{"id":4625,"date":"2025-01-08T22:00:15","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T22:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/democratic-doctors-in-the-house-condemn-rfk-jr-plan-new-caucus\/"},"modified":"2025-01-08T22:00:15","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T22:00:15","slug":"democratic-doctors-in-the-house-condemn-rfk-jr-plan-new-caucus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/democratic-doctors-in-the-house-condemn-rfk-jr-plan-new-caucus\/","title":{"rendered":"Democratic doctors in the House condemn RFK Jr., plan new caucus"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Democratic doctors in Congress said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, would pose a danger to public health if confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.), a pediatrician, said the Democratic physicians in the House, who now number six, would form a caucus to elevate their voices in Congress.<\/p>\n<p>The lawmakers said Kennedy\u2019s anti-vaccine activism was \u201cbeyond irresponsible\u201d and \u201cshould disqualify\u201d him to lead HHS in a press conference on Wednesday, suggesting a Kennedy confirmation would cause more to die of preventable diseases, referencing Kennedy longstanding efforts to discourage vaccination. Schrier joined Reps. Ami Bera (D-Calif.), Herb Conaway (D-N.J.) and Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, all physicians, as well as Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.), a registered nurse, to publicly oppose Kennedy\u2019s confirmation.<\/p>\n<p>Kennedy has said he won\u2019t take away vaccines, but wants to provide patients with more information about their safety and effectiveness.<\/p>\n<p>Schrier said it\u2019s possible the caucus Democrats envision could work with Republican doctors in a new bipartisan alliance, adding she has talked with Rep. John Joyce (R-Penn.), a dermatologist who now co-chairs the GOP Doctors Caucus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re going to need a lot of unity,\u201d Schrier said about the next four years, pointing to the importance of a bipartisan group of lawmakers urging vaccinations early in the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>But leaders of the GOP Doctors Caucus in the House declined to comment, and Republican doctors in the Senate have taken a different tack on Kennedy.<\/p>\n<p>Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a gastroenterologist, has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2025\/01\/08\/congress\/cassidy-has-frank-talk-with-rfk-jr-00197117\" target=\"_blank\"><u>said Kennedy is wrong<\/u><\/a> about vaccines but hasn\u2019t said he would vote against him because of it. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), an ophthalmologist, has cheered Kennedy\u2019s pick, while Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), an obstetrician, has formed a \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d caucus to promote Kennedy\u2019s efforts to combat the root causes of disease.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democratic doctors in Congress said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, would pose a danger to public health if confirmed. Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.), a pediatrician, said the Democratic physicians in the House, who now number six, would form a caucus to elevate their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}