RFK Jr.’s confirmation hearing set for today

In his inaugural speech, President Trump vowed to “keep our children healthy and disease free,” but his nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has a long history of raising doubts about vaccines — despite decades of evidence showing they’ve saved millions of people from debilitating illness or death. 

“People forget what it used to be (before vaccines),” CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook said on “CBS Mornings Plus,” pointing to data showing a huge decline in cases and deaths from these diseases compared with pre-vaccine levels.

“If you look at the 10 top childhood illnesses every year, vaccines prevent more than 1 million cases and more than 10,000 deaths” in the U.S., he said. Worldwide, the numbers are even greater, with an estimated 2-3 million lives saved by childhood vaccinations each year. 

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As U.S. senators grill Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this week, President Trump’s pick to run the Department of Health and Human Services is expected to face sharp questions about his actions in an island nation half a world away. 

Kennedy’s 2019 visit to Samoa has recently brought fresh attention to his history of activism focused on raising questions about the safety and effectiveness of the measles vaccine — because his trip came just months before a devastating measles outbreak that claimed 83 lives, many of them young children. 

“It was very sad,” Dr. Take Naseri, Samoa’s health chief at the time, told CBS News. “It’s one of those things you don’t want to revisit.”

Kennedy has maintained that he had “nothing to do” with the people of Samoa resisting vaccines.

“I had nothing to do with people not vaccinating in Samoa,” he said in an interview with documentary producer Scott Hamilton Kennedy. “I never told anyone not to vaccinate.” 

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The day before Kennedy’s hearing, his cousin Caroline Kennedy sent a blistering letter to senators Tuesday describing him as a “predator” whose actions “have cost lives.”

In the letter to committee leaders, the former ambassador to Australia urged senators to reject his nomination as health and human services secretary, alleging that he “preys on the desperation of parents and sick children” as well as his own family members. 

“It’s no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator,” the two-page letter said. “His basement, his garage, and his dorm room were the centers of the action where drugs were available, and he enjoyed showing off how he put baby chickens and mice in the blender to feed his hawks. It was often a perverse scene of despair and violence.”

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Kennedy, 71, is a longtime environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist whose family is mythic in Democratic politics. He is married to actress Cheryl Hines. 

Though he initially opted not to enter politics, Kennedy — with widespread name recognition as the nephew of President John F. Kennedy and the son of Robert F. Kennedy — launched his own presidential bid in 2023. After initially seeking the Democratic nomination, Kennedy changed his bid to independent, before dropping out to endorse President Trump in August.  

Before launching a presidential bid, Kennedy worked for two decades as president of the   Waterkeeper Alliance, a nonprofit. He also founded Children’s Health Defense, which has launched legal challenges against vaccine requirements and approvals, and he served as chairman beginning in 2016 .

Kennedy attended Harvard University. He has a law degree from the University of Virginia, and a Master’s Degree in Environmental Law from Pace University. He’s married to actor Cheryl Hines and was married twice before. He has six children. 

While many of Kennedy’s stances, like questioning ultra-processed foods and the risks of synthetic food additives and dyes, have appealed to people across political lines — other views have been more controversial, including his doubts around vaccines, fluoride and other targets of his “Make America Healthy Again” platform.

Kennedy has spread anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, commenting that “there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective,” and has repeated false claims linking vaccines to autism — a theory debunked by decades of scientific research. 

RFK Jr.’s history on vaccines also has experts worried about what may happen if bird flu becomes the next pandemic. Amid his presidential run, he discussed having the National Institutes of Health take a break from infectious disease research. If confirmed as health secretary, this would be one of several agencies he would have influence over.

He has also promoted raw milk, which experts have long warned against due to health risks.

Conservatives have also taken issue with Kennedy’s views on abortion. Kennedy said in May that he didn’t support abortion restrictions at any point in pregnancy, before later walking the statement back and clarifying that he supports abortion access up to fetal viability. As HHS secretary, Kennedy would have authority over how the FDA regulates medications used for abortions.