Kentucky Senator and polio survivor Mitch McConnell was the only Republican member to vote against Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health secretary Thursday.
The U.S. Senate voted 52-48 in favor of Kennedy, who is a prominent vaccine skeptic, to lead the federal agency in control of $1.7 trillion in funding for health research, safety and social services. That includes agencies Kennedy has called corrupt, such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.
In a statement released shortly after the confirmation, McConnell, who survived childhood polio, said he has seen vaccines save millions of lives.
“I will not condone the re-litigation of proven cures, and neither will millions of Americans who credit their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles,” McConnell said.
McConnell said Americans have a right to demand the best possible scientific guidance to prevent illness and improve the health of the nation, but said that Kennedy has a record of
“trafficking in dangerous conspiracy theories and eroding trust in public health institutions.”
Samoa’s top health official has accused Kennedy of emboldening vaccine skepticism in the island nation months before a measles outbreak led to the deaths of 83 people, many under five years old. .
Kennedy has said he favors the polio and measles vaccines and would not discourage people from taking them. However, he also has said he opposes vaccine mandates including for school children, and has repeatedly touted debunked science that suggested vaccines are linked to autism.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kennedy used his status as a member of one of the country’s most famous families to help a nonprofit called Children’s Health Defense that sowed doubt about the efficacy COVID vaccines. The World Health Organization reports more than seven million COVID-19 deaths globally since the onset of the pandemic.
In McConnell’s statement Thursday, he highlighted Trump’s participation in Project Warp Speed, which hastened the development of the COVID-19 vaccine, and said that the country deserves a leader who can acknowledge the benefits of vaccines, and demonstrates an understanding of the “basic elements of the U.S. health care system.”
“As he takes office, I sincerely hope Mr. Kennedy will choose not to sow further doubt and division but to restore trust in our public health institutions,” McConnell said.
McConnell also voted against Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, and Pete Hegseth for defense secretary, saying Hegseth failed to demonstrate he could effectively manage the U.s. Department of Defense.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has voted to confirm every nominee the Trump administration has put forward.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
