On Capitol Hill, senators grilled Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Thursday over his false claims about vaccines and mass firings and resignations of public health officials at the CDC and other agencies. The hearing opened with Oregon Senator Ron Wyden accusing Kennedy of elevating “crackpots” and “conspiracy theorists” while seeking to cut off access to vaccines. Virginia Senator Mark Warner asked Kennedy whether he accepts that a million Americans died from COVID, to which Kennedy replied, “I don’t know how many died,” and “I don’t think anybody knows.”

Sen. Mark Warner: “Mr. Chairman, the secretary of Health and Human Services doesn’t know how many Americans died from COVID, doesn’t know if the vaccine helped prevent any deaths. And you are sitting as secretary of Health and Human Services? How can you be that ignorant?”

On Thursday, two former top officials at the National Institutes of Health filed whistleblower complaints saying they were forced out of their leadership positions after they criticized the Trump administration for canceling grants and spreading vaccine skepticism. Separately, ousted CDC Director Susan Monarez wrote in an op-ed that Kennedy had her fired after she insisted all recommendations be based on credible data, not ideology or preordained outcomes. Coming up, we’ll speak with Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who was removed from the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory committee last week without explanation.