September 10, 2025
Dozens of clinicians and researchers, most in scrubs or white coats, were on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning to support a pro-vaccine message from Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT). In a packed room at the Dirksen Senate office building, Sanders hosted three leaders of medical organizations who spoke on the efficacy of vaccines and the need for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to resign his position as Health and Human Services Secretary. AAI News & Views attended the event.
Dr. Georges Benjamin of the American Public Health Association, Dr. Woodie Kessel of Doctors for America, and Dr. Roger Mitchell of the National Medical Association spoke at the conference. All three presented clear data showing the dramatic positive impact that vaccines have had on public health.
Sanders warned that by continuing to “sow doubt about the efficacy of vaccines,” Kennedy is risking the health and lives of millions of Americans. “We need an HHS secretary who believes in science, not conspiracy theories. We need an HHS secretary who listens to doctors, not just whoever is willing to tell them what he wants to hear.”
Medical organization leaders speak
Dr. Benjamin opened his remarks with answers to questions that Kennedy “could not or would not” answer at his hearing on September 4. COVID-19 has killed 1,230,906 Americans as of last month. Vaccines prevented 3.2 million deaths and 18.5 million hospitalizations in 2021–2022. He stressed that the public is in fact supportive of vaccines by a large majority and called on the administration to “ensure fill access to COVID vaccines for all, and to reverse course to strengthen, not weaken, the nation’s vaccine safety systems.”
Dr. Kessel, who has been a pediatrician for fifty years, stressed that he and his colleagues no longer see the many devastating childhood diseases that have been controlled by vaccines. Evidence based medicine, he said, is the best way to “secure the health and well-being of our children.”
Finally, Dr. Mitchell called upon all physicians and public health experts to “stand up in the face of this wanton approach to health care delivery, an approach that will certainly affect those who are most disenfranchised.”
You can watch the entire press conference on Senator Sanders’ social media.
