Pediatrics has been co-opted? The American Heart Association? Everybody but you?”

The back-and-forth made clear the divide: the unified voice of American medicine on one side, and Kennedy, relying on discredited studies and fringe allies, on the other.

And then came Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN), whose remarks left a palpable silence in the room:

“Mr. Kennedy, over the last 8 months, you have claimed to make America healthy again. But in actual fact, you have led the charge in the Trump administration to destroy what is best in our health care system….

"The last time you were before Congress, you claimed, and I quote, ‘I have never been antivax. I have never told the public to avoid a vaccination.’ But in a podcast, you said the opposite: you said, ‘There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective.’ That sure sounds anti-vax to me. Secretary Kennedy, so let me ask you, when were you lying—when you told this committee that you were not antivax, or when you told Americans there’s no safe and effective vaccine?”

A Historic Joint Statement

On the eve of the hearing, more than 20 leading professional societies—from the Infectious Diseases Society of America to the American Public Health Association—released a joint statement demanding Kennedy’s resignation. The statement condemned his dismissal of scientific evidence, his undermining of trust in vaccines, and his destabilization of the CDC at a moment when public health infrastructure is already strained.

This level of professional unity is virtually unheard of. As Sanders highlighted, never before have the AMA, AAP, APHA, IDSA, and others spoken with such a singular voice against a sitting cabinet secretary. Their message is clear: Kennedy’s presence at HHS is incompatible with the core mission of protecting health and saving lives.

Kennedy’s Defense
Kennedy doubled down on his rationale for firing CDC leaders, claiming the agency “failed miserably” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“These changes were absolutely necessary adjustments to restore the agency to its role as the world’s gold-standard public health agency,” he said. “The people at the CDC who oversaw that process, who put masks on our children, who closed our school, are the people who will be leaving.”

He went further, asserting that the US is “the sickest country in the world” because of chronic disease:

“That’s why we have to fire people at the CDC. They did not do their job. This was their job to keep us healthy.”

This claim is demonstrably false. Global health data from the World Health Organization and the World Bank make clear that while the US faces serious public health challenges—including higher rates of obesity, diabetes, and maternal mortality compared with other wealthy nations—it is not “the sickest nation in the world.” In fact, many low- and middle-income countries face far higher burdens of infectious disease, child mortality, and reduced life expectancy.

The reality is that US public health successes, especially vaccination, have prevented millions of premature deaths. Vaccines eradicated smallpox, eliminated polio domestically, and sharply reduced once-common childhood killers like measles, diphtheria, and pertussis. Suggesting that the CDC is responsible for making America “the sickest nation” grossly distorts both the data and the history of public health progress.

The US does face challenges with chronic illness, largely driven by lifestyle factors and health inequities—not vaccines, which have prevented millions of premature deaths.

Why This Matters

The stakes are enormous. Vaccines are among the most rigorously tested interventions in medicine. They prevent not only illness but also death, long-term disability, and massive health care costs. To dismantle advisory panels, elevate conspiracy theorists, and dismiss decades of research is to gamble with public safety.

The risk is not theoretical. History offers a stark reminder of what life looked like before vaccines. In the early 20th century, polio paralyzed tens of thousands of American children each summer. Measles sickened 3 to 4 million annually, killing hundreds and leaving many with permanent complications like deafness and brain damage. Diphtheria once choked the airways of children by the thousands, earning the nickname “the strangling angel of children.” These diseases are not ancient history—they were part of everyday American life just a few generations ago.

Vaccines changed that story. Smallpox was eradicated globally in 1980. Polio has been eliminated in the US since 1979. Measles, once a common childhood illness, was declared eliminated from this country in 2000, thanks to vaccination, until recent resurgence due to lacking vaccine coverage emerged.

This is the future we risk returning to if trust in vaccines collapses.

The truth is simple: vaccines are not just shots in arms — they are the backbone of modern public health. Forgetting what they achieved in the past, or dismissing their value in the present, would be a catastrophic step backward.

Conclusion: Choosing Science or Chaos
Thursday’s hearing showed the American public what is at stake. Senators across the political spectrum voiced alarm. Public health leaders and the medical community stand unified. And Kennedy’s answers revealed, once again, his refusal to acknowledge the scientific consensus.

One senator, Ron Wyden (D-OR), said it boldly. “It is in the country's best interest that Robert Kennedy stepped down, and if he doesn't, Donald Trump should fire him before more people are hurt, but his reckless disregard for science and the truth. I also would like to note Senator Cantwell has joined us in this effort. I hope, at the very least Robert Kennedy has the decency to tell the truth this morning.”

Public trust in medicine cannot withstand leadership that elevates falsehoods and sidelines evidence. The joint statement repeated what must be said: Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. must resign. For the sake of the American people, for the safety of our children, and for the integrity of science, his departure is the only path forward.