Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary and vaccine skeptic who has used his position to amplify discredited health theories and promote unconventional medical treatments, ducked questions, during a congressional hearing on Wednesday, about whether children should be vaccinated for measles, chickenpox or polio. He said people should not rely on him for medical advice.
The issue came up when Representative Mark Pocan, a Wisconsin Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, asked Mr. Kennedy if he would vaccinate his own child for measles.
“For measles? Probably for measles I —” Mr. Kennedy began to answer before stopping himself. “You know, what I would say is, my opinions about vaccines are irrelevant.
“I don’t want to seem like I’m being evasive, but I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me,” he said.
But Mr. Kennedy, who oversees several agencies whose mandate is to give advice and make policy on public health, has repeatedly used his position to weigh in on health topics, including vaccination. (He has urged parents of newborns to “do your own research” on vaccines and suggested the measles vaccine might be unsafe.)
As health secretary, he also declared recently that “sugar is poison, and Americans need to know that it is poison,” and that doctors who treated measles with cod liver oil had seen “very, very good results.”
Mr. Pocan continued to press Mr. Kennedy about his views on vaccines during the hearing, which was held for Mr. Kennedy to answer questions about President Trump’s health budget for the upcoming year. Mr. Pocan asked Mr. Kennedy if he would vaccinate his child for polio or chickenpox.
Again Mr. Kennedy punted, saying that he “didn’t want to give advice” about the vaccines.
He did, however, misleadingly claim that “in Europe they don’t use the chickenpox vaccine specifically.” A 2022 article in Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics stated that 28 European countries use chickenpox vaccines, of which 16 use combination vaccines for chickenpox, mumps, measles and rubella. Many European countries have also introduced national chickenpox vaccination programs in the last 10 years.
Chris Cameron is a Times reporter covering Washington, focusing on breaking news and the Trump administration.
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