Dr. Syra Mada: RFK Spewed Anti-Vaccine Rhetoric, Putting American Babies And The Elderly At Risk
Infectious disease epidemiologist at the Harvard Kennedy School Dr. Syra Mada on a CNN panel Thursday night, accused Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of putting Americans’ health at risk. Mada called it “painful” to watch the Senate hearing at which Kennedy testified on Thursday.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST: Joining us at the table is Dr. Syra Madad, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Harvard’s Kennedy School. Dr. Madad, I mean, this is maybe the worst case scenario that I’m really worried about. And it was interesting to me that Kennedy, so many times in this hearing, denied saying things that he did in fact say, which is a pattern for him. He denied that he was an anti-vax in his confirmation hearings. He has said many times that he doesn’t believe that there’s any safe vaccine. So, what did you make of that kind of almost duplicitousness that was on display? SYRA MADAD, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EPIDEMIOLOGIST, HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL: It was very painful to watch. He was very dismissive, very combative and just spewing his conspiracy theories, his rhetoric, his anti- vaccine sentiments again and again and again. And bottom line is he’s putting American babies, he’s putting American elders, he’s putting all Americans at risk here. This is the health of America and he’s playing, you know, playing games with it. This is unacceptable. PHILLIP: He also, he appointed a bunch of vaccine skeptics, people who had spread vaccine misinformation to the CDC board.
