“We need Republicans to stand up to this chaos and craziness…”
Watch the full interview here.
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) joined MSNBC’s Morning Joe to discuss Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s recent actions to terminate members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Blunt Rochester also discussed her VACCINE Act, which would protect ACIP members from being terminated without cause.
Below are excerpts of the interview.
On Blunt Rochester’s VACCINE Act
“You know, this is a really serious matter right now. It’s been 60 years that this [ACIP] committee has been in place, providing us with data-driven, science-based information to help us have access to safe and healthy vaccines. And Secretary Kennedy came before our committees—I am on the HELP Committee—and he also came before the Finance Committee and said that he would follow the science, and that this committee would be intact.
“And he has reversed his word. And so that means that individuals who are counting on this information—whether it’s for their children and their immunizations, to their parents…this is an important, serious issue. And so, other members of the [HELP] committee and myself have come together and written to the Secretary, but also put forward this bill called the VACCINE Act…it really is to make sure that we reinstate that confidence that we have had [in ACIP] through Democrats and Republicans in the past, because this is a serious matter and it will affect people’s lives…We need Republicans to stand up to this chaos and craziness, just like we need them to stand up for the other things that we are seeing as well from this administration.”
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Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester represents Delaware in the United States Senate where she serves on the Committees on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Environment and Public Works; and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.