00:00You seem to take issue with what you call contradictory statements between the Secretary's confirmation hearing and where things stand out.
00:07Do you feel like you're getting the answers you want?
00:09Well, I want to go back to the record and just simply state why it's not a contradiction.
00:14I mean, on its face, it appears, I didn't get into other matters that we will have for the record,
00:20but we have 24% fewer people in the CDC since the end of last year.
00:24Was that a part of a deliberative staff reduction program that I can have information to perform my oversight role?
00:33That's a good example.
00:34But I think there were several instances where Secretary Kennedy said people lied,
00:41and that should be found in scientific data.
00:44I just simply want to know.
00:45I like to be a boring person.
00:48I like to focus on facts, and I heard a lot of back and forth.
00:52It's not the least productive.
00:54And let me tell you what I'm really worried about.
00:56I really worry about how this is going to have a dramatic impact on people who I saw a press conference this morning about Florida,
01:07my home state, by the way.
01:08That's where I was born, planning to ramp down the mandatory vaccines in Florida.
01:14That will send a shockwave through communities that simply don't have the resources to do anything more than to act on what they believe or trusted advisors and help, right?
01:29The trailer park I just drove through about two months ago in Nashville, Tennessee, that I grew up in.
01:34Those folks are going to see this thing and say, vaccines are bad.
01:38I'm not going to vaccinate my kids.
01:39They're not going to go to their doctor because many of them don't have access to it.
01:43They may not even go on the web.
01:44I don't even know if they have access.
01:45They're not going to do the research.
01:47So these kids get harmed by this.
01:49And what I'm trying to do is cut through the politics.
01:51I see it on both sides.
01:53And just say, answer the questions so that we can act like adults in the room and give parents a reason, in my opinion,
02:00to continue to vaccinate their kids, whether the state ask them to or not.
02:03Do you still have confidence in his ability to lead the nation on public health?
02:10Well, I think a lot of that, I'm concerned with some of the actions over the last four weeks.
02:15You know, I'm a management consultant.
02:17It never would have occurred to me that an executive who put so much time into sending somebody forth for a Senate confirmation would not have done the basics beforehand.
02:27I don't know how you turn around in four weeks on any one issue.
02:30That's a concern to me.
02:31So I want to know if it's being managed properly.
02:33Are we really relying on science?
02:36You know, Secretary Kennedy was largely a trial lawyer.
02:40He did other things, but he was a trial lawyer.
02:42And he actually sued some agriculture interests down in North Carolina who didn't make their credit card list.
02:50Or, I'm sorry, their Christmas card list.
02:52But a trial lawyer doesn't have an obligation to present a counter view.
02:59It's on the other attorney to prevent a counter view.
03:03So I'm wondering whether or not Secretary Kennedy is just so focused on a view that he, I believe, he strongly believes in,
03:12that maybe he's dismissive of other science that should come in with a well-balanced decision,
03:17which is probably going to be instructed by the positions at either end of the spectrum.
03:20So I'm concerned that that balance is, that we're diminishing the credibility of the CDC.
03:28We could be diminishing the credibility of the U.S. government in terms of keeping kids safe.
03:32And I'm trying to lower the temperature and get to specific things, not clickbait, but real work to reestablish credibility.
03:42These institutions are hurting, and people that grew up like me will get hurt the most if we don't get it right.
03:47Senator, given your concerns that you've laid out in Florida and elsewhere, vaccine,
03:52what agency do you have as a Republican senator when it comes to the vaccine board, the advisory board?
03:58Look, I haven't lost all confidence in the CDC.
04:00The CDC has 9,000 people.
04:02They had 12,000 in the end of the year.
04:04They have about 9,000 now with some of the changes that occurred with Doge and everything else.
04:12I have a lot of confidence of those people.
04:14Does anybody really believe that you studied to be a Ph.D. in epidemiology,
04:19and they came to go to the CDC so they could lie about science?
