RFK Jr. Downplays Benefits of Vaccines in Testy Senate Hearing

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing in Washington on April 22.

Photographer: Eric Lee/Bloomberg

US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was challenged by Republican Senator Bill Cassidy in a congressional hearing after incorrectly claiming that a study showed vaccines didn’t help slash the US mortality rate last century.

The clash was a return to Kennedy’s prior rhetoric after he had largely expressed support for vaccinations in a series of seven hearings on Capitol Hill.