Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Health and Human Services (HHS) Director under the Trump Administration, told Congress on Wednesday that he believes people “shouldn’t be taking medical advice from [him]”.
The comments were made at a House Appropriations Committee hearing on May 14, as the committee reviewed the Trump Administration’s 2026 budget request, which was released on May 2.
The comments were made at a House Appropriations Committee hearing on May 14, as the committee reviewed the Trump Administration’s 2026 budget request, which was released on May 2.
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00:00You've previously said you vaccinated your children. Just because I think this is a helpful
00:04answer and this isn't a gotcha, I promise. If you had a child today, would you vaccinate that child
00:09for measles? For measles? Probably for measles. You know, what I would say is my opinions about
00:20vaccines are irrelevant. I have directed Jay Bhattacharya to the science so that everybody
00:28can make that decision. But I don't want to seem like I'm being evasive. But I don't think people
00:35should be taking advice, medical advice from me. Right. No, I got that. And I'm not asking you to
00:39give them medical advice. But would you vaccinate your child for measles? I think if I answer that
00:43question directly, that it will seem like I'm giving advice to other people. And I don't want
00:49to be doing that. I want people to make up. But that's kind of your jurisdiction because CDC does
00:53give advice, right? I'm not trying to do it as a gotcha. I think what we're going to try to do
00:58is to lay out the pros and cons, the risks and benefits accurately as we understand them
01:05with replicable studies. Can you talk about chickenpox? Would you vaccinate
01:11your child against chickenpox? Again, I don't want to give advice. I can tell you in Europe
01:19they don't use the chickenpox vaccine specifically because the preclinical trial shows that when
01:26you inoculate the population of chickenpox, you get shingles in older people, which is more dangerous.
01:32Just one last one, just a yes or no, please, if we could. Polio? Polio. Again, I don't want to be
01:39giving advice. Okay, that's fair. No, that's fair.