Murkowski urges Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to boost public confidence in vaccines

During a confirmation hearing for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s nominee for health secretary, Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski on Thursday urged Kennedy to use his platform to boost public confidence in vaccines but did not indicate whether she would support his nomination.

Murkowski is one of a handful of Republican senators who could be pivotal in the confirmation vote for Kennedy. He can stand to lose only three Republicans in the Senate and still be confirmed.

Kennedy, who has voiced skepticism about the efficacy and safety of vaccines in the past, faced questions from senators about whether he would use his significant influence to assuage public doubts about vaccination programs.

“You are clearly an influencer,” Murkowski said to him during the Health Committee hearing on Thursday. She asked him to convey to his followers that vaccines “are measures that we should be proud of as a country.”

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She also asked him to address poor health care outcomes for Alaska Native people. In response to Murkowski’s comments, Kennedy said he wanted to select a Native American as an assistant secretary.

“I understand Alaska, the unique needs of Alaska,” Kennedy said. “We really need to focus on telemedicine and AI, to make sure that even in remote places in Alaska, Native people can get high-quality health care. We can do that today.”

Murkowski said during the hearing that she was “particularly attracted by the focus on chronic diseases” that Kennedy articulated during the hearing.

“But our reality is, in order to make this country healthy again, it is a focus on everything,” she said, including “the necessity of coming up with these lifesaving vaccines that are going to be so critically important.”

“We do need to shake some things up, but we also need to give a level of confidence,” she said.

“We have made some considerable gains in my state of Alaska with vaccinating the many people in very rural areas where one disease outbreak can wipe out an entire village,” she said, pointing to the 1918 Spanish Flu outbreak.

She pointed to recent outbreaks of whooping cough in Alaska and concerns over a possible measles outbreak. Childhood vaccination rates in Alaska dropped precipitously during the coronavirus pandemic, and have been slow to rebound.

“We can’t be going backwards with our vaccinations that will allow for this level of prevention and protection,” she said.

A health care group has pushed Murkowski to block Kennedy’s nomination, including by launching a digital ad campaign that is running in both Alaska and in Washington, D.C.

Murkowski told reporters following the hearing that she had not made a decision on whether she would support Kennedy’s nomination.

“This is an important nominee, so it deserves full consideration,” she said.

Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan has previously said he would support Kennedy. In a statement in December, Sullivan said he was “particularly impressed with his knowledge of Alaska, the Indian Health Service, and the issues surrounding rural health care.”

Murkowski has already voted against a Trump nominee, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Two other Republicans joined her in opposing his confirmation, but he was still confirmed after a tie-breaking vote from Vice President JD Vance.