Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tapped as Donald Trump's Health and Human Services nominee
Longtime vaccine skeptic and former Democrat briefly ran against Trump
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.
Nomination alarms health officials
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.
In a 2021 podcast he urged people to "resist" CDC guidelines that advise when kids should receive routine vaccinations.
"I see somebody on a hiking trail carrying a little baby and I say to him, 'Better not get them vaccinated,' " Kennedy said.
Vaccines proven safe
Repeated scientific studies in the U.S. and abroad have found no link between vaccines and autism. Vaccines have been proven safe and effective in laboratory testing and in real-world use in hundreds of millions of people over decades. The World Health Organization credits childhood vaccines with preventing as many as five million deaths a year.
During his first term, Trump launched Operation Warp Speed, an effort to speed the production and distribution of a vaccine to combat COVID-19. The resulting vaccines were widely credited with saving lives, including by Trump himself.
With the Trump campaign, Kennedy has also worked to shore up support among young mothers in particular, on a message of ridding the U.S. of unhealthy ingredients in foods, promising to model regulations imposed in Europe.
His claims that the U.S. obesity epidemic, as well as a rise in chronic diseases like diabetes, are the result of processed and unhealthy foods has resonated on social media among fitness gurus and mom influencers alike.
It remains unclear how that will square with Trump's history of deregulation of big industries, including food. Trump pushed for fewer inspections of the meat industry, for example.
Kennedy's stance on vaccines raises question about his ability to get confirmed, even in a Republican-controlled Senate. He also has said he would make a controversial recommendation to remove fluoride from drinking water, although fluoride levels are mandated by state and local governments.
The addition of the mineral, which is considered safe at low levels, has been cited as one of the reasons dental health has improved.
Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune would not comment on Trump's pick of Kennedy or any other potential nominees. "I'm not going to make any judgments about any of these folks at this point," he said.
Confirmation would be 'disaster,' top Democrat says
Several Democrats quickly condemned the selection.
Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the No. 3 Democrat, said that Kennedy's confirmation would be "nothing short of a disaster for the health of millions of families."
But not every Democrat recoiled from the news. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said he was "excited" for Kennedy to lead HHS. Polis said he wants to see Kennedy take on "big pharma" and hopes he will "lean into personal choice" on vaccines.
That idea is concerning to former New York Public Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan, who said that if people opt out of getting vaccines, deadly viruses could run wild. He points to an uptick in measles outbreaks — 16 have occurred so far this year compared to four last year.
"That's going to continue if we have someone at the top of our health system that is saying, 'I'm not so sure about the science here,' " Vasan said.