The second toughest job in the Trump administration isn’t vice president or secretary of defense or secretary of state. It’s not even attorney general, though that’s close. It’s secretary of Health and Human Services. That’s Robert Kennedy Jr.’s domain. It’s tough because Donald Trump has charged RFK Jr. with pursuing sea-change agendas in health care and nutrition. Kennedy is threatening mighty powerful interests in both arenas.
A thousand current and former HHS employees signed a letter calling for Kennedy’s “demission.” In plain English, they want Kennedy to resign, but he won’t — and he shouldn’t. RFK Jr. has Trump’s backing. Then on September 4, Kennedy appeared before the Senate Finance Committee, where Democrats and a GOP senator piled on. A conspiracist might suggest that the letter and attacks at the hearing were coordinated.
ABC News reported on September 3:
In the letter, HHS employees said Kennedy continues “to endanger the nation’s health” with examples such as the ousting of newly-installed CDC director Susan Monarez, followed by the resignations of four top CDC leaders.
Monarez clashed with Kennedy over vaccine policy. When Monarez learned that Kennedy planned to dump her, she ran to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA). Cassidy is a longtime Trump antagonist. He backed off opposing Trump when Trump’s term began. Odd that he would do so, considering he voted to impeach the president for “incitement of insurrection” in February 2021. A man of principle, huh?
Cassidy is a physician. He’s up for re-election next year, which surely explains his slacking off his anti-Trump fervor. He chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. He also has a seat on the Finance Committee.
Where there’s a senator up for re-election — who holds a committee chairmanship — oodles of campaign cash flows in.
Cassidy is regarded as one of BIO’s “strategic voices and allies” in Congress. BIO is short for “Biotechnology Innovation Organization.” It’s a trade group. It’s a behind-the-scenes organizer to oust the secretary. Its members include heavy hitters “Pfizer, Merck, Novavax, Vaxcyte, and hundreds of biotech firms that profit from regulatory insulation,” per the Public Health Policy Journal.
The Bio-Vaccine Policy Steering Committee (VPSC) is comprised of BIO member company employees. Members are charged with working reps and senators and their staffers. “Work,” so-called, involves handing out campaign checks, dispensing favors, and applying pressure. A memo leaked last April suggests that the committee is spearheading the get RFK Jr. intrigue.
Cassidy appears to be Big Pharma’s Senate point man in taking down Kennedy. On September 4, in the Finance Committee hearing at which Kennedy was testifying, Cassidy used his time to push a scare tactic. Per the New York Post, via MSN:
“I would say, effectively, we’re denying people vaccines,” Cassidy said after reading the messages from conservative radio host Erick Erickson and a friend of the Louisiana Republican, who is a doctor.
Cassidy is trying to undercut Kennedy from the Right. Citing Erickson, who’s another longtime Trump opponent, isn’t exactly the smartest way to win friends and influence people, not among MAGA legions anyway.
Open Secrets reports that from 2019-24, Cassidy received in excess of $3 million from health-related groups and individuals, clearly his largest contributions category. Pharmaceuticals were fourth on Open Secrets Top 20 list of contributions to Cassidy, with over $700,000.
As Public Health Policy Journal mentioned, Big Pharma wants “regulatory insulation,” though not for any noble purpose. Pharmaceuticals want to dodge liability, which they received with the COVID vaccines — immunity that was extended through 2029, thanks to whoever was calling the shots in the Biden presidency’s dying days.
“Stopping the spread” might not have been a Stephen Colbert or Jimmy Kimmel punchline, but it was a joke thanks to the COVID vaccines’ spectacular failures to perform as advertised. Anyone ever hear of “spike proteins?”
And Big Pharma doesn’t want anyone messing with the childhood immunization schedule. Whether or not there’s a causal link among any of a growing number of childhood vaccines and autism should be open to debate. The scientific consensus is that links haven’t been found. Perhaps autism and vaccines aren’t related, but a slew of childhood vaccines invite closer scrutiny. Autism has shot up at alarming rates in recent years. That’s just attributable to better detection?
Kennedy’s mantra is that he wants “evidence-based” outcomes to determine vaccine efficacy and safety. Science pursued honestly. That’s not pharmaceutical industry housed or underwritten research with all the dubious motives. Real science is never settled.
Kennedy has been crossing swords with Big Pharma for years. Since being sworn in as HHS chief, he’s acted with dispatch to implement change, much to the consternation of big drug company big dogs. For them, tens of billions of dollars in revenues hang in the balance. That’s not just vaccine revenues. Drug pricing is consequential, too.
A 2024 Rand report confirms that pharmaceutical manufacturers charge more for prescription drugs here than overseas. Manufacturers are paid less overseas because they must negotiate pricing with national health bureaucracies. Lower drug prices in the E.U., for example, are made up by charging U.S. consumers exorbitantly. Manufacturers say that higher U.S. prices compensate for R&D costs. In other words, U.S. consumers are being forced to subsidize drug costs across the globe.
The president signed an executive order last May aimed at bringing domestic and overseas pricing into parity. This would result in significantly lower costs to American consumers. RFK Jr. is leading this effort. Yet another reason why pharmaceuticals want him out.
Stopping the “freeloading” — negotiated cost savings below fair market value — by other nations takes a process. That will take time.
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