While many Democrats and at least one protestor went after him on the subject, Robert F Kennedy Jr tried to set the record straight this week by telling senators he is not "anti-vaccine."
"News reports have claimed that I am anti-vaccine or anti-industry. I am neither. All of my kids are vaccinated. I have written many books on vaccines. My first book in 2014, the first line of it is 'I am not anti-vaccine,' and the last line is 'I am not anti-vaccine.'"
It's a big issue, as Kennedy was nominated for Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Trump administration.
Kennedy, shown here testifying before Congress in 2023, spent a lot of time during his confirmation hearings voicing concern about food additives, saying we have too many problematic ingredients and dyes in U.S. food products that need to be removed:
"Should I be so privileged as to be confirmed, we will make sure our tax dollars will support healthy foods. We will scrutinize the chemical additives in our food supply. We will remove financial conflicts of interest from our agencies. We will create an honest, unbiased gold-standard science at HHS accountable to the president, the Congress, and to the American people. We will reverse the chronic disease epidemic and put the nation back on the road to good health."
Mary Holland, J.D. worked alongside Kennedy for many years at Children's Health Defense where she is CEO. She believes Kennedy will be confirmed, but she wants to see him focus on more than just food additives.
“I mean, he is committed to ending the epidemic of chronic disease, and I don't think you're going to be able to do it with food alone, and I don't think he thinks you can do it with food alone. We're going to have to look at all of the environmental factors, and that is going to go beyond food. Food is critical. We all eat several times a day, so we have to look at food. There’s a lot that needs to be cleaned up there, but it's not sufficient."
