When President Bill Clinton cooperated with a superimposed parliament to enact a federal program to enact a federal program to guarantee vaccine for poor children, they have the authority to buy shots from drug manufacturers. I agree that I should take a rest with the Health Secretary. The drafting of the bill did not believe that a very lively critic in childhood vaccines would appear as a candidate for its role.
The critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is in front of the Senate for a confirmation of this week. If confirmed, he will have the power to restrict or block contracts with vaccine manufacturers for more than half of children nationwide under the $ 8 billion children's program.
The program is believed to increase the nationwide vaccination rate and protects nearly 38 million low -income and worker -class children from polios, hundred -day cough and chicken pox.
Kennedy says that no one will take the vaccine, but has a long history of questioning the safety of the vaccine. He is more and more concerned about the wide -range authority to carry out vaccine policies to public health experts, researchers, and members of the Diet.
Some architects in the program are trying to convince the Senator to oppose his nomination.
“I think he is dangerous for his child's health,” said Clinton's Former Democratic Congressman Donna E. Sharala. She has expressed anxiety about Kennedy, but don't name them.
Kennedy's confirmation hearing begins on Wednesday before the Senate Finance Committee and continues on Thursday before the Senate's health, education, labor, and pension committee. The continuous session gives Kennedy, a member of the two parties, to ask Kennedy about how he and how he supervises the vaccine policy.
The members of the Diet have already begun to ask what the health of the health secretary has rather than the vaccine. Last week, Vermont's independent Senator Bernie Sanders at a vaccine policy in a vaccine policy, and Senator Lisa Brant Rochester, a Delaware Democratic Party, asked: About reducing vaccine use? “
Experts told the Senator that the authorities have gained power to approve the vaccine, probably using a prominent position to raise fears and are not true.
Kennedy's spokeswoman Katie Miller refused to answer questions about Kennedy's views on children's programs.
For decades, Kennedy has questioned the safety of vaccines and its ingredients. In 2021, he filed a federal official to cancel the approval of all coronavirus vaccines when thousands of Americans were dying from COVID every week.
Kennedy has also been working in a lawsuit claiming that Merck's vaccine against HPV, the main cause of cervical cancer, caused injury. A record published before the confirmation of the confirmation indicates that if he is confirmed, it will maintain the financial interests in the vaccine lawsuit.
His activity made the members of both parties anxious. Several Republican Senator, including Mitch Macconel in Kentucky, Lisa Marcoski in Alaska, and Bill Cassidi in Louisiana, suggest that they are fence on how to vote.
Makonel, a former Republican survivor and a former Republican leader, states that it is difficult for anyone engaged in the “efforts to impair the trust of the people” for the proven treatment. 。 Cassidi, a doctor and chairman of the Help Committee, does not mention how he votes. Murkowski added to CNN that “vaccine is important.”
The vaccine for children program was created in response to the occurrence of measles that affected poor children who could not afford vaccination. According to the disease management prevention center, it is currently protected from 19 diseases.
The laws that established the program provide contracts over contracts over contracts. Drug makers have been providing 71.5 billion dosage to about 37,000 medical providers in the United States and its territory since the program started.
According to Sarah Rosenbaum, Professor Emerita, a professor of the George Wasington University Health Law and policy, “the entire supply and distribution are managed.”
“Who did you think it was a problem for giving this kind of power to the secretary?”
Some of the defenders of the program are worried that if Kennedy is in charge of just talking about vaccine programs, it may be dangerous.
“People are very nervous about talking loudly. I'm very nervous about speaking loudly because they don't want them to happen,” he said. , Lecturer Richard Hughes IV, a lecturer at the University of George Wasington, said. “But these can happen very often.”
A lawyer specializing in vaccine has pointed out other areas where the national health chief has the authority to the vaccine. One was a vaccine injury compensation program, which was established in 1986 to create a court system to protect vaccine manufacturers from responsibility and compensate for those who harm the vaccine.
Kennedy suggests that the shield provides an incentive that cuts the vaccine maker, but he has no authority to delete it. It is in Congress. However, the Health Secretary can add injuries to the table of harm, which is caused by the vaccine. The secretary can also add or delete a vaccine from the court range.
As an official on the Executive Chain Food and Pharmaceutical Bureau, the Secretary is encouraged to suspend or cancel the established vaccine approval, or to refrain from approval from those seeking permission. I have done it.
“These are true possibilities,” said Dennis Hill, a lawyer in Iowa, specializing in the vaccine method. “And if I asked me five years ago, I would never say it, but now I can't say it.”
Hill said that the Trump administration would be able to impose conditions, such as deleting a task for students in the kindergarten to be vaccinated, and trying to impose conditions for their children's vaccine programs.
According to Hughes, the Secretary will also have the authority to the invotement committee or ACIP's influential advisory committee on the vaccination practice. The secretary also revived the problem of vaccine safety and was able to refuse the committee's recommendation.
The committee tends to affect state -level policies, doctors and private insurance companies. However, it has more direct authority to which vaccines are distributed by the child's program. Dr. Walter Orenstein, who performed a CDC vaccination program when the child's program was started, was concerned that Kennedy could change the composition of the committee.
“There is a possibility that they can actually put a considerable number of anti -vaccines in ACIP, which will have some potential adverse effects on changing the current recommendations,” said Dr. Orenstein. I said. “It can mean that vaccines are not provided through children's programs.”
Rosenbaum, who supported the creation of the system, said that it was a vaccine covering Medicade and the cost of managing them several decades ago. However, many doctors still did not want to pay in advance to pay in advance.
Rosenbaum stated that the system they built was revolutionary in that the health secretary gave the right to negotiate prices with a vaccine manufacturer and ship the dose directly to a provider.
The program has been extended to cover the worker -class families, which exceed the Medicade income restrictions, which are dependent on the chip or child's health insurance program. These programs cover about 38 million infants, children, and youth, including those who rely on native American medical systems.
Thirty years later, Rosenbaum assumed that, as Kennedy was facing confirmation, if he was identified, it could be a target if he was confirmed. He said he was. “People have not responded to the alarm for no reason,” she said.
