Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) on Sunday defended Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. days after senators from both parties offered pointed questions about a vaccine policy-related shake-up at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Marshall told host Margaret Brennan of CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Kennedy was chosen to be a “disruptor to the CDC,“ and that is exactly what he is doing.
“Right now, Americans don’t trust the CDC, so he is literally turning that place upside down,” Marshall said. “I respect what my colleagues are saying, but I think that, you know, this whole issue today, or in that meeting, was about vaccines.”
“In my humble opinion, not every person needs every vaccine,” he said, while adding that “vaccines have saved hundreds of millions of lives, but not every person needs every vaccine.”
Marshall’s defense comes days after Democrats and some Republicans grilled Kennedy in a contentious three-hour Senate hearing. During his testimony on Thursday, the secretary repeated vaccine misinformation, attacked the CDC, and offered differing explanations of his vision for remaking the agency.
Republican senators have largely been deferential to Kennedy. Still, Thursday’s Senate hearing revealed some cracks, including a surprisingly barbed back-and-forth between Kennedy and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), an orthopedic surgeon.
Sens. John Barrasso (Wyo.), the Senate’s second-ranking Republican, and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) also had pointed issues with Kennedy’s attempt to rewrite the nation’s vaccine policies.
Marshall, who is also a doctor, said during his Sunday interview he believes not every person needs a vaccine, and that “we need to be more specific” and not “overly prescriptive.”
When Brennan questioned whether picking and choosing vaccines could lead to more distrust among Americans, Marshall said he had confidence in “doctors, and nurses, and parents, and grandparents to make these decisions.”
“I don’t think that we should have one government policy that dictates every one of these vaccines,” he told Brennan. “I think local policy, local schools, if they want to have requirements, what Florida did was a bridge too far. But how about just a little common sense? Just a little common sense would go a long ways here.”
Officials in Florida last week said they would end all mandates for school children to be vaccinated.
President Trump, who has defended Kennedy, expressed some reticence on Friday about Florida’s decision.
