Senator Cassidy Questions RFK Jr. on Vaccine Policies and Measles Outbreak Preparedness

Thank you, Mr. Secretary. I think you've given a couple of these recently. You hit it right on time. I shall begin. Mr. Secretary, as I mentioned in my opening statements, I'm concerned that one of the Biden administration's pro-abortion policy, which is the removal of the in-person dispensing requirement for chemical abortion drugs, is still in place. And by the way, Senator Sanders objected to me objecting to that. We're speaking about people ordering drugs and then tricking a woman into taking them are coercing them into taking it. And these are subject to criminal charges in courts right now. We should all be opposed to that.

Secretary Kennedy, why has the department not acted with greater urgency on reinstating the in-person dispensing requirement? Uh, Senator Cassidy, I appreciate your comments. I unfortunately will not be able to talk about that. I thought that might be the answer, which is frustrating because this has been litigated for years. At some point, we'll need to, but I thought that might happen. And so moving off the litigation, last month my colleagues and I asked you to address unapproved and misbranded chemical abortion drugs coming from international providers bypassing FDA. The first Trump

administration worked on the issue, but the problem continues. Why hasn't the department taken steps to stop the illegal importation and sale of counterfeit and unapproved abortion drugs? We take our responsibility seriously to uh to prosecute people who are selling misbranded drugs. And I can in talk to my enforcement unit at FDA to uh to figure out why that's not happening to your satisfaction, but as far as I know, we're doing that to the utmost possible. That is not the case. uh put it this way, maybe as much as possible, but that would be no effort whatsoever. And so I say that because however you feel about these issues, illegal and counterfeit drugs being sold and imported should be

a common concern. Next, Mr. Secretary, you have talked about restoring trust in the agency around the issue of immunization and people lost trust during the pandemic, but I think it's safe to say the trust gap has worsened over the last year due to false statements about safety and efficacy of vaccines for preventable diseases like measles. Now, I am a guy who has seen people die from vaccinereventable diseases. I didn't hear you. I am a doctor who has seen people die from vaccinereventable diseases. And when I see outbreaks numbering in the thousands and people dying once more from vaccinereventable diseases, particularly children, it

seems more than tragic. Now, the CDC director I applaud. You have said in a previous hearing that you did were not involved in her selection, but you agree with President Trump's selection. I've not met with her yet formally, but I agree as well. She seems to be a qualified person. I did not say that I was not involved in her election. I didn't follow. But so my question here with the new CDC director, whomever whoever she or he is, there are currently political appointees at CDC who have worked to undermine trust in immunizations. Will the new director, whoever she is, have the right to make decisions independently of those of those political appointees andor replace them uh or otherwise reassign them so

they cannot continue to actively undermine trust in immunizations. Your characterization of the political appointees is wrong and uh the CDC director has that power. Now, so she will have if she wishes to make a decision independently of them, she shall be allowed to make that decision independently. That's correct. Oh, yes. Okay, that's pertinent. This summer, we're hosting the World Cup and celebrating America's 250th birthday. Tourists from all over the world will come to the United States.

Unfortunately, some of them will bring vaccinereventable diseases like measles and unfortunately our measles immunization rates have fallen, which means that this increases the risk of a measles outbreak in the US. What steps is HHS taking to address the outbreaks that may arise from the World Cup and the folks coming here? Uh, Mr. Chairman, we've done better at controlling the measles outbreak than any country in the world. We This is a global outbreak. Uh it started before I came to office. Most of 80% of the children affected are over five years old which means their decision not to back vaccinate predated my appointment.

We have limited that last year to 2200 cases. Mexico at three times that much with onethird of our population. Canada had double that much with 1/8 of our population. Europe had 127,000 cases the year before. We have a global pandemic. It has nothing to do with me. I wasn't in any of those countries. We should not be comparing ourselves. A better job at limiting it in any country in the world and you can talk to Governor McMaster about that and Governor Abbott about the help that we've given them in Texas. We know how to control the outbreaks. The question was, what steps has the administration taken to track the diseases that would come in potentially through these? You are pointing out that other countries

have outbreaks which increases the likelihood they will bring that here and our immunization rates have fallen below 95%. Unfortunately, I'm out of time on this question. I will yield to Senator Sanders, but I may come back because that question wasn't answered. I tell you, we are now we are laser focused on that. We have booths and testing booths and institutions all over the