Durbin: RFK Jr. is a Danger to the Children of America

Durbin: RFK Jr. is a Danger to the Children of America

In a speech on the Senate floor, Durbin slammed Secretary Kennedy for spreading anti-vaccine sentiment and gutting public health agencies by removing well-respected medical experts

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today delivered a speech on the Senate floor slamming Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for unjustly firing Dr. Monarez from her position as Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after she pushed back against Secretary Kennedy's dangerous skepticism of vaccines and medical research. In his remarks, Durbin emphasized that Secretary Kennedy's crusade to spread distrust in safe and effective vaccines and to discredit well-respected medical experts will irreparably harm America's public health.

"I also want to tell you that the health care policy that we currently see with this Administration is frightening," Durbin began his remarks.

"When I was growing up as a little boy in East St. Louis, Illinois, we were afraid of polio. One of our classmates would go to school healthy in the morning and be paralyzed before dinner. When I was in the first grade, my friend disappeared for weeks. I asked people where she went, but they just shook their heads and said 'polio.' When she finally returned, she couldn't walk without having leg braces. I'll never forget the agony I saw on her face," Durbin said. "For decades, polio ravaged America, killing and paralyzing thousands of people every year, and then a vaccine was discovered. The Salk vaccine was a miracle. By 1979, polio was eradicated in the United States, a disease that struck fear in the hearts of everyone soon became, thank God, a distant memory. We repeated that success earlier this century with diseases like measles and rubella."

"Unfortunately, those vaccine victories are now under attack by the Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. His actions threaten to reverse 50 years of progress in infectious disease treatment and prevention," Durbin said.

Durbin then spoke about the chaos happening at CDC since Secretary Kennedy was confirmed. Durbin reprimanded the Trump Administration for allowing Secretary Kennedy to brazenly fire essential, well-respected public health experts at these agencies, including Dr. Monarez.

"In February, Secretary Kennedy moved to fire more than 1,000 CDC staff members. That's 10 percent of its entire workforce. This included key members of the agency's pandemic prevention and laboratory safety staff," Durbin said. "In August, he fired Dr. Susan Monarez from her position as Director of the CDC, despite the fact that she was nominated by President Trump and confirmed by every Senate Republican just weeks before."

Durbin emphasized that Dr. Monarez's testimony in the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) this week painted an alarming picture of the chaos that is allowing vaccine skepticism to spread at the highest levels of our government. Durbin explained that CDC's vaccine advisory committee meets regularly to make medically-sound recommendations about vaccinations, which are then required to be covered by insurance companies for free, and which help provide critical information to states that develop their own vaccine guidelines.

"Dr. Monarez told the Committee that Secretary Kennedy plans to upend our nation's vaccine recommendations schedule this month," Durbin said. "Unfortunately, Secretary Kennedy unilaterally fired all members of the CDC's vaccine advisory committee, many of whom were infectious disease and vaccine experts. He fired them all. He replaced them with people who have espoused anti-vaccine views and align with extreme health-related conspiracy theories. This new panel is set to meet today, and I fear they are about to upend decades of progress in preventing unnecessary illness by wiping out recommendations and access to childhood vaccines."

"Dr. Monarez testified yesterday that she was fired for not preemptively agreeing to rubber-stamp these new vaccine requirements absent scientific evidence that changes were warranted. Think about that - Secretary Kennedy fired President Trump's pick to head the CDC because she insisted that the agency's vaccine recommendations be actually backed by science," Durbin continued.

Durbin underscored the dangerous outcomes of firing Dr. Monarez and the thousands of CDC employees tasked with protecting public health. Without fact-based recommendations, state governments are beginning to spread anti-vaccine sentiments by ending their own vaccine requirements. As a result, vaccination rates are falling and disease prevalence is on the rise. Louisiana is currently experiencing its worst whooping cough outbreak in 35 years with more than 30 infants, many of whom were not vaccinated, having been hospitalized. Two infants have already died from the outbreak. In Texas, two unvaccinated children died from measles earlier this year-the first such deaths in the United States in a decade.

"Many states see this anti-vaccine movement at the highest levels of our government and are taking things to an even further extreme. Florida announced it would end most of its vaccine requirements, and other Republican states are likely to follow suit. The rising vaccine skepticism, promoted by Secretary Kennedy in the Trump Administration, will cause a resurgence in preventable disease across America," Durbin said.

"RFK Jr. will be the first Secretary of HHS with a body count. He is a danger to the children of America," Durbin continued.

Durbin then slammed the Trump Administration's assault of medical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which Durbin has fought to fund on a bipartisan basis for more than a decade.

"Kennedy's onslaught has targeted more than just vaccines. He and President Trump have spearheaded a historic level of dysfunction at the National Institutes of Health. They have frozen medical research funding and fired scientists and researchers," Durbin said. "For 10 years, I have been part of a bipartisan task force to raise the NIH's budget. In those 10 years, we increased its budget by more than 60 percent, raising it from $30 billion to $48 billion today. But Trump and Kennedy's proposed budget for next year eliminates $18 billion in medical research-every penny of the increase I have fought for over the last 10 years is gone."

"It will mean fewer novel cures and treatments for patients who need them. It'll dramatically reduce research into Alzheimer's, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. They [this research] have been suspended because of the Trump-Kennedy cuts," Durbin said.

"Does anybody believe that America is greater as a nation with less cancer research? I don't. Patients desperate for cure for horrible conditions like glioblastoma are in agony today because President Trump and Secretary Kennedy canceled the research funding they depend on," Durbin continued.

Durbin concluded his remarks by calling on his colleagues to stand up to Secretary Kennedy as he erodes America's public health institutions.

"I call on my Republican colleagues to stand up to this public health massacre. Some of the members are doctors or parents themselves, who have vaccinated their kids or spent their careers trying to improve our health care system. My colleagues know that Secretary Kennedy is unqualified, unhinged, and dangerous, and I hope that they will find the courage to join me and speak out against his terrible decisions," Durbin said.

Video of Durbin's remarks on the Senate floor is available here.

Audio of Durbin's remarks on the Senate floor is available here.

Footage of Durbin's remarks on the Senate floor is available here for TV Stations.

-30-