Kennedy, President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services, will face two Senate committee hearings next week. Health leaders want senators to grill Robert F Kennedy Jr. about whether or not he believes that germs cause disease and challenge him over some of the “harmful” conspiracy theories he has peddled.
![[Trump has backed Kennedy all the way since the former independent candidate dropped out of the presidential race last year and endorsed him]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/13/16/SEI233605670.jpg)
Next week, Kennedy, President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services, will face two Senate committee hearings in his bid to get confirmed. On Wednesday, he will be questioned by the Senate Committee on Finance, which oversees HHS, and on Thursday, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will get to probe the former Democrat.
As the hearings approach, Kennedy has reportedly softened some of his more controversial views on vaccinations. He has reportedly been assuring the Republican senators who have to vote him in that he’s “all for” polio vaccines, and that he isn’t going to ban any vaccines.
“Someone needs to pin him down on whether or not he believes that germs cause disease,” Dave Chokshi, a practicing primary care physician and former New York City health commissioner, told the outlet. “The germ theory of disease was established in the late 19th century and all first year medical students are well-versed in it. Does he believe in it?” Chokshi added.
“The ‘healing farms’ for substance abusers cost $10,000 a month [per person],” Sherry Glied, now dean of the NYU Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, told Politico. “Is Congress going to spend $120,000 a year for people who use heroin?”.
