WA Democrat tells RFK Jr. he’ll be ‘the HHS Secretary that caused kids to die’
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- Schrier called for Kennedy to be fired or to resign during the hearing.
- Schrier testified that vitamin K injections prevent catastrophic newborn brain bleeds.
- Kennedy declined to say whether women should get their babies vitamin K shots.
U.S. Rep. Kim Schrier on Tuesday criticized the nation’s top health official for refusing to recommend vitamin K shots for newborns.
Schrier — a Washington Democrat whose district includes several counties, including Pierce County — didn’t hold back when confronting Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“This is going to be your legacy: The HHS (Health and Human Services) secretary that caused kids to die,” she said during an April 21 Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee hearing.
She then called for Kennedy to be fired or resign.
Reached for comment, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told McClatchy via email that vitamin K is still the standard of care at birth. Press secretary Emily G. Hilliard added that its uptake dropped during the Biden era amid a plunge in health-care trust.
“Secretary Kennedy is committed to ensuring that vaccines and all medical interventions meet the highest standards of safety and are backed by high-quality science,” she continued. “Americans voted for transparency after years of sweeping pandemic mandates that eroded public trust in our healthcare system, and HHS is restoring that trust through evidence-based policies.”
Schrier chairs the Democratic Doctors Caucus and was the first pediatrician elected to Congress. Her questioning comes as Kennedy faces heat from critics who accuse him of playing a central role in a mounting medical and vaccine skepticism.
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The American Academy of Pediatrics wrote in a recent social media post, citing reporting from Bloomberg, that there has been a rise in the number of parents turning down the vitamin K shot for their new babies. The academy noted that for close to 65 years, the injection has been given at birth to help prevent severe — potentially fatal — bleeding because of vitamin K deficiency.
Schrier said Tuesday that the shot helps stave off catastrophic brain bleeds.
She asked Kennedy to state for the record whether pregnant women should let their babies receive the vitamin K shot. He declined, saying he’d refer the matter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The FDA has approved it, Schrier said: “It is a recommendation, but parents are listening to you, and they are doubting science.”
The Congress member accused Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, of spreading misinformation, leading some parents to refuse routine medical care for their kids, such as the hepatitis B vaccine. Some children could go on to develop grave medical issues like cirrhosis of the liver or liver cancer, and, later in life, die prematurely, she added.
“Well, first of all,” Kennedy said, “anybody can get a hepatitis B shot and have their insurance pay for it.”
The point, Schrier said, is that Kennedy has suggested the vaccine could be unsafe.
Late last year a Kennedy-appointed federal vaccine advisory panel moved to drop the recommendation that kids should receive a hepatitis B vaccine at birth. Kennedy has cast doubt on the shot’s safety for newborns and claimed, without evidence, that it has been linked to an increased risk of autism, according to ABC News.
Schrier isn’t the only Washington Democrat to have chastised Kennedy before Congress. U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell called the secretary a “charlatan” during a Senate hearing in September.
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