What to know about Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Trump’s pick for health secretary

Washington: President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to appoint Robert F. Kennedy Jr to lead the Health and Human Services Department will put a prominent vaccine sceptic at the helm of the nation’s sprawling public health apparatus.

A scion of a famous Democratic dynasty, Kennedy made a name in his own right as an environmental lawyer who successfully took on large corporations, including DuPont and Monsanto.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr has espoused misinformation around vaccine safety, including a discredited theory that childhood vaccines cause autism.Credit: AP

But over the past two decades, he’s increasingly devoted his energy to promoting claims about vaccines that contradict the overwhelming consensus of scientists.

Trump would have Kennedy lead a massive cabinet agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research and the social safety net programs Medicare and Medicaid. He said before the election he would give Kennedy free rein over health policy.

Here’s a look at Kennedy and the agency he’ll be tasked with leading:

In this image from video posted on the Children’s Health Defence website, Kennedy talks about the anti-vaccine stickers he’s urging supporters to use.Credit: AP

Kennedy defies scientific consensus on vaccines

He took over the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defence and built it into a juggernaut during the pandemic. His activism helped him build a loyal following that he has leveraged in his political pursuits.

Kennedy insists he is not anti-vaccine and claims he has never told the public to avoid vaccination. But he has repeatedly made his opposition to vaccines clear. He said on a podcast “there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective” and has urged people to resist guidelines from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on when children should get vaccinated.

While there are rare instances when people have severe reactions to vaccines, the billions of doses administered globally provide real-world evidence that they are safe. The World Health Organisation says vaccines prevent as many as 5 million deaths each year.

He wants to eliminate liability protections for drug companies

Even before Trump was elected, Kennedy said he would recommend water agencies stop adding fluoride to drinking water. Fluoride strengthens teeth and is viewed as one of the biggest public health successes of the past century.

He made various other claims not backed by science, such as questioning whether HIV causes AIDS and suggesting antidepressants lead to school shootings.

Kennedy has suggested a connection between school shootings and antidepressants. Credit: AP

Children’s Health Defence currently has a lawsuit pending against a number of news organisations, including the Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines.

Kennedy took leave from the group when he announced his run for president but is listed as one of its lawyers in the lawsuit.

He wants to overhaul HHS staff

Kennedy has promised to take a serious look at those who work for the Health and Human Services Department and its agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the CDC.

He is especially focused on putting an end to the “revolving door” of employees who have previous history working for pharmaceutical companies or leave government service to work for that industry, his campaign communications manager Del Bigtree told AP last month. Bigtree is also an anti-vaccine organiser.

He said he wants to fire 600 employees at the National Institutes of Health, which oversees vaccine research, and replace them with 600 new employees.

Many of the scientists and researchers who work at the NIH are not political appointees, which makes firing them abruptly more difficult.

Nevertheless, Kennedy made the promise at the Genius Network Annual Event in Scottsdale, Arizona, according to a video first obtained by ABC News.

“We need to act fast, and we want to have those people in place on Jan 20, so that on Jan 21, 600 people are going to walk into offices at NIH and 600 people are going to leave,” Kennedy said, according to a video of his remarks posted on YouTube.

He says the public health establishment is too focused on infectious diseases and wants to redirect resources towards the panoply of problems he characterises as the chronic disease epidemic, including obesity, diabetes, autism and mental illnesses.

He blames them on greedy corporations, including drug companies that worry healthy Americans would be bad for their bottom line and food producers using harmful pesticides and additives.

Kennedy is a scion of a famous dynasty

Kennedy’s father was attorney-general Robert F. Kennedy, brother of president John F. Kennedy. Both men were assassinated.

Robert Kennedy Jr’s father US senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, the year he was assassinated.Credit: AP

Kennedy originally ran in the Democratic primary against President Joe Biden before deciding to launch an independent bid.

He suspended that bid earlier this year and endorsed Trump, who has repeatedly praised him, promised him influence in a future administration, and vowed to “Make America Healthy Again”.

AP

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