Tempers flared on Capitol Hill this week as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced an onslaught of criticism from senators, public health officials, and even his own family in a Senate Finance Committee hearing that exposed deep rifts over the U.S. government’s handling of COVID-19 and the future direction of federal health policy.
On September 4, 2025, Kennedy appeared before the committee to defend his record and policies, but the hearing quickly turned contentious. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden opened the session with a sharp rebuke, accusing Kennedy of "elevating crackpots" and undermining public trust in science. According to Fox News, Wyden charged that Kennedy had fired CDC scientists and replaced them with "cranks" and "conspiracy theorists," claiming these moves were "endangering children, leaving parents confused and scared."
Unbowed, Kennedy launched into a blistering critique of the government’s pandemic response. "The whole process was politicized. Senator, I mean, we were lied to about everything," Kennedy declared. "We were lied to about natural immunity. We were lied to about, you know, we were told again and again, the vaccines would prevent transmission. They’d prevent infection. It wasn’t true. They knew it from the start. It wasn’t true because that’s what the animal studies in the clinical trials showed. We were told that there was science behind cloth masks." He argued that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) "failed miserably" during the pandemic and called for sweeping reforms and new leadership at the agency.
"As my father once said, ‘Progress is a nice word, but change is its motivator. And change has its enemies,'" Kennedy told the committee. "That’s why we need new blood at CDC." He added that most CDC staff are "honest public servants" who should be empowered to work "without bowing to politics," as he wrote in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed.
Kennedy also referenced President Joe Biden’s 2025 comments about the so-called "Trump vaccine," alleging that Biden initially opposed it, only to later mandate it and fire two top FDA officials who had raised concerns about its testing. "President Biden said in August, I would never take that vaccine, the Trump vaccine. And he came in, he mandated it, and then he fired the two top health officials at FDA who said, hey, this thing has not been properly tested. So the whole process was politicized even today," Kennedy said, according to Fox News.
But while Kennedy’s testimony resonated with some, it drew sharp condemnation from both sides of the aisle—and from within his own family. During the hearing, Senator Bernie Sanders pressed Kennedy on whether he accepted the COVID vaccine as a "miracle." Kennedy replied that it saved "quite a few" lives, a notably more conciliatory tone than his earlier critiques (as reported by the BBC). Yet, when asked if he accepted that more than a million Americans had died from COVID-19, Kennedy hedged: "I don't know how many died... I don't think anybody knows." The CDC, however, maintains that over 1.2 million Americans have died due to COVID since 2020.
The fallout from the hearing was immediate and dramatic. On September 5, former Representative Joe Kennedy III, Robert Kennedy Jr.’s nephew, took to social media to call for his uncle’s resignation, writing, "Robert Kennedy Jr. is a threat to the health and wellbeing of every American. A United States Secretary of Health and Human Services is tasked with protecting the public health of our country and its people. At yesterday’s hearing, he chose to do the opposite: to dismiss science, mislead the public, sideline experts and sow confusion. None of us will be spared the pain he is inflicting." Joe Kennedy’s post, viewed more than 1.2 million times, marked a rare and public escalation of a family feud that has fractured the Kennedy dynasty’s reputation for unity.
Kennedy’s sister, Kerry Kennedy, echoed these sentiments in her own statement, writing, "Medical decisions belong in the hands of trained and licensed professionals, not incompetent and misguided leadership. The decimation of critical institutions, like the NIH and the CDC, will lead to the loss of innocent lives. This means that children, mothers, fathers, and those you love are at risk now, like never before. Enough is enough. Secretary Kennedy must resign. Now."
This family drama is not new, but it has intensified since Kennedy’s embrace of former President Donald Trump and his appointment to the HHS post under the "Make America Healthy Again" agenda. In 2024, five of Kennedy’s siblings issued a joint statement denouncing his endorsement of Trump as "a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear." Caroline Kennedy, a cousin, even urged senators to block his cabinet nomination, describing him as "unqualified" and "addicted to attention and power." Jack Schlossberg, President John F. Kennedy’s grandson, mocked Kennedy’s testimony on social media, writing, "RFK LOSER is choking so badly LIVE."
Beyond the family feud, Kennedy’s tenure has also prompted resignations among top CDC officials. Four senior leaders, including CDC Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry, resigned the week before the hearing, citing what they described as the "weaponizing of public health" under Kennedy’s leadership. Houry stated, "For the good of the nation and the world, the science at CDC should never be censored or subject to political paused or interpretations. Vaccines save lives — this is an indisputable, well-established, scientific fact."
Public health groups have also sounded the alarm over Kennedy’s vaccine skepticism and his moves to limit vaccine access. During the Senate hearing, Kennedy defended his decision to remove former CDC Director Susan Monarez and insisted that "anybody" who wants the COVID-19 vaccine "still has the opportunity to receive it," despite new FDA guidelines narrowing eligibility for those under 65 to people with at least one underlying health condition.
Despite the mounting criticism, Kennedy retains support from some quarters. President Trump, who appointed Kennedy to the HHS role, expressed his ongoing backing: "Kennedy’s got a different take, and we want to listen to all of those takes. But it’s not your standard talk, I would say. And that has to do with medical and vaccines. But if you look at what’s going on in the world with health, and look at this country also with regard to health, I like the fact that he’s different." The Department of Health and Human Services issued a statement to Fox News Digital defending Kennedy: "Secretary Kennedy remains laser-focused on gold-standard science, radical transparency, and addressing the country’s chronic disease epidemic. Social media noise and coordinated attacks from special interest groups will not deter Secretary Kennedy from achieving President Trump’s mandate to Make America Healthy Again."
With the Senate hearing now over, the future of Kennedy’s tenure at HHS hangs in the balance. The clash between science, politics, and family loyalty has rarely been so public—or so personal. For now, the country watches as the Kennedy legacy, once a symbol of Democratic unity, is tested by one of its own in the most public forum imaginable.
