When COVID-19 cases were surging, Dr. David Wohl saw patients "hungry for air" fill UNC hospital wards. What most saved lives, he said, were vaccines developed with unprecedented speed using mRNA technologies.

This was one in a continuing line of moves that have put Kennedy's vaccine skepticism into public policy, though scientists say the vaccines are safe.

The comment that [Kennedy] made about the vaccine schedule, it’s basically scientific racism, which has been debunked,” Dr. Oni Blackstock told HuffPost.