A few minutes ago, Protect Our Care Virginia held a press conference at which Rep. Don Beyer (VA-08) and health care advocates “sound[ed] the alarm on Donald Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary.” As the press release from Protect Our Care Virginia put it:
“If RFK Jr. is confirmed, it will put Virginians’ lives at risk and jeopardize critical programs like the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid. RFK Jr. is deeply unqualified to serve in this position as he has no leadership qualifications in any role in public health or a government agency. Additionally, his fringe views on vaccines and his disregard of science and public health makes him a danger to the American people.
As HHS Secretary, RFK Jr. will push radical policies that will undermine decades of progress to lower health care costs, conduct research on life-saving cures for diseases, and keep Virginians healthy. Virginians deserve a leader at HHS who believes in science, the efficacy of vaccines, and who is committed to strengthening and expanding health care policies enacted since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Speakers will discuss how RFK Jr.’s leadership will affect nearly every Virginian, as he will prioritize his own interests and bolster MAGA efforts to increase health care costs by slashing Medicaid, repealing the Affordable Care Act, and banning Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices.”
In addition to Rep. Beyer, speakers included: Katie Baker, State Director of Protect Our Care Virginia; Nurse educator and Medical Reserve Corps vaccinator Mary Wright Baylor of Springfield; Community health specialist Pablo Moulden of Arlington; Cancer survivor Laura Packard of Alexandria. See below for some video and highlights.
- Katie Baker: “To say RFK Jr. is a threat to our health care would be an understatement. He is a threat to the many years of scientific progress made in our country.”
- Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA08): “The future of health care is under threat from one of Donald Trump’s most extreme Cabinet nominations – Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Secretary of Health and Human Services. I won’t mince words…RFK Jr. is an existential threat to our health care…RFK Jr. is not qualified to lead an agency or workforce of that magnitude [of HHS], and in fact he’s already said on Day 1 he’s planning to fire 600 NIH workers and replace them with people who share his extreme anti-science views. This is a formula for making polio great again. From advancing anti-Semitic lies about COVID19 to blaming school shootings on anti-depressants, there are countless reasons why RFK Jr. should not be allowed anywhere near the Hubert Humphrey Building. That’s why it’s time for all of us to stand up and fight…RFK Jr. is the greatest threat to healthcare since COVID19 – all our progress at risk, including life-saving research and landmark legislation that lowers the cost of health care. This is a man who has no credible experience to lead this agency, who is fueled by conspiracy theories and lies, and who will be beholden to a president who wants to terminate the Affordable Care Act.”
- Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA08): “I’m pleased that Pablo is alive, that Laura is alive – we see the benefit of massive, sustained investment in health care that changed what used to be death sentences – lung cancer and AIDS – and turned that into something that you can live from and recover…There are a lot of red flags [about RFK Jr.], including sexual misconduct, he’s not remotely qualified, he’s been a prominent member of conspiracy theories, not to mention chopping off whales’ heads and leaving bears in the park. The key thing is he is the most prominent voice in attacking vaccines, which are…one of the most important advances in human history…they’ve saved 100s of millions of lives…RFK’s opposition to vaccines is just crazy and it puts so many lives at risk. I did the throwaway line, ‘Making Polio Great Again’…we’re seeing pockets of measels and polio pop up everywhere…as vaccine skepticism is rising…Having the world’s leading vaccine skeptic leading HHS is just completely irresponsible.”
- Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA08): “We’re hearing from lots of federal workers concerned about Schedule F, concerned about Vivek Ramaswamy firing every other federal worker based on their Social Security number. But pertaining to this conversation, the notion that you can fire 600 of those important researchers at NIH is not just devastating for them and their families, but just what it will mean for the progress of research in the world and in America…It’s always good to reform systems, but you want to do it with great intelligence, logic…a scalpel, not the reckless stuff that’s coming, especially based on the weird conspiracy theories and fake science coming from RFK Jr.”
- Mary Wright Baylor: “I would ask Republican lawmakers if they got the COVID vaccine, if their family got the COVID vaccine, and did they know of anyone who had died of COVID prior to the release of the vaccinations – and let them contemplate that….”
- Pablo Moulden: “Over a million Americans today are living with HIV…We need an administration that can care after those living with HIV, making sure these services continue to be available…We need someone who’s qualified to do that and believes that HIV exists and causes AIDS…The reason why I’ve been living with HIV for 16 years and that I didn’t die 6 years ago is because of the research that made the life-saving medication that I have today possible…And that system of health care, of medication, of wrap-around services wouldn’t be possible without the research and proper funding in these government agencies and community-based organizations.”
- Laura Packard: “Diseases don’t discriminate by political party. I guarantee this Republican Senator has constituents that are BEGGING for cures, BEGGING for treatments for chronic illnesses…and pausing scientific research for…years means telling those families, your constituents, ‘sorry, this crackpot is more important than your lives.'”
UPDATE 5:35 pm: From Protect Our Care Virginia, here are some more comments by Mary Wright Baylor, Pablo Moulden and Laura Packard.
“I gave the COVID-19 vaccine to hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of adults and children,” said Mary Wright Baylor of Springfield, a nurse educator and a vaccinator in Virginia’s Medical Reserve Corps. “Many other health care professionals, including other retirees like me, worked around the clock to vaccinate our neighbors and protect our public health. These life-saving vaccines changed the entire trajectory of the pandemic. But while we were at the forefront of this life-saving effort, Mr. Kennedy was peddling misinformation and conspiracy theories regarding vaccines … For 20 years, he has tirelessly used these radical views to build opposition to the science behind vaccines. In fact, he has become one of the most prominent anti-vaxxers in the United States and globally. He has been a leader in the misinformation campaign, and as a result, preventable childhood diseases such as measles and pertussis, which is whooping cough, are beginning to rise.”
“RFK Jr. denies that HIV causes AIDS, a scientifically proven fact; falsely claims medical interventions such as vaccinations don’t save lives; plans to stop life-saving research on medications and diseases; and denies the threat of infectious diseases,” said community health specialist Pablo Moulden of Arlington. “How can such a person provide accurate information to the public or protect, respect and ensure adequate critical health care for people with HIV? How can such a conspiracy theorist ensure necessary research for an HIV vaccine or cure? How can he ensure progress to ending the HIV epidemic? I would not only find such a candidate to be wholly unqualified and incompetent, but a danger to my life, my health, my community and my future. My ancestors – including HIV activist and educator Pedro Zamora, who tragically died of AIDS at just 22 in the 90s – didn’t sacrifice, fight and die only to see everything they fought for be dismantled and for a version of the fear they lived through be brought back to life.”
Laura Packard, a cancer survivor and resident of Alexandria, said, “The reason why I’m here is not only that I had insurance that paid for that treatment, which was hundreds of thousands of dollars, but also scientific advances in the 1970s made my cancer sentence treatable and curable. I am so grateful for the scientific research that saved my life, and we cannot go back … [RFK Jr.] wants to pause NIH research on drug development and infectious diseases for eight years. We cannot risk eight years without scientific research. I am so fortunate that science in the 1970s saved my life, but millions of Americans are facing diseases and illnesses right now, and they’re waiting on cures, too. So the idea of pausing that science for eight years means sentencing millions of Americans to suffering and maybe even death.”
Sign up for the Blue Virginia weekly newsletter
