elected president Donald Trump on Thursday named anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Trump, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Trump informed about this on the social media platform. Truth Social.
“I am pleased to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS),” he wrote. “For far too long, Americans have been oppressed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who engage in deception, misinformation and disinformation when it comes to Public Health.”
Donald Trump Jr. too X shared the news.
During the presidential campaign, Kennedy developed a national profile for his criticism of the Covid vaccine and childhood vaccinations. He claimed it vaccines are linked to autismdespite decades of research disproving such a claim.
The appointment of Kennedy, 70, to lead HHS ends days of speculation over what health care role — if any — the Trump adviser, a former independent presidential candidate, would play in the incoming administration.
Within HHS is a family of health agencies that includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Kennedy claimed that Trump had promised him that he would “take control of public health agencies.”
Aside from the HHS role, Kennedy was said to be slated for a term role in fight obesity and diabetes in children – known as “Operation Warp speed for chronic childhood disease” and proposed by Kennedy himself to become the White House “health czar”. Those roles would not give him the authority or influence that the HHS title would offer.
Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, is known for making misleading and false claims about vaccines, including repeated claims that vaccines are linked to autism, even though multiple studies in several countries over the decades have disproved the association. It is also Child Health Protection, a leading anti-vaccine group.
Others said to be considered for the role are retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Trump’s former secretary of housing and urban development, and former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who once headed the state’s Department of Health and Hospitals.
The position requires Senate confirmation.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), the ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said in a statement after Trump’s announcement. “RFK Jr. championed issues like healthy foods and the need for more transparency in our public health infrastructure.”
He continued, “I look forward to learning more about his other policy positions and how they will support a conservative, pro-American agenda.”
If confirmed, Kennedy’s role could be a major shakeup for federal health agencies, including the FDA, where Kennedy has threatened to eliminate all departments and fire agency employees who are waging a “war on public health.”
Dr. Richard Besser, the former acting director of the CDC, was stunned by the announcement.
Besser said: “I am not silent. “Leading the Department of Health and Human Services to be one of the largest purveyors of misinformation about vaccines, and one of the largest purveyors of misinformation about public health in general, would endanger the health of people across the country.”
Thursday, This was reported by NBC News Some FDA officials considered acting quickly if Kennedy was selected for a prominent health role.
Kennedy suggested it too would ban fluoride in drinking water also remove ultra-processed foods from the American diet.
In the first administration, Trump touched former pharmaceutical director Alex Azar to the role of the highest health agency. Azar replaced Trump’s first health secretary, Tom Price, who resigned over his use of private jets for government business at a cost to US taxpayers of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
CNBC reported that vaccine makers have stakes It fell on Thursday amid reports that Kennedy will lead the top US health care agency
Erica Edwards and Zoe Richards contributed.