GEOFF BENNETT: And for more, we're joined now by Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Thanks for being with us.

DR. PAUL OFFIT, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: We heard RFK Jr. in his confirmation hearing today insist that, if he's confirmed, he won't try to take vaccines away.

He says he won't impose any obstacles to vaccine access.

Do you buy that?

DR. PAUL OFFIT: Not for a second.

He has told you who he is for the last 20 years.

He's been a vigorous, vehement anti-vaccine activist.

He has said that he thinks no vaccine is of benefit.

He has said that he thinks the polio vaccine killed many, many more people than it saved.

He has said that he doesn't think the hepatitis B vaccine works.

He's currently in the midst of suing the maker of the human papillomavirus vaccine.

He thinks vaccines are causing chronic disease in children.

And if he is in a position to do something about it, I think he will do everything he can to make vaccines less affordable and less available.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, he also tried to say several times today that he was for vaccine safety.

And he suggested that's not the same as being opposed to vaccines.

How does that strike you?

DR. PAUL OFFIT: Well, he's -- what he is, he's for studies that prove this fixed, immutable science-resistant belief that he has.

So, for example, he continues to claim that vaccines cause autism, even though dozens of studies have shown that vaccines don't cause autism.

So when he talks about caring about vaccine safety, he really doesn't.

He just cares about trying to find studies that support these beliefs that have now been refuted by scientific studies.

He wants the kind of studies that prove him right, even though studies at least don't exist in good journals.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, if he's confirmed, he would have control of what is a sprawling bureaucracy, an annual budget, more than $1 trillion, responsible for funding the health care of millions of Americans.

And at a certain point during the hearing today, he appeared to mix up the federal programs Medicaid and Medicare.

What questions does that raise for you?

DR. PAUL OFFIT: Right.

It's -- it really hasn't been his focus.

I mean, when he -- over the last 20 years with his work on children's health defense, his focus has really print been primarily, almost solely vaccines.

He's more recently sort of adopted this make America healthy again, and let's eat the right kinds of foods.

Let's not eat highly processed foods.

That certainly sells.

It sounds good.

But the fact of the matter is that, when you have a science denialist like him, you don't want him to be in the position to be in charge of any of that, whether it's nutrition or Medicare, Medicaid.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, I was going to ask you about that, his focus on nutrition, his focus on chronic health conditions, his push against processed foods.

I hear you say that there's no material benefit there if he's confirmed.

DR. PAUL OFFIT: Not him.

No, I mean, I think that certainly his point is right that we spend a lot of money per capita on health care.

And yet, if you look at us as compared to other developed world countries, we're fairly far down on a list in terms of longevity infant mortality.

So we can do much better.

I agree with that.

And I think we can eat better.

We can exercise better.

We can do a lot of things that make us healthier.

We can drink less.

We can smoke less.

There are a lot of things we can do better.

But he's not the guy to head that because he has these fixed beliefs that are resistant to science.

So if you show him something where he's wrong, he won't believe it because he holds on to these beliefs like a religious belief.

GEOFF BENNETT: He also made the point that food regulators, regulators generally are too close to the industries that they're supposed to hold to account.

Does he have a point there?

DR. PAUL OFFIT: It's always about the science.

I mean, these are -- certainly, the people who make foods make money from making foods.

The people who make vaccines make money from making vaccines.

It's always about the science.

Does the science predict -- show his point of view?

This whole sort of notion that these industries are too close to the regulators certainly sounds good, but what it boils down to is, what's the evidence that that's made a difference?

What's the evidence that that means -- that means that we have gotten vaccines that are ineffective or unsafe or that we have gotten food that's unsafe?

Show that, rather than this kind of vague hand-waving that there's a vast conspiracy that means to do us harm.

GEOFF BENNETT: Dr. Paul Offit, thanks for your time and for your insights this evening.

DR. PAUL OFFIT: Thank you.