‘Don’t take medical advice from me’: US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr responds to question on vaccinating his children

US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. informed lawmakers on Wednesday that Americans “should not be taking medical advice” from him, stories information company Reuters. Kennedy defended job cuts below the Trump administration and his controversial vaccine remarks throughout his first look earlier than Congress.Being a long-time critic of vaccines, Kennedy was grilled by each the House Appropriations Committee and the Senate HELP Committee throughout back-to-back hearings. His remarks got here amid a measles outbreak that has contaminated over 1,000 folks and led to three deaths, principally among the many unvaccinated.When requested if he would give his children the measles vaccine as we speak, Kennedy replied, “Measles? Probably for measles, what I would say is my opinions about vaccines are irrelevant. I don’t think people should be taking advice, medical advice, from me.”The hearings have been meant to evaluation US President Donald Trump’s proposed 2026 health funds. Kennedy was confirmed in February and has already fired 10,000 workers throughout key businesses, together with the FDA and CDC. He has additionally supported slashing $18 billion from the National Institutes of Health and $3.6 billion from the CDC, claiming the adjustments would “save taxpayers $1.8 billion per year.”“Our reductions have focused on aligning HHS staffing levels to reflect the size of HHS prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw around a 15% increase in the number of employees,” Kennedy informed the House subcommittee.Democrats slammed the cuts as harmful. “All while you peddle unfounded and dangerous vaccine skepticism, spread lies and misinformation about people living with autism,” stated Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut.At the Senate listening to, Kennedy once more declined to clearly help the MMR jab. “I’m not going to just tell people everything is safe and effective if I know that there’s issues,” he stated.When requested whether or not Elon Musk had influenced his selections, Kennedy denied taking orders however admitted Musk had assisted with fraud detection. “Elon Musk gave us help in trying and figuring out where there was fraud and abuse in the department. But it was up to me to make the decision,” he stated.Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who helped safe Kennedy’s affirmation, stated Americans deserved readability. “Americans need direct reassurance from the administration, from you, Mr. Secretary, that its reforms will make their lives easier, not harder.”Audience members protested throughout the listening to, sporting stickers studying “When Bobby lies, children die” and chanting “RFK kills people with AIDS” earlier than being eliminated by Capitol police.