Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tapped as Donald Trump's Health and Human Services nominee
CBC
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump announced Thursday that he'll nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, putting a man whose views public health officials have decried as dangerous in charge of a massive agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research, and the social safety net programs Medicare and Medicaid.
"For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site, announcing the appointment.
He said Kennedy would "end the Chronic Disease epidemic" and "Make America Great and Healthy Again!"
Trump said Kennedy would target drugs, food additives and chemicals.
As one of the most prominent anti-vaccine activists in the world, Kennedy's nomination immediately alarmed some public health officials.
Dr. Mandy Cohen, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Associated Press, "I don't want to go backwards and see children or adults suffer or lose their lives to remind us that vaccines work, and so I am concerned."
Kennedy, 70, hails from one of the nation's most storied political families, and is the son of the late U.S. attorney general Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of both former president John F. Kennedy and Sen. Edward "Ted" Kennedy.
He challenged President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination last year. He then ran as an independent candidate this year before abandoning his bid and striking a deal to endorse Trump — with the promise of a role overseeing health policy in a second Trump administration.
He and Trump have since become good friends. The two campaigned together extensively during the race's final stretch, and Trump had made clear he intended to give Kennedy a major public health role.
"I'm going to let him go wild on health," Trump said at a rally last month.
During the campaign, Kennedy told NewsNation that Trump had asked him to "reorganize" agencies including the CDC, the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration.
Kennedy has pushed against processed foods and the use of herbicides like Roundup weed killer. He has long criticized the large commercial farms and animal feeding operations that dominate the industry.
But he is perhaps best known for his criticism of childhood vaccines.
Again and again, Kennedy has made his opposition to vaccines clear. In July, he said in a podcast interview that "there's no vaccine that is safe and effective" and told Fox News that he still believes in the long-ago debunked idea that vaccines can cause autism.
