Trump Selects Vaccine-Skeptic Kennedy for Health Secretary (2)

President-elect Donald Trump said he’s tapping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run the Department of Health and Human Services, a move that would elevate a prominent vaccine skeptic and pharmaceutical industry critic to a top role on federal health policy.

“The Safety and Health of all Americans is the most important role of any Administration, and HHS will play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming Health Crisis in this Country,” Trump said in a statement Thursday on his Truth Social platform.

Kennedy has espoused a number of unorthodox views on public health, most notably questioning the safety and efficacy of vaccines — statements which contradict guidance from the mainstream medical community. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he called the shots a “crime against humanity” and compared them to the Nazi Holocaust.

Those remarks drew widespread condemnation — including from his wife, the actress Cheryl Hines. But Kennedy’s opposition to drugmakers comes at a critical time, as the industry battles insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers over who is to blame for the skyrocketing cost of medical care in the US.

Shares of vaccine makers fell on news of the announcement, with Moderna Inc. down 5.6%, Pfizer Inc. down 2.6% and Novavax Inc. down 7% at the market close. Moderna fell an additional 1.4% in post-market trading.

Kennedy said he’ll work with HHS employees and the agencies it oversees to free them “from the smothering cloud of corporate capture” and help make Americans the healthiest people on earth.

“Together we will clean up corruption, stop the revolving door between industry and government, and return our health agencies to their rich tradition of gold-standard, evidence-based science,” he wrote on X.

Kennedy’s criticisms go beyond traditional medicine. He has said he’ll work with Trump to remove fluoride from water systems — upending 80 years of public health consensus. He’s a raw milk advocate, despite the potential health risks, and has said he plans to address the country’s “sick food system,” an aspiration that turned into the Make America Healthy Again movement.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Photographer: Hannah Beier/Bloomberg

Coming Criticism

Kennedy’s views are likely to set him up for a blistering US Senate confirmation hearing putting his beliefs under scrutiny. If confirmed, he would wield unchecked influence over public health, drugs, food and nutrition — with the potential to disrupt related industries — as a member of an administration that has vowed to reshape the federal government.

Read More: Trump Victory Gives RFK Jr. Free Rein to Shape Public Health

Some health care leaders immediately lamented the appointment and expressed concern about the days ahead.

“I fear he will do so much damage spreading misinformation,” with an impact that stretches beyond the US, said Jayasree Iyer, chief executive officer of the Access to Medicine Foundation, a nonprofit that works to improve access to drugs in low- and middle-income countries. “You want people to trust vaccines, which are both cost effective and have proven to save billions of lives.”

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a longstanding health and food watchdog group, called RFK Jr. “not remotely qualified” for the job.

“If unassuming little viruses could talk, measles, mumps, and rubella would be loudly cheerleading for the nomination of this prolific spreader of scientific misinformation,” Peter Lurie, the group’s president and a former FDA official, said in an emailed statement.

Kennedy drew support from Republican members of Congress and some industry groups. The National Community Pharmacists Association said it’s eager to educate him about how independent pharmacies are closing and pharmacy deserts are forming because of “unfair, anticompetitive business practices” among insurance companies and drug benefit managers.

Others were more measured, including some on the committee that would review the nomination before it makes it to the entire US Senate.

“RFK Jr. has championed issues like healthy foods and the need for greater transparency in our public health infrastructure,” Senator Bill Cassidy, ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said in a statement. “I look forward to learning more about his other policy positions and how they will support a conservative, pro-American agenda,” said Cassidy, a doctor who also sits on the Finance Committee that would initially vet the nomination.

Influential Post

As head of HHS, Kennedy would lead a sprawling federal department that encompasses more than 100 programs supporting medicine, public health and social services, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Food and Drug Administration.

HHS was on the frontlines of the government’s Covid response, with Trump’s management of the pandemic drawing sharp criticism, including from those who accused him of downplaying its severity. A position atop HHS could again put him at the forefront of some of the country’s most contentious policy debates — including abortion rights and health insurance.

Read More: RFK Jr. and the FDA Are Both Seeing Red on Food Dyes

He has taken positions contrary to Trump on some of these issues, including saying abortion “should be unrestricted up until a certain point” on a social media post in June. Trump has said it’s an issue for each state to decide.

Kennedy is the scion of a prominent Democratic family but left the party to mount an independent presidential bid before eventually endorsing Trump. He crisscrossed the country to support the president-elect, appearing at rallies and events and helping him broaden his outreach to independent voters.

His selection to lead health policy in the new administration seals a political marriage of convenience between two former rivals.

In the waning days of the campaign, Trump said he’d let Kennedy “go wild” on health. For his part, Kennedy said Trump promised him “control of the public health agencies.”

Kennedy has been vocal about removing artificial dyes from cereal, saying his first act in the Trump administration would be to tell companies to remove them.

On health care, Trump has floated seeking an alternative to the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. The president-elect has denied wanting to end the program but has not provided specifics on how he might revise or replace the law, saying during the debate that he had the “concepts of a plan.”

Trump’s HHS secretaries during his first term included among others, Tom Price, who resigned after criticism over taxpayer-funded air travel, and Alex Azar, who split with Trump over the attack on the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Scandalous Headlines

In addition to his controversial views, Kennedy’s presidential campaign was barraged by a series of scandalous tabloid headlines: The disposal of a bear carcass in New York City’s Central Park, an escapade involving a beached whale and a chainsaw.

Kennedy, 70, is the son of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of President John F. Kennedy.

Both men were assassinated in the 1960s. Trump has also promised a commission on presidential assassinations to re-open those cases.

(Adds Kennedy comment in the sixth paragraph, pharmacist comment in 13th paragraph.)

--With assistance from Gerry Smith, Hadriana Lowenkron, Akayla Gardner, Anna Edney, John Tozzi, Antonia Mufarech and Anne Cronin.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Gregory Korte in Washington at gkorte@bloomberg.net;
Stephanie Lai in Washington at slai186@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Justin Sink at jsink1@bloomberg.net

Laura Davison, Michelle Fay Cortez

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