00:00Senator Hassan.
00:01Oh, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good morning, Secretary Kennedy.
00:05Just before I ask a question, I did want to note, in response to the Secretary's statement
00:11that the Trump administration wants to lower the cost of health insurance, that across
00:15the country right now, the median increase for commercial insurers that we're seeing
00:19this fall is 18 percent, just as families are struggling to make ends meet.
00:25Now I want to follow up on a line of questioning that Senator Cassidy began.
00:29Mr. Secretary, President Trump said that the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Operation Warp
00:35Speed was, and these are the President's words, a monumental national achievement.
00:41Although I have strongly opposed many of President Trump's actions, I agree with him that Operation
00:46Warp Speed in 2020 was a monumental achievement.
00:50Unfortunately, you are undermining one of the President's biggest achievements, which, as
00:55the President said, saved millions of American lives.
00:59You even went as far as to call President Trump weak for this life-saving accomplishment.
01:04Last year, you tweeted that President Trump has a weakness for swamp creatures, and that
01:10Operation Warp Speed was among, here's your quote again, the most devastating impact of President
01:17Trump's weakness.
01:17So, Mr. Secretary, was Operation Warp Speed a monumental national achievement, as President
01:24Trump said?
01:25For the reason that I already said, and I assume you won't let me repeat, but I'm happy
01:30to if you'll mind, yes it was.
01:34So, assuming it is a monumental achievement, you've said it was, is it true that, as President
01:44Trump has said, he saved millions of American lives with the COVID-19 vaccine?
01:49Because you've just expressed great confusion about that to Senator Warner.
01:52The only confusion I expressed is exactly how many lives were saved.
01:56I don't think anybody knows that because of the data chaos.
01:59So, multiple studies have shown that the vaccine reduced infections and severe diseases and saved
02:05at least three million lives in the United States, and millions more abroad in the first two
02:11years of the pandemic.
02:12As possible, those are modeling studies.
02:15No, I will also note, just as you've been talking about data and concern about it, the process
02:22for COVID vaccine approval was public, it was live-streamed, and it was out in the open.
02:27Manufacturers and experts have publicly submitted data analysis, and when the FDA has asked for
02:33more, they've submitted more.
02:35They've done that for years, and the evidence is clear and supports what President Trump has
02:40said.
02:40The vaccine works, and it has saved millions of lives.
02:44Your own process, on the other hand, has not been transparent.
02:49You repeatedly choose to ignore data because it doesn't match your preconceived notions and
02:55lies.
02:55So, you have said that the vaccine did save lives.
02:59You've said it was a monumental achievement, and given that, if you agree with President Trump
03:06that the vaccine saved millions of lives, why have you acted behind closed doors to overrule
03:13scientists and limit the freedom of parents to choose the COVID vaccine for their children?
03:19Why have you done that?
03:21For the COVID vaccine?
03:24I was removed by FDA because the industry...
03:26No, he was behind closed doors.
03:28And scientists who said they wanted to brief you on the science, scientists who wanted to
03:36understand why the FDA, why you unilaterally changed the parameters for giving vaccines,
03:44making it possible now, to Senator Cassidy's colleagues' points, that they're going to have
03:49to go off-label to prescribe a vaccine for children.
03:56I'm not making things up.
03:58Do you know how the FDA approval process works and what an off-label prescription is?
04:03I know exactly how it works.
04:06I know exactly how it works.
04:07So, why behind closed doors?
04:09It's not behind closed doors.
04:10The industry makes the studies, and they could not provide a study that said that it is effective
04:16for healthy kids.
04:18So, when have you produced the data that you relied on, and that this FDA relied on, to
04:23change those parameters?
04:24You did it behind closed doors.
04:26Now the data's all public.
04:27And now parents who decide that they do want their children to have COVID vaccine...
04:30You're just making stuff up, Senator.
04:32I'm not making stuff up.
04:33You're just making stuff up.
04:34You know, sometimes when you make an accusation, it's kind of a confession, Mr. Kennedy.
04:41So, let's just settle with this.
04:43So, here's what's going to happen, to Senator Warner's point, to the parents who are concerned
04:48all around the country, to people who want to get the COVID vaccine this fall, even if
04:54they're under 65, because the boosters have worked, there's been much less serious disease,
04:59people do not have the same level of threat and risk from COVID that they used to because
05:04of these vaccines.
05:05People who want to exercise their freedom of choice are being denied that.
05:09Because you are citing data that you won't produce to the public, and you are rejecting
05:17science.
05:17You're making things up to scare people, and it's a lie.
05:21Anybody can get that.
05:22I don't think, I don't, with respect, I do not think I'm the one making things up.
05:25Thank you, Mr. Chair.
05:25You are lying right now, Senator.
05:27Thank you, Mr. Michael.
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