On Thursday, president-elect Donald Trump announced the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted anti-vaccination crusader who frequently promotes disinformation on public health issues, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
As secretary of that department, Kennedy would oversee management of several health-related federal agencies, including Medicaid and Medicare, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and others. He would also oversee management of the Affordable Care Act.
Trump made the formal announcement of Kennedy’s nomination on his Truth Social account, claiming that Kennedy would restore agencies under his purview “to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again!”
The belief that these agencies are corrupt or somehow hiding evidence of health-related findings is both exaggerated and misplaced, however, and Kennedy’s conspiracy theory-driven views suggest he will take HHS into disturbingly anti-science directions.
Kennedy, who briefly ran for president this year before dropping out and endorsing Trump, is a noted anti-vaxxer, falsely asserting for years that vaccines are tied to a number of negative health outcomes. He has also pushed the long-debunked claim that the prevalence of vaccines has led to an increase in autism rates, despite prevailing evidence stating otherwise.
Kennedy’s lies about public health issues have often been based in racism. For example, he once claimed that COVID-19 was “targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people,” and that “people who are most immune” to the virus “are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.” These comments were widely condemned for reinforcing racism against Asians, who faced harassment and violence throughout the pandemic due to right-wing lawmakers scapegoating China for the spread of the virus. Critics also pointed out that Kennedy’s comments about Jewish people revived long-held antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jews protecting themselves from illnesses at the expense of non-Jewish white populations.
Kennedy’s false claims that COVID-19 vaccines are unsafe and ineffective eventually resulted in his being banned from social media sites at the height of the pandemic. Some commentators have suggested that thousands of people have likely gotten sick or died due to having bought into his anti-vaccination views.
Kennedy is also tied to the deaths of dozens of people on the island nation of Samoa, where he fueled skepticism about the safety of measles vaccines in 2019. As a result of Kennedy and others peddling anti-vaccine sentiments, more than 80 people, mostly children, died from a subsequent measles outbreak.
Kennedy has denied any responsibility for that outcome.
“The Samoa episode fits Kennedy’s M.O.,” Mother Jones D.C. bureau chief David Corn wrote in an article earlier this year about the now-HHS nominee’s actions. “As an anti-vax champion, he has decried vaccinations as unsafe and ineffective…and he has boosted attempts throughout the world to convince people to eschew vaccines. Yet when he has been questioned critically about these efforts, he has issued false denials and contended that he’s just raising questions and calling for more research.”
Kennedy’s fringe views on health do not stop with vaccines. In the past, he has made homophobic and transphobic remarks about elements in drinking water, baselessly claiming that chemicals are causing “sexual” and “gender confusion” among teens. Kennedy has also expressed opposition to including small (and proven to be safe) amounts of fluoride in drinking water, the benefits of which have been observed since the mid-1940s.
Kennedy’s views on abortion have also been inconsistent. While discussing abortion rights in 2023, he suggested an openness to a national abortion ban. When those comments resulted in public backlash, however, he walked them back, claiming he had misspoken.
Critics from both sides of the aisle have derided Trump’s decision to allow Kennedy any say at all — be that as HHS secretary or in some other capacity — over the nation’s health.
“If RFK has a significant influence on the next administration, that could further erode people’s willingness to get up to date with recommended vaccines,” said former Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who served in the first Trump administration. “I am worried about the impact that could have on our nation’s health, on our nation’s economy, on our global security.”
Lawrence O. Gostin, an expert in public health law at Georgetown University, has also suggested that, while there are aspects of public health policy that need changing, Kennedy’s viewpoints are dangerous to the public.
“The pharmaceutical industry certainly doesn’t do everything right and I have a lot of criticisms about it,” Gostin said in an interview with Salon, “but nonetheless, we need a strong pharmaceutical industry to develop the vaccines and medicines we need.”
“I don’t trust Kennedy,” Gostin added, noting that “he’s influenced by conspiracy theories on social media, and he has no fidelity to science and evidence.”
A number of Republican senators who will be voting on Kennedy’s confirmation in the coming months — including incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) — refused to speak about his nomination, saying they would reserve judgment until hearings began.
Meanwhile, Democratic senators were quick to release statements on how disastrous Kennedy leading HHS would be for the country.
“Mr. Kennedy’s outlandish views on basic scientific facts are disturbing and should worry all parents who expect schools and other public spaces to be safe for their children,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) said.
“There’s no telling how far an anti-vaxxer & fringe conspiracy theorist like RFK Jr. could set America back in terms of public health, reproductive rights, research, & more,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Washington) wrote on X. “And the consequences are not theoretical — they’re life or death issues.”
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