Joco Today

U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), questioned Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during a hearing on Thursday about vaccine recommendations and the effectiveness of Operation Warp Speed, the federal program that accelerated COVID-19 vaccine development.

During the session, Marshall addressed concerns over transparency at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regarding vaccine guidelines for children. He noted that CDC recommendations currently call for children to receive their first hepatitis vaccine on their first day of life, with a total of 18 vaccines by 18 months old and up to 76 by adulthood.

Marshall stated, “Welcome, Mr. Secretary. One of your themes for the CDC is transparency. And I think when I hear you talk about transparency, I think part of that is sharing what you know, what the CDC knows, with parents so that they can make decisions.

“Behind me, yeah, I know it’s gonna be hard to see from there, I can barely read it. This is the current CDC recommendations for vaccines for children. On day number one, they get their first jab, the hepatitis vaccine. By the time they’re 18 months, they’ve had 18 jabs. By the time they get old enough to vote, they have 76 jabs.

“Now, when we talk, when I listen, what I hear you say is that, look, vaccines are drugs. We need a measured response, and… when do we use this? It’s interesting that the United States has put age 65 and older for the COVID-19 vaccine. The UK has chosen 75 and France 80. Obviously scientists disagree exactly when that should or shouldn’t be. The Hepatitis B vaccine makes no sense to me. I’ve only delivered 5000 babies but we do a hepatitis test on every mom. By the time she delivers that baby I’ll know her pretty well... Can you just speak a little bit when you talk about transparency and trying to empower and make vaccines available? These should be treated just like a medication.”

Kennedy responded by emphasizing his support for medicine while also pointing out gaps in safety studies related to vaccines: “I mean, you know, I say I’m not anti-vaccine. Saying I’m anti-vaccine is like saying I’m anti-medicine... Some medicines harm people... And we don’t understand the risk profile because vaccines are the only medical intervention... exempt from pre-licensing safety studies.

“And so there are two Hepatitis vaccines... one of them had a safety study that lasted for four days on 143 kids... The risk profile prior to introduction of the vaccine—the risk of a baby dying from Hepatitis B was one in seven million.”

The discussion shifted toward Operation Warp Speed’s impact during early stages of COVID-19 in America compared with present circumstances as immunity has increased across populations.

Marshall said: “And I guess before the press labels me wrong—I’m not anti-Vax either... it’s the major approach that we’re after—the transparency—you’re trying to empower parents here...

“I want to talk about mortality of Covid for just a second... When this monster virus was made in a laboratory in Wuhan China ... But today every American’s had Covid a dozen times probably and we have built up immunity...

“It was a miracle—Warp speed was a miracle—What President Trump and his team did it saved millions of lives most likely but it’s also true that it probably killed some people... So both things are true.”

Kennedy replied: “Well—I think you just cleared it up—The COVID vaccine was critical—President Trump’s leadership got it to us when our society was locked down ... It was ... perfectly matched to a virus ... so it was a miracle.

“Right now we’re dealing with completely different circumstances where ... there’s natural immunity ... And so calculus is different ... if you just want to turn everything into sound bite…you can’t have grown-up conversation...

“But you know there were more reports to VAERS—which is only surveillance system we have—of injuries and deaths from that vaccine than all vaccines put together in history.... We have to acknowledge there was cause—we acknowledge benefit—we can’t quantify either one because data chaos at CDC...

“And they think I'm being evasive because I won’t make kind statement that's almost religious in nature.... Did it save million lives? Well there's no data ... I'm not going sign onto something if can't make scientific certainty.... It doesn’t mean … anti-vax—it just means … pro-science.”