Wellness Unmasked Weekly Rundown: Senate Hearing Showdown: RFK Jr., COVID Vaccine Debate, and CDC Shake-Up

Dr. Nicole Saphier unpacks the explosive Senate Finance Committee hearing with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Lawmakers clashed over shifting COVID vaccine recommendations and the controversial firing of former CDC director Susan Monarez. Dr. Saphier voices concern over the divisive exchanges and questions whether RFK Jr. can effectively serve as a credible public health leader in today’s polarized environment. Wellness Unmasked is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Tuesday & Friday.

 

Follow Clay & Buck on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuck

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, everyone, Welcome to Wellness Unmasks with doctor Nicole Saffire
and this is your weekly rundown. We have to break
down what went on this week at the Senate Finance
Committee hearing with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior. Let
me tell you, my phone has been blowing up ever since.
It was tense, it was confrontational, and yes, he actually

(00:23):
called the former CDC director Susan Monarez a liar. Yeah,
he actually did that, not once, not twice, three separate times.
So he took his seat before the Finance Committee and listen,
we knew it was going to be tense. We knew
Democrats were going to come out. They were going to
question him about the changes to the COVID vaccine recommendations,

(00:45):
talking about some of the big beautiful bill and what
it means for rural healthcare, Medicare, Medicaid. My big thing
was I wanted to see what Senator doctor, doctor, Senator
Cassidy had to say because he wasn't sure if he
was going to vote for Kennedy in his nomination. Ultimately
he did, but he expressed some pretty serious concerns and

(01:10):
he's now been expressing some disappointment publicly, whether in media
or on social media about some of the things that
are happening. I was kind of curious to hear if
he was going to say that he regretted voting for Kennedy.
It didn't get that tense. However, Senator Cassidy did talk
about the fact that despite RFK Junior saying he wasn't

(01:34):
going to change access to COVID vaccines, that's essentially what
has happened now. There was a lot of back and
forth between the senators and RK Junior. The senators were saying, well,
you're taking away access to the COVID vaccines and RFK Juniors, no,
why I'm not, And it was back and forth, back
and forth. Ultimately, they were all telling the truth. They

(01:54):
were just arguing semantics. By changing the ASIP, the CDC recommendation,
and also changing what the FDA recommends for these vaccines.
You know, you look at your CBS pharmacies, your insurance formulas,
Larry's if you are taking away the generalized recommendations that

(02:15):
CBS may not offer vaccines for just about anyone. They
don't necessarily want the liability of giving the vaccines off
label use, so RFK Junior is saying, well, you have
to go to your doctor and they have to write
a prescription for it. Well, in the past, people could
just go and get the vaccine without having to see
their doctor first. So in one sense, the senators are

(02:36):
saying you're restricting access. They're right because it's just going
to change. But RFK Junior is also right when he's
saying anybody who wants a vaccine can get it. I mean,
I guess that's true within reason, in the sense that
you still would have to go to the doctor. If
your doctor agrees you need the vaccine, then you can
go and get the vaccine. So again they were both
telling the truth. We're arguing some mantics there, but I'll

(03:01):
be honestly, one of the moments that kind of had
me like WHOA shaking my head, like what is happening
here right now? When RK Junior was asked about the
firing of Susan Monrez, who she was just went through
her committee hearing to be instilled as the CDC director.
He fired her, and there's a lot of controversy as

(03:22):
to why that happened. Just moments before the Senate committee hearing,
Susan Monraz put out an opinion piece that essentially said
RFK Junior wanted me to rubber stamp anything that his
newly appointed ASIP committee recommended regarded vaccines. And she pointed
out how some of the people in RFK Junior's inner

(03:44):
circle on the committee are known anti vacks, and so
she said she was not going to rubber stamp it,
not without looking at the science, looking at the data,
and she believes what the recommendations are going to be
is going to be anti science. And she also said
she thought be illegal, which that was a very interesting
Buddsword Well, RFK Junior said she's a liar and that

(04:09):
he never said that he wanted her a rubber stamp it.
He never said any of these things. And then when
Senator Elizabeth Warren asked if he actually asked Monarez Monarez,
the former CDC director now if she was trustworthy, r
f K Junior said, yeah, he asked her and she
said no. So I don't want her as an employee,

(04:30):
so she was fired. I mean, it's like what it
sounds like. There was a very heated conversation between RFK Jr.
Susan Monraz. I don't think we know the truth about
what really happened there. Susan Monrez laid out some very
serious allegations against RFK Junior. His response is just that
she's a liar. I don't know where the truth lies there.

(04:52):
I hope we get some of the truth. I'd love
to see Susan Monrez under oath at one of these
hearings as well. It was a pretty wild day, to
be honest. At the end of the day, though, I
will tell you I'm very disappointed, disheartened, because I feel
like we are farther away from unifying our nation when
it comes to the health of America. I think that
unfortunately RFK is Maybe there's a great message to make

(05:17):
America healthy again. Maybe he is getting rid of some
of the bureaucracy and making things more efficient, and I
think ultimately the goal is to do things that are
beneficial to the American people. Huge concern I have is
that he may not be the right messenger, may not
be the right person to be telling the people what's
going on. Because just like there's a Trump derangement syndrome,

(05:39):
I think there might be an RFK Junior derangement syndrome.
So no matter what he says, whether it's for the
good or the bad, people are not going to listen
and they're going to rebuke what he is saying. So
I hope that the AHHS can kind of put together
a more bipartisan, apolitical spokesperson to try and communicate some
of their message, because I'll tell you what I saw

(06:01):
from the hearing today. It was nothing but bickering, hyperbole
back and forth, and certainly was embarrassing as an American
citizen to watch. But that's it for this week's weekly rundown.
Thanks for listening to Wellness on Mass on America's number
one podcast network, iHeart. Follow Wellness on Mass with Doctor Nipple,
Saffire and start listening on the free iHeartRadio app or

(06:22):
wherever you get your podcasts, and we'll see you next time.