04:23I mean, it's just illogical to me.
04:25That's why I want to go back and say, okay, the secretary said people lied.
04:29I'm going to go back to the specific science that he suggested was a lie and get to the facts.
04:33That's what we need here.
04:34I am so tired of sound bites and everybody drawing a conclusion on paper-thin information.
04:40America's health is at risk here.
04:44We've got to do the homework and stop the political bullshit on either end of the spectrum.
04:48But don't you think the secretary is contributing?
04:50I'm sorry.
04:50Getting your concerns about his laser focus, as you say, on certain issues, his background as a trial lawyer,
04:55are you saying that you don't believe he might have the capability to run HHS?
04:59Well, I'm suggesting that as someone who has advised executives on management policy,
05:05it wasn't good form to take one of your signature executives, put them before a Senate panel,
05:10have them confirmed, and then fire them within 20 business days.
05:15I'm just saying objectively, if I were advising a client who is a CEO of a major organization,
05:20let's say the size of 9,000 employees, I'd say that's bad form.
05:24But don't you think, what you said about this skepticism about vaccines, how the move that Florida has made,
05:30hasn't Secretary Kennedy contributed to that?
05:33Oh, I think we have a big risk.
05:35And I would tell my colleagues down in North Carolina,
05:38don't take the bait and remove the vaccine requirements for public schools in North Carolina.
05:43Number one, I think it could have a devastating impact on concerned parents moving their kids out of public schools.
05:49And in my home state of Florida, North Carolina is my home, but I was born in Florida.
05:55Top five countries that travel to Florida every year have vaccine mandates for their children.
06:02It would be interesting to see if the data suggests whether or not they want their kids to come to a state
06:06full of kids that may not have vaccines.
06:08Do you worry that he's moving towards saying that vaccines cause autism?
06:13And if he does that, what do you do in that moment?
06:15Deliver the science.
06:16Look, I don't take talking heads advice.
06:21I take scientific advice.
06:22I'm not a scientist.
06:23I've got some really great people who understand the science.
06:26Give me the science.
06:27Cut all this crap of responding to whatever talking head you think you need to please
06:32because you want to score points on the Internet.
06:34Get the science done.
06:35Yeah, but you don't believe that vaccines cause autism?
06:38I'm not a scientist.
06:39I don't say, you know, my staff and they know they never answer.
06:43They never answer my question by saying, I think.
06:46And you know why?
06:47Because that by definition means they don't know.
06:50I just want people to know when they assert something.
06:53And it's got to be based in science, not ideology.
06:56Given how political everything is at this point, do you think there's room for Democrats and Republicans
07:01to work with RFK Jr. and HHS and the CDC on health policy under this administration?
07:07I hope so.
07:08But I also think that there are some foundational questions that we'll be looking for the answers to
07:13in our QFIRs.
07:14And that will let me decide whether or not this is just going to be another political charade
07:18for my remaining tenure in the U.S. Senate.
07:20I hope not because there's lives at risk.
07:23Look, I believe the president should be given a lot of credit for what he did in his first term.
07:30Project Warp Speed, end of period, full stop, was extraordinary.
07:36It was something that the president should know as one of the most profound impacts he
07:42could have had on the American people in the world.
07:45And we are a haven right now for that innovation.
07:49The stuff that we're talking about in there today is going to stifle innovation.
07:53It's going to make other biotech firms wonder whether or not this is a safe place to make
07:58major investments in future cures.
08:01So we're playing with fire here, mainly driven by political opposition at either end of the
08:07spectrum.
08:08And I think that those folks, if the death rates go up for children who aren't vaccinated,
08:14they need to own it.
08:15Own it.
08:16Don't say, whoops, we got the science wrong.
08:18Own it.
08:19Because this is the sort of life and death decisions that we make as U.S. senators and
08:23that he has to make as a secretary in the president's cabinet.
08:26You've got to go.
08:27Thank you, Senator.
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