The antivax chickens have come home to roost. Late last week, President-elect Donald Trump announced he would be nominating Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as head of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Trump made the announcement late Thursday, following media speculation earlier in the day. It’s a move that would effectively place Kennedy in charge of the country’s public health, as he would oversee agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the Food and Drug Administration. Should the nomination go through, it’d be the culmination of RFK’s long-running crusade against science—one with the potential to harm Americans nationwide.
Trump’s nomination of Kennedy is somewhat a backtrack (members of his transition staff previously denied that RFK would get any job at HHS), but it’s not too surprising a decision. In the months and weeks leading up to Trump’s decisive electoral victory, he made it clear that he fully embraced Kennedy, a former third party candidate who dropped out of the race and lent his support to Trump in late August. During his victory night speech, Trump reiterated that he would allow Kennedy to “make America healthy again,” echoing Kennedy’s slogan during his own campaign. But nothing about Kennedy’s track record suggests that the country’s public health would improve with him at the helm.
The most concerning aspect of RFK’s potential agenda concerns vaccination. He’s been one of the world’s most prominent anti-vaccination advocates, particularly in his former position as head of the group Children’s Health Defense. As part of that resume, amidst lowering vaccination rates, he and other activists were involved with the local anti-vaccination movement in Samoa in 2019. Months before the country experienced a disastrous measles outbreak, he visited the island nation that summer to support these efforts and even met with government officials, including the prime minister and health authorities. Local health care professionals told the AP last year that his visit galvanized activists. The subsequent outbreak killed at least 83 people, mostly children under five. Kennedy later denied any role in the debacle, stating that he never told anyone not to get vaccinated.
Kennedy has continued to promote the thoroughly debunked claim that vaccines are linked to autism—a belief that Trump appears to have shared in the past as well (Trump, years before becoming president, repeatedly tweeted in support of the alleged link). Should he wield significant power at the HHS, it’s possible that Kennedy could impact the country’s vaccination rate, either through potential policy changes or by amplifying the anti-vaccination movement further.
RFK’s anti-science rhetoric doesn’t stop at vaccines, though. He’s also raised concerns about fluoride, despite the majority of studies finding no significant link to cancer or other major health risks at recommended levels. While some research suggests potential impacts on neurodevelopment with high exposure, public health experts broadly support the use of fluoride.
In his 2021 book, The Real Anthony Fauci, Kennedy questions whether AIDS was caused by HIV (it is), and has previously suggested that a “gay lifestyle,” particularly the use of recreational drugs such as poppers among the gay community, was the actual cause of AIDS.
Kennedy has suggested that botched vaccine research played a role in the emergence of diseases like HIV and the 1918 flu pandemic (while there were early attempts to develop a flu vaccine back then, the actual virus wasn’t identified until the 1930s). At a press event last year, he wondered out loud if the covid-19 virus was bioengineered to “attack Caucasians and Black people” while sparing Chinese and Jewish people. He’s also warned about the supposed evils of chemtrails—the conspiratorial belief that planes are deliberately releasing hazardous chemicals into the atmosphere; in actuality, the trails these planes leave behind are mostly water vapor. In a post on X this past summer, RFK indicated he would stop the “crime” of chemtrails if given the opportunity.
And even when Kennedy does hit upon a nugget of truth and highlights a genuine problem, he’s quick to point the blame at targets not supported by scientific evidence. Americans do generally have unhealthy diets and we could stand to eat less processed foods, some of which contain ingredients tied to a higher risk of chronic disease. RFK, however, has singled out food ingredients like seed oils, or refined plant-based vegetable oils, as a major reason why we’re less healthy compared to other countries. But research in general hasn’t shown a link between seed oil consumption and worsened health, while some studies have even suggested that replacing certain sources of saturated fats with seed oils can improve cardiovascular outcomes. Meanwhile, a more pressing concern with many processed foods is their high levels of sugar, salt, and fat.
It’s certainly entertaining to poke fun at RFK’s various eccentricities, from his repeated instances of mutilating dead animals to literally having a dead worm in his brain (RFK stated in 2012 that the worm contributed to his cognitive problems at the time, but that such symptoms have since cleared up). But America has plenty of real, enduring public health issues, and there’s little indication he plans to seriously address any of them. His focus, instead, has been on amplifying fringe ideas and undermining established science. As a recent example, Kennedy has promised to suspend government-funded research on drug development and infectious diseases for eight years—fresh off the heels of a pandemic that killed over a million Americans.
Prior to this latest presidential campaign, RFK and his inane ideas were arguably supported by a diverse coalition of people. More recently, it’s become clear that his backers are or have become largely right-leaning. That said, it’s not a guarantee that Kennedy’s nomination will clear, though possibly only because some GOP members aren’t willing to overlook his previous pro-choice position (Mike Pence stated last Friday that his selection to HHS was “an abrupt departure from the pro-life record of our administration.”). Assuming he does become head of HHS, his agenda will be excused and championed primarily by the Republican party.
Whatever RFK has in store for us, it’ll be the furthest thing from making America healthy again.
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