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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, on a totally unrelated subject, this week two Senate committees will hold confirmation hearings for Robert Kennedy, Jr., President Trump's nominee to be Secretary for Health and Human Services.

Every day, HHS, this major government Agency, makes life-and-death decisions. That Agency oversees the Food and Drug Administration to make sure that what we eat is safe, to make sure the drugs that are sold to us are effective and safe as well.

The National Institutes of Health is in this Agency. It is the premiere medical research agency in the world--in the world. Some $40 billion spent each year to find cures, to find new drugs, to move us toward a better America.

And the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, their job is not as flashy as some, but it is so important. What they do is to make sure whatever is going around, as they say, doesn't hit our families. We count on them every single day.

It is a big job that requires responsible leadership and honesty overseeing an Agency that has these critical Agencies of government.

Now there may be some certain areas where we agree, such as curbing drug ads or improving the quality of the food supply. And I know Robert Kennedy, Jr., and I have worked with him in the past. I can work with him on those issues.

But on the fundamentals, the basic question of his leadership is troublesome. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is dangerously--dangerously-- unqualified and entirely irresponsible in his judgment. He embraces quack science and cherry-picks information to fulfill his numerous conspiracy theories. His decades-long crusade to spread lies about vaccines is just one example. Let me show you a chart that is pretty explicit, pretty short.

Robert Kennedy, Jr.:

There's no vaccine that is safe and effective.

This man who wants to head the Agency which develops vaccines and monitors their use said there is not a single vaccine that is safe and effective. He has stated that as recently as July of 2023.

Contrary to scientific fact, he has also said that:

I do believe that autism does come from vaccines.

I have heard this theory, and I think about it so many times when I think of my friends and families who are raising children with autism. What a responsibility. What an effort they have to put into it to give these young children a chance. And to have this quack theory out there that this has something--their child's condition have something to do with vaccines is cruel.

And an outlandish conspiracy manifesto which he has helped to publish and wrote the forward for entitled ``Cause Unknown''--here is the book--attempted to link COVID-19 vaccination with deaths in young kids.

Let me put this up here. It is a picture of the cover of this book. ``Forward written by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.,'' who is up for approval as part of the Trump Cabinet, head of HHS.

The book's cover has a picture of a young man whose name is Braden Fahey. The only problem this book, which is called ``Cause Unknown: The Epidemic of Sudden Deaths'' and talks about COVID vaccine--Braden never received a COVID vaccine. This poor little boy died at football practice due to a malformed blood vessel on his brain, and the book included his photo without the knowledge or consent of his parents. The height of irresponsibility.

Mr. Kennedy pushes facts aside when he wants to tell us about his agenda. The Hippocratic Oath for doctors states: ``First, do no harm.'' But I am fearful, if we put Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in charge of our Nation's health, innocent children will die.

It is no secret what he would do. Mr. Kennedy himself petitioned the FDA to rescind authorization of all COVID vaccines in 2021, and a key associate of his has petitioned to remove the polio vaccine.

I look over here to the pages we have in the Senate. I think of my own experience, when I was 4 or 5 years younger than them. It was in the 1950s. We knew polio because we saw kids in our classrooms who were here today and in the hospital tomorrow. They contracted polio. It could be deadly. It could be crippling. It could affect you for the rest of your life.

We knew this thing called an iron lung that looked like a big vat--a big white vat--and the head sticking out of the end of it was this young person who contracted polio. This iron lung was helping these young kids to breathe and stay alive.

We lived in dread of the possibility of coming down with polio. I remember talking about it when I was a little kid. How do you get polio? Nobody knew.

Then the day came when Jonas Salk--Dr. Jonas Salk--developed a vaccine that was going to protect us from coming down with polio. Later on, Dr. Sabin developed an oral version of the vaccine, which we kids liked a lot more. But the bottom line was, in my lifetime, in my childhood, we stopped polio in the United States. It was a vaccine that worked, over and over and over again--a million times over again. It worked.

In 1952, polio paralyzed more than 21,000 Americans and killed more than 3,000. But thanks to researcher Jonas Salk, the vaccine was discovered and studied among 1.3 million children. They did testing of thousands of kids across the United States before they injected all of us. It was proven safe. The last case of wild polio found in the United States was 1979. That is over 40 years ago.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has spread conspiracy theories to discourage uptake of the measles vaccine, for example, including traveling to Samoa to spread lies about its safety, fueling an outbreak that took 80 lives--80 lives in Samoa.

Before the measles vaccine, 48,000 people were hospitalized each year in the United States, with thousands experiencing life-threatening brain swelling. By 2000, measles was officially declared eliminated because of vaccines.

Mr. Kennedy's dangerous anti-science views don't stop with these obvious vaccines that have helped America. He also targeted the fluoride in drinking water. We have been adding tiny bits of fluoride in our drinking water for over 70 years in the United States. We have tested every way you can imagine--as we should--to make sure that it is safe for all of us to drink. And the tests come back suggesting it has always proven its safety.

Why do we do it? It reduces cavities in teeth dramatically. A little bit of fluoride can go a long way in that regard. It has changed dentistry since I was a kid. Going to the dentist used to be a not very welcome adventure, and kids went regularly with cavities galore. I was one of them. But the fluoride in water changed things for my own children and grandchildren. It is safe, and it helps.

But Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., doesn't accept that. He wants to contest fluoride in drinking water. This man is not a scientist; he is a political figure. I have known him for many years. He has no special knowledge or authority when it comes to these issues and, sadly, buys into a myriad of conspiracy theories.

Let's be clear. There is no evidence that current recommended levels of fluoride cause any harm. On the flip side, it has been established, as I said, for over seven decades, that it helps prevent cavities and dental surgeries in children.

God forbid we ever encounter another pandemic or infectious disease threat. Do you really want this vaccine denier, Robert Kennedy, Jr., at the helm?

I issue a challenge to my 99 Senate colleagues. Go ask your local children's hospital if they think this nominee, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., would help or harm the way they work to treat our children. I know what the answer is going to be.

The U.S. Senate is better than this. I urge my colleagues to think twice before voting for this irresponsible nominee. The impact on the public health of America could be devastating, and we have to accept the responsibility that this is the wrong nominee for this critical Agency.

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