President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday that he will nominate vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
If Kennedy is approved by the Senate, the former independent presidential candidate will head a sprawling department responsible for the massive Medicare and Medicaid health coverage programs, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Disease Prevention.
HHS spending and policy decisions have significant effects on the U.S. health care system and related businesses.
Kennedy, 70, is the son of Robert F. Kennedy, the late U.S. attorney general and Democratic senator from New York who was assassinated in 1968 by a gunman in Los Angeles while running for president. He is the nephew of former President John Kennedy, assassinated in 1963.
Trump said in October that if elected, he would let Kennedy “go crazy with his health.”
“I am delighted to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as United States Secretary of Health and Human Services,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social site on Thursday.
“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the food industrial complex and pharmaceutical companies that have engaged in deception and misinformation when it comes to public health,” Trump wrote.
“The safety and health of all Americans is the most important function of any administration, and HHS will play an important role in helping ensure that everyone is protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceuticals and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming health crisis in this country.”
Kennedy, in a post on X, thanked Trump and wrote, “I am committed to advancing his vision of making America healthy again.”
“We have a generational opportunity to bring together the brightest minds in science, medicine, industry and government to end the chronic disease epidemic,” Kennedy wrote. “I look forward to working with the more than 80,000 HHS employees to free the agencies from the suffocating cloud of corporate capture so they can continue their mission to once again make Americans the healthiest people on Earth.”
Kennedy told NBC News in a recent interview that Trump has said he wants Kennedy to “clean up corruption” in federal health agencies, return those agencies to science-based policies and “make America healthy again.” . Kennedy said that “there are entire departments, like the FDA's nutrition department, that have to go.”
Stock prices of vaccine makers fell early Thursday on reports that Trump would pick Kennedy for the HHS job.
Kennedy suggested last year that the Covid-19 virus, which the CDC played a major role in fighting, was designed to “attack Caucasians and blacks,” and to be less likely to harm “Jews.” Ashkenazim and Chinese.
He previously promoted theories that autism was linked to childhood vaccines, a connection that has been disproven.
Kennedy outraged many of his siblings by endorsing Trump in August after abandoning his short-lived presidential bid.
Trump's selection of Kennedy came a day after the Republican president-elect nominated Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general.
Gaetz's selection immediately sparked controversy due in large part to the fact that the Justice Department, which he would lead as attorney general, previously investigated him for possible sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl.
Gaetz resigned from Congress effective Thursday, removing him from the jurisdiction of the House Ethics Committee. But several Republican senators have asked that panel to publish a report of its investigation into the former legislator.
Last week Kennedy reportedly suggested he would lay off 600 NIH workers and replace them.
His “Make America Healthy” website has been seeking suggestions from the public for Trump to fill more than 4,000 appointed positions across the federal government.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., sharply criticized Kennedy in a statement.
“Mr. Kennedy's outlandish views on basic scientific facts are disturbing and should concern all parents who expect schools and other public spaces to be safe for their children,” Wyden said.
“When Mr. Kennedy appears before the Finance Committee, it will be abundantly clear what Americans stand to lose from Trump and the Republicans in Congress.”
Another Democrat, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, said, “Donald Trump's selection of a notorious anti-vaxxer to lead HHS could not be more dangerous; this is of deep concern to all Americans.”
“There's no telling how far a fringe conspiracy theorist like RFK Jr. could set America back in terms of public health, reproductive rights, research and innovation, and much more,” Murray said.
Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, who will become Senate majority leader in January when Republicans take control of the chamber, said he had no reaction to Kennedy's selection for the HHS job.
“Honestly, the whole nomination process is just beginning, so let's give it a chance to see what happens,” Thune told reporters.
“And these names, none of them have been formally presented yet, so there will be an investigative process. I have told people that they will be resolved under advice and consent, and we will make sure to process them there.”
But other Republican senators, including Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Josh Hawley of Missouri, praised Kennedy's selection.
“Bad day for Big Pharma,” Hawley tweeted.
Andrea Ducas, vice president of health policy at the advocacy group Center for American Progress, in a statement called Trump's selection of Kennedy “nothing short of disastrous for the country.”
“His track record and open skepticism of long-standing medical science could jeopardize the incredible public health advances we have made as a nation, including the progress we have made in fighting infectious diseases through vaccination programs infant and in making our food supply safer through pasteurization,” Ducas said.
“This choice is especially concerning in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, where life-saving vaccines prevented countless infections and deaths.”
