Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services, testifies about the health care agenda for the Trump administration in front of the Senate Committee on Finance in Washington, D.C., on September 4, 2025.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services, testifies about the health care agenda for the Trump administration in front of the Senate Committee on Finance in Washington, D.C., on September 4, 2025.

WASHINGTON ‒ Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during an explosive hearing refused to acknowledge more than 1 million Americans died from coronavirus and was reluctant to give COVID-19 vaccines credit in saving lives.

Kennedy's skepticism about the role vaccines played to slow the COVID pandemic was the focus of a heated exchange with Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia. The nation's top health official defended his tenure on Sept. 4 before the Senate Finance Committee amid turmoil at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"I don't know how many died," Kennedy said when Warner asked him whether he accepts that more than 1 million Americans died from COVID, as is widely accepted in the health community. "I don't think anybody knows because there was so much data chaos coming out of the CDC."

The senator then asked whether he believes COVID vaccines did anything to prevent people from dying from the virus.

"Again, I would like to see the data and talk about the data," Kennedy said in response.

Pressed again on the question by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, Kennedy conceded COVID-19 vaccines "saved quite a few" lives but said he doesn't know how many.

According to the most recent data publicized by the CDC, more than 1.2 million Americans had died from COVID as of Aug. 23. Numerous independent studies have found COVID vaccinations saved millions of lives in the United States and millions more around the world. More than 3.2 million American lives were saved from the first two years of COVID vaccinations, according to researchers in one study from the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund.

Warner responded to Kennedy in a tone of astonishment: "The secretary of Health and Human Services doesn't know how many Americans died from COVID, doesn't know if the vaccine helped prevent any deaths. And you are sitting as secretary of Health and Human Services? How can you be that ignorant?"

Kennedy says he agrees that mRNA vaccine can cause death

Kennedy blamed "dismal" data from the Biden administration for lacking clear answers about COVID, accusing the CDC under former President Joe Biden of "firing all the people who questioned the orthodoxy."

In another tense exchange with Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, Kennedy said he agreed with comments from Dr. Retsef Levi, one of his handpicked appointments to a vaccine advisory panel, critical of the mRNA vaccine. Bennet singled out Levi previously saying mRNA vaccines "cause serious harm, including death, especially among young people."

"I wasn't aware he said it, but I agree with it," Kennedy said.

Bennet fired back: "It's not true. It wasn't true when he said it. It is not true when you said it."

Messenger RNA vaccines, or mRNA, differ from traditional ones. Instead of growing a virus and weakening it to allow the body to engage its natural defenses, mRNA vaccines use pieces of genetic code to manufacture a protein, a piece of the virus. That causes the body to create its own antibodies against the virus.

Pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech created mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 during the coronavirus pandemic.

Republican senator says he's grown 'deeply concerned' with Kennedy

President Donald Trump, in a Sept. 1 social media post, called on drug companies to "justify their success" in combating the COVID-19 virus, demanding the immediate release of data on the matter while the CDC is "being ripped apart over this question."

In response to the pandemic in 2020, Trump during his first term launched Operation Warp Speed aimed at quickly developing vaccines to stop the virus. But Kennedy, a longtime skeptic of vaccines, has caused an exodus of top CDC officials over his vaccine views including the ouster of CDC director Susan Monarez, who Trump fired after she refused to step down when Kennedy tried to terminate her.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, a physician who has criticized Kennedy's actions, told the health secretary it seemed "inconsistent" that he would applaud Trump for Operation War Speed ‒ which Kennedy said Trump should win the Nobel Prize for ‒ yet take aim at the vaccine.

“It surprises me that you think so highly of Operation Warp Speed when as an attorney you attempted to restrict access” to vaccines, Cassidy said. “You’ve cancelled $500 million of contracts using the mRNA platform that was critical for Operation Warp Speed," the senator added.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, also a physician, told Kennedy that he's "grown deeply concerned" with Kennedy's leadership, pointing to the nation's measles cases, leaders in the NIH who have questioned the use of mRNA vaccines and the firing of Monarez.

"Americans don't know who to rely on," Barrasso said.

Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.

Contributing: Janet Loehrke and George Petras

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: RFK Jr. says he doesn't know how many Americans died from COVID as he's grilled at hearing

Reporting by Joey Garrison, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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