US senators pit Kennedy against Trump on vaccine policy

Democrats and Republicans pushed U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy's Jr. on his recent vaccine policies and their stark contrast to President Donald Trump's successful first-term pandemic initiative to speed vaccine development during a combative three-hour Senate hearing on Thursday.

Half a dozen heated exchanges focused on the details of his decision to fire Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez, who had started the job with Kennedy's support only a month earlier. Kennedy said she lied about the reason she was dismissed.

Cassidy, a former physician, asked Kennedy during the Senate Finance Committee hearing if he agreed with him that Trump deserved a Nobel Peace Prize for the COVID vaccine initiative. Kennedy said he did.

Why then had Kennedy said the vaccines killed more people than COVID? Cassidy asked. Kennedy denied making the statement, would not agree that the vaccines saved lives, and in a later exchange acknowledged the shots prevented deaths but not how many, citing chaotic data from the Biden administration.