By Josh Nathan-Kazis

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. denied being opposed to vaccines during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Wednesday morning as he battles to secure confirmation of his nomination as the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.

"News reports have claimed that I am antivaccine or anti-industry," Kennedy said during his opening statements. "I am neither."

Kennedy said that all of his own children are vaccinated.

The latest assertion is in line with Kennedy's broader effort to moderate his public criticism of vaccines since President Donald Trump nominated him as HHS secretary late last year, but it flies in the face of years of his advocacy work.

As the Washington Post reported on Monday, he has a long history of broadly criticizing vaccines and of alleging a discredited link between autism and childhood vaccination.

"I am pro-safety," Kennedy said at the hearing. "I worked for years to raise awareness about the mercury and toxic chemicals in fish, and nobody called me anti-fish. I believe vaccines play a critical role in healthcare."

As the hearing began on Wednesday, Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), who serves as the ranking member of the Finance Committee, came out with strong criticism of Kennedy.

"The receipts show that Mr. Kennedy has embraced conspiracy theories, quacks, charlatans, especially when it comes to the safety and efficacy of vaccines," Wyden said. "He has made it his life's works to sow doubt and discourage parents from getting their kids lifesaving vaccines."

"I support the measles vaccine. I support the polio vaccine," Kennedy said. "I will do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking either of those vaccines."

Wyden shot back, suggesting Kennedy's assertion was not believable or in line with his prior comments.

On other healthcare issues, Wyden said, Kennedy has "changed his views so often it is nearly impossible to know where he stands."

Kennedy, the son of a slain Democratic U.S. attorney general and senator, is an awkward fit both within the Republican coalition and the federal health bureaucracy he intends to lead. While all of Trump's formal nominees have made it through the Senate confirmation process thus far, the prospects for Kennedy's approval are far from certain.

A harsh and persistent critic of childhood vaccination, Kennedy has led the nation's top antivaccine organization for years. He also has a mixed record on abortion rights, a major concern for some Republican lawmakers.

"There's just a lot of different groups that he's offended, or that have concerns about his views," says Chris Meekins, a healthcare policy analyst at Raymond James.

Three Republicans defected to oppose the confirmation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the weekend, requiring Vice President JD Vance to step in with a tiebreaking vote. The question is whether Kennedy will fare as well, or whether at least four Republican senators, driven by public-health concerns or socially conservative ideological commitments, will choose to stand against him.

Kennedy has met with dozens of senators since his nomination was announced in November. Now it all comes down to a series of hearings that began Wednesday with a meeting of the Finance Committee and ends Thursday in the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

After that, the Finance Committee will vote on his candidacy, setting up a vote in the full Senate. Neither the committee vote nor the final Senate vote is yet scheduled.

"I think that the confirmation hearings are arguably the most consequential confirmation hearings for an HHS secretary or nominee that we've seen in at least a generation," says Meekins. "I truly believe his performance at this confirmation hearing could be the determining factor of whether he's confirmed or not."

Kennedy is likely to present the most moderate possible version of himself at this week's hearings. In a note on Tuesday, Jefferies analyst Michael Yee predicted an "RFK rally" in healthcare stocks, adding he expects Kennedy to present a more moderate face on vaccine policy under pressure from Trump allies.

The days leading up to Wednesday's hearing have seen renewed attacks on Kennedy and his fitness to hold the job leading HHS. The department is responsible for a quarter of the federal government's annual spending and includes some of the most consequential federal agencies.

In a letter released on Tuesday, Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of former President John F. Kennedy and first cousin of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., wrote that her cousin was "a predator" who led his younger brothers and cousins "down the path of drug addiction."

On Monday, The Wall Street Journal editorial board argued against Kennedy's confirmation, writing that "Senators would be wise to believe RFK Jr.'s career of spreading falsehoods rather than his confirmation conversions."

Notably absent from the debate has been the pharmaceutical industry, which stands to lose the most if Kennedy were to be confirmed and drastically change the U.S. approach to vaccines. Barron's asked virtually all the Big Pharma companies on Monday whether they supported or opposed Kennedy's confirmation. None provided a direct answer.

Sanofi, one of the major flu vaccine manufacturers, said it works "with regulators and lawmakers in the U.S. and around the world." AstraZeneca, which also sells flu shots, didn't comment. Neither Merck nor Pfizer, both of which sell blockbuster vaccines, responded to a request for comment. PhRMA, the industry trade group, referred to a November statement it issued when Trump selected Kennedy, which neither supported nor opposed him.

The radio silence is in line with the drug industry's broad approach to the Trump administration. It has steered clear of any criticism while trying to make progress on long-term industry priorities like pushing back against pharmacy-benefit managers, which drugmakers blame for high U.S. drug prices. At an investor conference earlier this month, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said he had spoken with Kennedy.

"My philosophy is that we should try to engage not only on the things we disagree, but to find opportunities on things we can agree," Bourla said at the time. "On vaccines, if he does some of the things that he has spoken about in the past, I think he will find in front of him not us, but the entire medical community, the entire scientific community."

Meekins says that the industry might be keeping quiet now out of a worry that making their opposition to Kennedy known might backfire. "When you're an organization that is as unpopular with the public as the pharmaceutical industry has been in recent years...there actually could be backlash if the pharmaceutical industry had come out full-throated against him," he says.

Write to Josh Nathan-Kazis at josh.nathan-kazis@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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January 29, 2025 10:49 ET (15:49 GMT)

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