Scott Gottlieb: RFK Jr. ‘Can and Will’ Follow Through on His Intentions and ‘It Will Cost Lives’

LIESMAN: “RFK has to be confirmed, right? Are you urging Republican senators to not confirm him?”
GOTTLIEB: “Look, I think that there’s skepticism in the Republican caucus, more than I think the press is reporting right now. There is gonna be ag state senators that are concerned about his impact on food prices. There’s gonna be principled pro-lifers who are concerned about his position on abortion. There’s gonna be a number of public health-minded senators who have deep concerns about his position on vaccines.”
LIESMAN: “If you were talking to Republican senators, would you say the appointment of RFK could cost lives in this country?”
GOTTLIEB: “I think if RFK follows through on his intentions, and I believe he will and I believe he can, it will cost lives in this country. You’ll see measles, mumps and rubella vaccination rates go down. And like I said, if we lose another 5%, which could happen in the next year or two, we’ll see large measles outbreaks. For every 1,000 cases of measles that occur in children, there will be one death. And we are not good in this country at diagnosing and treating measles. If you look at the outbreak in Ohio, 30% of the kids were hospitalized. If you look at the outbreak in Minnesota, 20% were hospitalized because we don’t diagnose it quickly because — “
LIESMAN: “Have we lost the ability to do it?”
GOTTLIEB: “We lost the ability to diagnose it because doctors aren’t accustomed to seeing it and we don’t know how to manage it in health care system.”
QUICK: “And by the way, if you have a new child, that child can’t get vaccinated until what, age 2 or something?”
GOTTLIEB: “That’s right. And they’re very vulnerable. Remember, maternal transmission of measles, congenital measles, causes serious consequences in pregnancy. So, you know, adults in women will have to think about, do I get a booster? Pertussis is certainly something people need to think about right now. Like I said, there is outbreaks in multiple states, and that’s only going to get worse.”
QUICK: “I worried about measles with my infants because they’re not immune for a while. If you have older kids in the school, if there’s an outbreak or anything that happens there, you can’t protect these children, even if you’re staying at home with them all the time.”
GOTTLIEB: “And remember, the CDC appointee is someone who is a very committed anti-vaxxer. And I don’t say that in a pejorative way. I think he would own that label very proudly. He was a congressman when I was at FDA in the early 2000s. He sponsored multiple bills to withdraw the current MMR vaccine. He sponsored bills to do away with the liability protection that allows companies to bring these vaccines onto the market. He forced FDA to reformulate the existing MMR vaccine to take some of the preservatives out that we use, which ultimately led to an increase in cost of those vaccines and probably reduce vaccination rates. So he’s very committed to this, too.”
QUICK: “Scott, people will look at this, who are on that side of things, and say, of course, that’s what Gottlieb says because he’s on the board of Pfizer and they’re a big vaccine machine. What’s your response?”
GOTTLIEB: “We don’t make pediatric vaccines, so Pfizer is not in that market. This market is GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Sanofi, and other companies doing this.”
Frank: “You mentioned President Trump doesn’t support a lot of these policies, or at least you don’t think he does. What are the guardrails, whether it’s Congress, whether it’s other Cabinet members, that could prevent all of these happening to the degree that, let’s say, RFK Jr. Does?”
GOTTLIEB: “Well, look, I don’t think there are guardrails. I don’t want to speak for the president. I think I understand his ethos and I think he has a strong public ethic, as well as the people around him. So I don’t think they fully understand how Kennedy will translate his actions into policy. I think some in Congress right now, who are deeply skeptical, think they can manage this through things like appropriation riders. That’s not going to be successful. Like I said, RFK can go in there with a stroke of pen, disband ACIP, reconstitute it with like-minded people, issue a whole bunch of new recommendations, he can frustrate the ability to take money from the vaccine for Children’s Fund, which would impede states’ abilities to vaccinate children. There’s a lot of thing they could do day one, very easily, administratively, and I don’t think there’s a thing Congress can do. And that is dependent upon Congress getting bills through on appropriations bills that would actually tie the hands of CDC and Kennedy. I’m not sure the will in Congress is there to do that.”
QUICK: “Have you spoken with individual senators about this?”
GOTTLIEB: “I’ve had conversations and I’ve raised my concerns, and I’ll continue to raise my concerns.”