Measles, mumps and rubella vaccine(Merck Sharp & Dohme)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s chances of becoming HHS chief likely hinge on one of his more controversial stances: that vaccines contribute to the development of autism. And in written responses to the Senate Finance Committee, Kennedy continued his refusal to walk back from that view. When asked, “Yes or no, do you believe vaccines cause autism,” Kennedy evaded. “If confirmed, I will do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking vaccines,” he wrote in a response. “As I testified to the Committee, I am not anti-vaccination. I support transparency and sound data for vaccines.” A defining moment of this week’s confirmation hearings was Kennedy’s insistence that the link between vaccines and autism deserves more interrogation. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), chairman of the Senate Health Committee, virtually pleaded with Kennedy to refute his comments on the debunked link at Thursday’s hearing, but Kennedy wouldn’t budge. Cassidy is also a crucial GOP swing vote on the finance committee that will vote on Kennedy’s nomination, making him a deciding factor. When asked whether he still believes that “Africans and African Americans may be particularly vulnerable to vaccine injuries including autism,” Kennedy wrote, “I believe in applying evidence-based, peer-reviewed, and replicable standards in scientific and medical inquiry.” “My positions will naturally evolve in response to such efforts,” he added. Those comments came in a blog post that Kennedy authored, published by the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense that he helped run. The link between vaccines and autism can be traced to research by Andrew Wakefield that was published in The Lancet in 1998. But the journal retracted the article 12 years later, and 10 of the 12 authors on the paper made a statement in 2004 saying “we wish to make it clear that in this paper no causal link was established between MMR vaccine and autism as the data were insufficient.” Wakefield was not included among the authors in that statement. When asked what his relationship was with Wakefield today, Kennedy wrote to senators that “he is an acquaintance.” Kennedy’s written and spoken responses have added to evidence that Kennedy would do more to fuel vaccine hesitancy than squelch it. Kennedy left more questions than answers regarding a December dinner with pharma executives at Mar-a-Lago following his nomination. Senators asked whether drug pricing provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act came up at the dinner and he said, “No.” But when asked later what they did discuss, Kennedy wrote, “I do not recall what was discussed at the dinner you reference.” President Donald Trump had said the group discussed drug pricing and he seemed to side with drugmakers that pharmacy benefit managers are largely to blame. Kennedy told senators in his hearings that he supported bipartisan efforts to rein in the PBM industry, but acknowledged he hadn’t actually read the legislation yet.