Is RFK Jr., Trump’s pick for health agencies, anti-vaccine? This is his history with anti-vax views

After Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his presidential campaign, he cozied up to the Trump campaign, which secured him a Cabenit nomination as Secretary of Health and Human Services for the second Trump administration. Before the election, RFK Jr. had publicly said that the GOP nominee had promised him a place in his next administration. Still, many thought it would not be such a prominent post within the federal government. In announcing Kennedy’s nomination, the President-elect said that Kenndy would stand up to the “industrial food complex” and the “drug companies” that have “engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation.” Trump’s argument is not completely wrong, but many are questioning why an expert in public health would not be better suited to take on special interests that exploit their power in ways that impact the country’s health.

RFK Jr. has expressed his skepticism about vaccines and conspiracy theories about the origins of COVID-19. If the Senate confirms his nomination, these comments and perspectives will be of real concern to the career officials within the agencies that could fall under his purview, which include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. These institutions and several others make the Department of Health and Human Services the most critical public health organization within the government.

What RFK Jr says he would do as HHS Secretary

Kennedy has been highly critical of the CDC, FDA, and NIH. In an interview with NBC last year, he said he would “unravel the corrupt corporate capture of these agencies that turned them predatory against the American public. " As HHS Secretary, he has said he would get rid of the people running those agencies and surround himself with “dissidents.” When announcing his retirement from the presidential race, Kennedy said that under a Trump administration, those agencies would be staffed with “honest scientists and doctors.”

Kennedy’s anti-vax track record

Kennedy has been a leading anti-vaccine activist who founded an organization to advocate his views on the topic called Children’s Health Defense. He and that group helped build vaccination hesitation among Samoans that contributed to a measles outbreak in 2019. He has peddled in conspiracy theories and falsely claimed that vaccines “probably caused more deaths than they’ve averted.”

During his bid for the White House, largely supported by the anti-vaccine movement, he said he would stop the NIH from investigating infectious diseases and have the agency refocus its research on chronic diseases. He has also said that in the event of another pandemic, as president he wouldn’t prioritize vaccine research, manufacture or distribution all of which helped save millions of lives during the covid pandemic and bring it to an end.