By Paul Bean
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) called on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. to step down from his role in an opinion piece published in the New York Times on Sunday.
“Against the overwhelming body of evidence within the medicine and science, what are Secretary Kennedy’s views?,” wrote Sanders. “He has claimed that autism is caused by vaccines, despite more than a dozen rigorous scientific studies involving hundreds of thousands of children that have found no connection between vaccines and autism.”
In his NYT article Sanders also referred to Kennedy as an advocate of conspiracy theories writing, “Despite the overwhelming opposition of the medical community, secretary Kennedy has continued his longstanding crusade against vaccines and his advocacy of conspiracy theories that have been rejected repeatedly by scientific experts.”
This is an on-going battle between Bernie Sanders and RFK Jr.. During a Senate confirmation hearing for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination as Health and Human Services Secretary on January 29, 2025, Kennedy accused Senator Bernie Sanders of accepting $1.5 million from the pharmaceutical industry in 2020, sparking a memorable exchange.
Sanders denied taking corporate PAC money, insisting the contributions came from workers, not executives, and emphasized his $200 million in total campaign funds.
On Monday Sen. Sanders, publicly defended the success of ‘Operation Warp Speed’ and rollout COVID-19 vaccines, opposing recent skepticism expressed by former President Donald Trump in regards to the health, safety, and efficacy of the shots.
“It is very important that the Drug Companies justify the success of their various Covid Drugs. Many people think they are a miracle that saved millions of lives. Others disagree!” wrote President Trump on his social media platform Truth Social.
“With CDC being ripped apart over this question, I want the answer, and I want it NOW,” he continued. “I have been shown information from Pfizer, and others, that is extraordinary, but they never seem to show those results to the public. Why not??? They go off to the next “hunt” and let everyone rip themselves apart, including Bobby Kennedy Jr… I want them to show them NOW, to CDC and the public, and clear up this MESS, one way or the other!!! I hope OPERATION WARP SPEED was as “BRILLIANT” as many say it was. If not, we all want to know about it, and why???”
In response to President Trump’s skepticism, Sanders praised the initiative, stating, “Mr. Trump: You were right about the success of Operation Warp Speed & the COVID vaccine when you said that it saved ‘tens of millions of lives.’ Vaccines have also helped eliminate polio, measles & smallpox. Don’t backtrack. Stick with the scientists, not conspiracy theorists.”
A 2023 peer-reviewed study published in The Lancet estimated that COVID-19 vaccines prevented 14.4 million deaths globally during their first year of distribution.
Emerging data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) acknowledges rare instances of myocarditis and pericarditis linked to mRNA vaccines, with an incidence rate of approximately 1-5 cases per 100,000 doses, particularly among young males.
Sanders’ NYT opinion piece also argues that Sec. Kennedy’s supporters are “not credible scientists and doctors.”
“Many of his supporters are from Children’s Health Defense — the anti-vaccine group he founded and profited from — and a small circle of loyalists that have spread misinformation and dangerous conspiracy theories on vaccines for years,” Sanders continued. “The reality is that Secretary Kennedy has profited from and built a career on sowing mistrust in vaccines. Now, as head of HHS, he is using his authority to launch a full-blown war on science, on public health and on truth itself.”
You may remember during Kennedy’s appointment hearings, Sanders showed lawmakers photos of two baby onesies with the words, ‘No Vax, No Problem’ and ‘Unvaxxed, Unafraid.’ He then urged Kennedy to agree that he was not against vaccines and he would take the items of clothing off the market.
Back in April (2025), Children’s Health Defense President and CEO Mary Holland visited Vermont and VDC had the opportunity to ask her some questions about Sanders and his relationship with pharma, and why she believes Sanders is so anti- RFK Jr:
Bean: “Bernie has been kind of seen as this anti-establishment anti- big pharma character for a really long time. I’m sure many people in this room believed that he was, myself included. I was kind of a Bernie bro growing up. Are there conversations with anyone in RFK’s team and Bernie Sanders?…I think a lot of the stuff that I’ve seen Bernie talking about, he may appear as if he’s aligned with MAHA, I just wanted to give you maybe an opportunity to talk on that.”
Holland: “No I mean I was in the room for the confirmation hearing…all he seemed to want to talk about was universal healthcare for all. ‘It’s a federal right,’ not talking at all about what that means and what kind of health care might it be? And would that really serve health? Or just pharma, frankly?”
Holland also gave context on the type of healthcare Senator Sanders might be representing considering money his campaign has received over the years:
Holland: “When Bernie was attacking Bobby on the onesies thing, Bobby got a moment at the end where he did call out Bernie and Elizabeth Warren, saying ‘you know you’ve taken millions of dollars from pharma’ and Bernie was very defensive and said ‘well it was 2 million out of a hundred million,’ and we’re like okay does that make it better? Amusing actually. You kind of had to hold back laughter. ‘I think he has this image that national health care like in the UK or in France is the answer. Sadly, now working really closely with people in the UK and France and other countries with national health systems, I wish that were the answer, It’s not. I’m not saying the people should be deprived of healthcare. Please don’t get me wrong. But just saying ‘okay let’s just give pharma more discretion, Let’s give them more resources,’ I think we have to be incredibly wary about that, given what we’ve seen so far.”