(The Center Square) – An Illinois U.S. senator’s priorities seem out of place to a former member of the pharmaceutical industry and Moms for Liberty organizer.
Parent groups are optimistic about Robert Kennedy Jr. joining the incoming Trump administration as head of U.S. Health and Human Services, saying he “could address the chronic illness and child obesity crisis in America.”
However Illinois U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Springfield, said Kennedy is unqualified.
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may be qualified in some areas, he is totally unqualified for this job,” Durbin said Friday. “He has engaged in quack science and crazy theories right and left, and drawn a lot of attention because of it. I fear this man is going to bring those same ideas to the administration of this life and death agency.”
Kennedy is critical of the pharmaceutical industry and has raised concerns about the growing number of vaccine requirements for children.
Moms for Liberty Lake County Chair Marsha McClary, who worked 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry, called Durbin a hypocrite for saying Kennedy “engages in quack science.”
“Dick Durbin himself was spreading misinformation about vaccines. As a [former] member of the pharmaceutical industry, I ran portfolio management for several projects and I can tell you that at that stage of development for a vaccine, and drugs in general, they often fail,” said McClary. “You cannot make a safety claim, that’s misinformation.”
Durbin is spearheading legislation that would require supplement makers to register their product with the FDA. Opponents say the move is meant to benefit the pharmaceutical industry by eliminating a competitor.
McClary said it is “quack science” to suggest supplements are a problem and to ignore the issues of The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act.
“It’s a high bar to penetrate that immunity, and that’s something RFK is looking at repealing and I don’t think that’s quack science because we have liability for everything else,” said McClary. “I think RFK is knowledgeable and he doesn’t seem to have a conflict of interest that a lot of these other people have. Almost everybody in these high positions has had either a board seat or a paid position by the industry and they do have conflicts of interest.”
The act shielded vaccine makers from being held liable for vaccine injuries.
When asked about Trump’s pick of RFK Jr., Gov. J.B. Pritzker said “there are challenges ahead but we will work through them.”
“Is there anything Illinois can do proactively in case there is something that happens with vaccines or is no longer mandated?” asked a reporter.
“I want to remind you that the last Trump administration was no help in terms of making sure that we got people vaccinated. And there were a lot of obstacles that the administration put into place, and yet we did it in the state of Illinois,” said Pritzker, referring to COVID-19 vaccination requirements. “Look, I’d rather do it with the help of the federal government. Usually the White House and the federal government are in a national emergency, are on your side helping, because we’re all their constituents, right? So I can’t tell you what, God forbid, if we end up in another emergency like that, or, you know, where we need help, exactly how they’re going to operate.”
McClary said if Durbin is going to be cautious when it comes to the supplement industry or the vaping industry, then he should “philosophically align” with Kennedy’s caution around vaccines.