President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday that he will nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theorist, as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
If the Senate confirms Kennedy, the former independent presidential candidate will lead a sprawling administration responsible for the massive health coverage programs Medicare and Medicaid, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Department of Health and Human Services' spending and policy decisions have significant impacts on the U.S. health care system and related businesses.
Kennedy, 70, is the son of Robert F. Kennedy, the late US 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, who was assassinated in 1963.
Trump said in October that if elected he would leave Kennedy “very health conscious.”
“I am pleased to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services of the United States,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social website on Thursday.
“For too long, Americans have been crushed by industrial food complexes and pharmaceutical companies that have engaged in deception, disinformation, and disinformation when it comes to public health,” Trump wrote.
“The safety and health of all Americans is the most important role of any administration, and the Department of Health and Human Services will play a major role in helping to ensure that everyone is protected from the harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to this.” “The overwhelming health crisis in this country.”
Trump said he wanted Kennedy to “clean up corruption” in federal health agencies, return those agencies to science-based policies and “make America healthy again,” Kennedy told NBC News in a recent interview. “There are entire departments, like the Nutrition Division at the Food and Drug Administration, that need to disappear,” Kennedy said.
Vaccine makers' stock prices fell earlier Thursday on reports that Trump would nominate Kennedy to the HHS post.
Kennedy suggested last year that the Covid-19 virus, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has played a major role in combating, was designed to “attack Caucasians and Black people,” and to be less likely to harm people “Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”
He has previously promoted theories that autism is linked to childhood vaccines, a link that has been disproven.
Kennedy angered many of his brothers by endorsing Trump in August after he abandoned his long-running presidential candidacy.
Trump's choice of Kennedy came a day after the Republican president-elect appointed Florida Representative Matt Gaetz to the position of Attorney General.
Gaetz's selection immediately sparked controversy, due in large part to the fact that the Justice Department, which he will lead as attorney general, had 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 a number of Republican senators called on that committee to issue a report on its investigations into the former lawmaker.
Kennedy reportedly suggested last week that he would fire and replace 600 National Institutes of Health workers.
His website, “Make America Healthy,” seeks suggestions from the public to fill more than 4,000 Trump-appointed federal government positions.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, criticized Kennedy in a statement.
“Mr. Kennedy's outlandish views on basic scientific facts are troubling and should worry all parents who expect schools and other public places to be safe for their children,” Wyden said. He added: “When Mr. Kennedy appears before the Finance Committee, it will be very clear what Americans stand to lose under Trump and Republicans in Congress.”
Another Democrat, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, said: “Donald Trump’s choice of a notorious anti-vaxxer to lead the Department of Health and Human Services could not be more dangerous — and a cause for deep concern for every American.”
“There's no telling how far extreme conspiracy theorists like RFK Jr. can hold America back on public health, reproductive rights, research, innovation, and much more.”
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 post.
“Honestly, the whole nomination process is just getting started, so let's give it a chance and see what happens,” Thune told reporters. “And those names, none of them have been formally submitted yet, so there will be a vetting process. I've told people, 'It will be done under advice and consent, and we will make sure we address it there.'”
But other Republican senators, including Tommy Tuberfelbel of Alabama, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Josh Hawley of Missouri, praised Kennedy's selection.
“Bad day for Big Pharma,” Hawley tweeted.
In a statement, Andrea Ducasse, vice president for health policy at the Center for American Progress, described Trump's choice of Kennedy as “nothing short of disastrous for the country.”
“His track record and outspoken skepticism of outdated medical science could jeopardize the incredible public health gains we have made as a nation — including the gains we have made in fighting infectious diseases through childhood vaccination programs and in making our food supply safer through pasteurization.” “Ducasse said.
“This choice is particularly concerning because it comes in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, where life-saving vaccines have averted countless infections and deaths.”
