Among the many promises that RFK Jr. offered in his confirmation hearings, promises that he has gone about breaking in spectacular fashion, one was a promise of “radical transparency”. His approach, in his own words, was laid out directly to Congress.
My approach to administration HHS will be transparency. If members of this committee or other members of Congress want information, the doors are open. I’ve spent many years litigating against HHS and its sub-agencies, NIH, CDC, FDA on FOIA issues trying to get information that we the taxpayers paid for and oftentimes getting back redacted copies after a year or two years of litigation. That should not be the case and if Congress asked me for information, you will get it immediately.
In the most recent news involving Kennedy-style fuckery, the CDC was mysteriously prohibiting the procurement of seasonal COVID vaccines through the Vaccine for Children program, designed so that states can get these shots at no cost for children who lack insurance, who are on Medicaid, and for Indigenous children. Why? Nobody seemed to be able to answer that question.
The CDC made some vague claims that the months-long delay was due to the need to finalize the procurement process (bullshit), or perhaps the need to have an outside expert consult on the final procurement process (bullshit). How do I know those statements were bullshit? Well, this is a statement from HHS to Ars Technica made on Wednesday, September 23rd, after media outlets began reporting on the shots being delayed:
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told Ars on Wednesday that “CDC has not yet finalized procurement decisions” for the shots. The department’s statement further suggested Trump officials were questioning whether children should receive them. “HHS and CDC are committed to responsible stewardship of taxpayer resources and to ensuring that vaccines purchased through federally funded programs are appropriate for the populations those programs serve,” the department said.
Then, on that very same day, mere hours later, the Washington Post reported that procurement of the shots was now open and states could order the shots.
However, The Washington Post reported late Wednesday that ordering was opening. An unnamed source told the Post that part of the reason the vaccine ordering was held up was a delay in finalizing the CDC’s clinical guidance, which is written for health care professionals and public health officials. The guidance reportedly needed to be reviewed by an external expert.
According to further reporting, this explanation was also bullshit.
The Post also reported that CDC career officials had previously finished preparations for making the vaccines available. All Trump officials needed to do was essentially push a button to open ordering, sources said. Further, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Health suggested to the Post that CDC leadership was behind the hold, saying the state had been told “that CDC leadership approval is needed before distribution of the vaccine can begin.”
In a response to Ars on Thursday, HHS again did not respond to questions about what caused the delay or how it was resolved. The department did, however, confirm that ordering for COVID-19 vaccines is now open.
So let’s call this what it is: Kennedy got caught with his hand in the cookie jar and reversed course once he’d been found out. And let’s also note that if any of this is supposed to be “radical transparency”, then I must be working off of a different dictionary than Kennedy and HHS.
None of this is transparent. There is no actual explanation on offer here for why the shots were delayed. And I have no doubt that if it had somehow gone unnoticed, the COVID shots never would have been made available at all. Kennedy, after all, has claimed that the COVID vaccine has killed lots and lots of people, and maimed others.
So we have another promise made to Congress broken. That same Congress should be demanding answers, at a minimum.
