Overview

• During a three-hour Finance Committee session, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended his agenda as exchanges turned heated and he revived disputed claims about vaccine safety, including saying health officials "lied" about COVID.
• Kennedy denied ordering ousted CDC Director Susan Monarez to preapprove advisory panel recommendations but admitted directing her to fire senior staff; Monarez insists he pressured her and says she would testify to that under oath.
• He confirmed canceling roughly $500 million in mRNA research contracts and replacing all 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, and he said HHS plans observational studies probing links between vaccines and chronic disease.
• Kennedy named former CDC researcher William Thompson as a vaccine counsel and acknowledged David Geier is working as an HHS contractor on post‑vaccination safety data, drawing concerns about reliance on outside skeptics.
• Republican physicians John Barrasso and Bill Cassidy challenged policies that have made vaccines harder to obtain, Senate committees signaled additional oversight, and resignation calls swelled from medical groups, more than 1,000 HHS staff and nephew Joe Kennedy III.