00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Kenney, for being here again.
00:03For decades, parents in this country were able to send their kids to school
00:08without worrying about whether they could come home with a dangerous case of the flu
00:11or a dangerous case of the measles, as my colleague from South Carolina is saying.
00:17Last year, we saw the largest number of children die from the flu in modern history.
00:25Are you familiar with that, Mr. Secretary?
00:28Yes, I am.
00:31And have you told President Trump about that,
00:34that last year was the largest childhood death of flu in modern America?
00:40Well, that's one of the reasons that FDA just approved two new vaccines
00:45for influenza A and influenza B.
00:49Because you would agree that last year was the worst year on record
00:53in terms of flu deaths in modern history, not in the old days.
00:57In the old days, we were having hundreds of thousands.
01:01You're right, of course.
01:03And do you agree that 89% of the children who died from flu were unvaccinated?
01:12I don't know the exact number.
01:14That is the exact number, Mr. Kennedy.
01:17And it was, you know, I think of interest to a lot of people in America
01:24that you took down the communications from HHS on the flu,
01:31the importance of getting a vaccine when you first became the secretary.
01:35And I just wondered whether you regret having done that.
01:39You're now saying that you're approving vaccines for the flu.
01:42I approve lots of vaccines.
01:45I've spent a billion dollars, authorized a billion dollars,
01:50developing new vaccines, including a universal flu vaccine.
01:54So are you, you know,
01:55I think the last year the flu vaccine had a,
01:58something like a 20% efficacy.
02:02So having these single antigen vaccines is not serving the public interest.
02:09The Cochran Collaboration said they simply don't work.
02:12For the record, Mr. Secretary,
02:14that I assume you no longer believe that the flu vaccine is destroying children's brains,
02:20that there's zero evidence that the flu vaccine prevents any hospitalizations or any deaths.
02:26Because today you're here agreeing that the vast majority of kids that died from the flu
02:33were people without vaccines.
02:34And you're saying that you're now approving vaccines.
02:38We're making sure that we follow the science, Senator.
02:41Well, I hope you'll follow the science,
02:43because that's what put us in the position 30 years ago of essentially having measles declared
02:50at an end in the United States of America.
02:53Well, many nations have lost their elimination status,
02:58including Canada, the UK, a lot of Europe this year,
03:01because of the outbreak, and the outbreak has nothing to do.
03:04I mean, I would hope that the,
03:06I know you said the outbreak has nothing to do with you.
03:10That was your answer to Ron Wyden.
03:13You're the chair, you're the head of the agency.
03:16You're the head of the agency.
03:17My agency has no jurisdiction over Canada, Mexico, the UK, Australia.
03:20I would agree with that.
03:21I would agree with that.
03:22We are, I think everybody on this dais believes,
03:25that the United States of America ought to be leading in these matters.
03:28That's why we're so discouraged by your cuts to NIH,
03:33because that's going to make it harder for us to lead.
03:36That's why we are so discouraged by your cuts to Medicaid
03:39that are making it impossible to invest in rural America.
03:43That's why we're so discouraged.
03:44There are no cuts to Medicaid, Senator, as you know.
03:47There's no cuts to Medicaid.
03:48There's just a congressional budget.
03:50That is absolutely, Mr. Kennedy.
03:52Look at the Congressional Budget Office this week.
03:55They say we are increasing Medicaid spending by 47% over 10 years.
04:01That's not a cut, except in Washington.
04:04Okay, you can, it is a cut when it comes to the rural hospitals
04:08all over America that are having to close because of the Medicaid cuts.
04:12And those are real dollars.
04:14They were closing before I came in here.
04:17Now they're not closing.
04:18Let me just ask you, do you realize that last year the United States
04:24had the highest number of measles cases in 30 years?
04:28That the last time we had more than that was before?
04:31The whole world did.
04:32The whole world did.
04:33Yeah, we were the leader, Mr. Kennedy.
04:35We still are.
04:36We have a 92% vaccination rate.
04:39We have one of the highest vaccination rates for measles on Earth.
04:43So are you taking the position, let me ask you, are you taking the position,
04:48as your CDC director has taken, that the measles vaccine is vital
04:54to keeping American children healthy in this country?
04:58Are you taking that position today?
05:00That has not been your position.
05:02That's my position.
05:03We promote the measles vaccine.
05:05Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:06That is, that will be, I hope, I hope you will go out to America and promote this.
05:10The idea that you have nothing to do with this is dead wrong.
05:13The measles vaccine prevents measles in 97% of the people who take it.
05:17I've always said that.
05:18That's what the science says.
05:20I would ask you to please underscore it,
05:23because there's a reason that we are having these outbreaks, Mr. Chairman,
05:26and that is the misinformation that's been propagated.
05:28If you would have a change of view, that's excellent.
05:31Let's get it out there to the Americans.
05:34Senator Langford.
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