Donald Trump to Nominate Anti-Vaccine Activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to Oversee US Public Health
President-elect Donald Trump introduced on Thursday that he would nominate former unbiased presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run the Division of Well being and Human Companies (HHS). It’s the achievement of an implied promise that Trump made at a rally at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York in late October, the place he mentioned he would let Kennedy “go wild on well being.”
Kennedy, a former Democrat and scion of the rich political household, first rose to prominence as an environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist. Round 2015, he joined the board of the nonprofit Kids’s Well being Protection, which alleges that situations like autism and a focus deficit hyperactivity dysfunction are brought on by environmental components, together with dangerous brokers in vaccines. Kennedy has repeatedly unfold misinformation about vaccines and in 2021 was named by the Heart for Countering Digital Hate as one of many “disinformation dozen,” spreading misinformation concerning the Covid-19 pandemic throughout Instagram, Twitter, and Fb.
He has steered, in contradiction to all respected scientific analysis, that Covid-19 could have been “ethnically focused” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese language folks and that HIV doesn’t trigger AIDS, and has implied that vaccine mandates are worse than the Holocaust. He additionally mentioned in a 2012 deposition {that a} worm ate a part of his mind after which died.
Kennedy’s account was banned from Instagram in 2021 for spreading vaccine misinformation. His account was restored in 2023, when he introduced his run for workplace.
In August, Kennedy suspended his marketing campaign and threw his assist behind Trump, saying, “If President Trump is elected and honors his phrase, the huge burden of power illness that burdens and bankrupts the nation will disappear.” He launched a parallel slogan to Trump’s MAGA—Make America Wholesome Once more (MAHA)—centered on “prioritizing regenerative agriculture, preserving pure habitats, and eliminating toxins from our meals, water, and air.”
HHS oversees 13 federal businesses—which Kennedy has indicated he would intestine—together with the Nationwide Institutes of Well being, the Meals and Drug Administration, and the Facilities for Illness Management.
Kennedy’s place, nevertheless, remains to be contingent on congressional approval. Earlier HHS leaders have had lengthy careers within the public well being subject or throughout the division itself earlier than serving as the pinnacle. A Republican-controlled Senate may defer to Trump, or it’d level to Kennedy’s aggressive promotion of conspiracy theories, lengthy profession as a loyal Democrat, and muddled positions on abortion as causes to dam his accession.
Although Kennedy has promised to overtake your entire system, consultants who spoke to WIRED say that he would doubtless come up in opposition to long-standing laws that might be laborious to outmaneuver. Well being insurance policies are additionally closely knowledgeable by advisory committees, that are stacked with medical and public well being consultants, and would take time to shift as a way to totally change the federal government’s suggestions.
Nonetheless, as HHS director, Kennedy would have substantial energy to dismiss employees and declare public well being emergencies.
