President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday that he’ll nominate vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Health and Human Services Department.
If the Senate approves Kennedy, the previous independent presidential candidate will lead a sprawling department answerable 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.
HHS’ decisions on spending and policies have major 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 Latest York who was assassinated in 1968 by a gunman in Los Angeles as he ran for president. He’s the nephew of former President John Kennedy who was assassinated in 1963.
Trump said in October that if elected he would let Kennedy “go wild on health.”
“I’m thrilled to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as The US Secretary of Health and Human Services,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social site Thursday.
“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the economic food complex and drug firms who’ve engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation in relation to Public Health,” Trump wrote.
“The Safety and Health of all Americans is an important role of any Administration, and HHS will play a giant role in helping be sure that everybody can be protected against harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives which have contributed to the overwhelming Health Crisis on this Country.”
Kennedy, in a post on X, thanked Trump and wrote, “I’m committed to advancing your vision to Make America Healthy Again.”
“We now have a generational opportunity to bring together the best minds in science, medicine, industry, and government to place an end to the chronic disease epidemic,” Kennedy wrote. “I look ahead to working with the greater than 80,000 employees at HHS to free the agencies from the smothering cloud of corporate capture so that they can pursue their mission to make Americans once more the healthiest people on Earth.”
Kennedy told NBC News in a recent interview that Trump has said he wants Kennedy to “clean up corruption” at federal health agencies, return those agencies to science-based policies and “make America healthy again.” Kennedy said that “there are entire departments, just like the nutrition department on the FDA, that need to go.”
Stock prices of vaccine makers fell earlier Thursday on reports that Trump would tap Kennedy for the HHS post.
Kennedy last yr suggested that the Covid-19 virus, which CDC played a serious role in combatting, was engineered to “attack Caucasians and Black people,” and to be less more likely to harm “Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese” people.
He previously promoted theories that autism was linked to childhood vaccines, a connection that has been disproved.
Kennedy outraged a lot of his siblings by endorsing Trump in August after abandoning his long-shot presidential candidacy.
Trump’s number of Kennedy got here a day after the Republican president-elect tapped Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general.
Gaetz’s selection immediately sparked controversy due largely to the undeniable fact that the Department of Justice, which he would lead as AG, 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 quite a lot of Republican senators have called on that panel to release a report of its investigation of the previous lawmaker.
Kennedy last week reportedly suggested he would fire 600 NIH employees and replace them.
His “Make America Healthy” website has been in search of suggestions from the general public for greater than 4,000 appointee posts across the federal government to be filled by Trump.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., blasted Kennedy in an announcement.
“Mr. Kennedy’s outlandish views on basic scientific facts are disturbing and may worry all parents who expect schools and other public spaces to be protected for his or her children,” Wyden said.
“When Mr. Kennedy comes before the Finance Committee, it’ll be very clear what Americans stand to lose under Trump and Republicans in Congress.”Â
One other Democrat, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, said, “Donald Trump’s number of a notorious anti-vaxxer to guide HHS couldn’t be more dangerous — that is cause for deep concern for each American.”
“There isn’t a telling how far a fringe conspiracy theorist like RFK Jr. could set back America by way of public health, reproductive rights, research and innovation, and a lot else,” Murray said.
Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, who will turn out to be Senate majority leader in January when Republicans take control of the chamber, said he didn’t have any response to Kennedy being picked for the HHS job.
“Truthfully, your entire nomination process is just getting began, so let’s, let’s give it a probability to see what happens,” Thune told reporters.
“And these names, none of them have been formally submitted yet, so there’s going to be a vetting process. I’ve told people, these can be worked out under advise and consent, and we’ll ensure that that we process them there.”
But other Republican senators, including Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Kentucky’s Rand Paul and Josh Hawley of Missouri, praised Kennedy’s selection.
“Bad day for Big Pharma,” Hawley tweeted.
Andrea Ducas, vice chairman of health policy for the advocacy group Center for American Progress, in an announcement called Trump’s selection of Kennedy “nothing wanting disastrous for the country.”
“His track record and open skepticism of longstanding medical science could jeopardize the incredible public health gains we have achieved as a nation – including the gains we have made in combatting infectious disease through childhood vaccination programs and in making our food supply safer through pasteurization,” Ducas said.
“This pick is very troubling coming on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, where lifesaving vaccines averted countless infections and deaths.”
