Could RFK Jr, Trump’s presumptive health secretary, ban vaccines?
Al Jazeera
RFK Jr might try to curb access to vaccines if not able to impose an outright ban but will face pushback, experts say.
When President-elect Donald Trump said he would nominate Robert F Kennedy Jr, one of the nation’s most prominent anti-vaccine movement leaders, to lead the Health and Human Services Department, some social media users warned Americans to update their vaccines.
“IMPORTANT – vaccines could now be BANNED for part of this winter by Trump and RFK Jr, although hopefully any such ban would get halted with an injunction in court,” read a November 15 post on social media app Threads. “GET CAUGHT UP ON VACCINES NOW – just in case.”
For two decades, RFK Jr has repeated false and misleading claims about science and public health. His unsuccessful presidential campaign of conspiracy theories earned him PolitiFact’s 2023 Lie of the Year. Kennedy, nephew of Democratic President John F Kennedy and son of former presidential candidate Senator Robert Kennedy Sr from New York, ran as an independent before suspending his campaign in August and backing Trump.
Scientists signalled alarm at Trump’s decision to tap RFK Jr. There are 13 agencies housed within that department, including the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
