Trump selects Robert F Kennedy Jr to lead HHS, top US health agency

By Stephanie Kelly, Reuters

The incoming US president Donald Trump announced he has selected Robert F. Kennedy Junior, an environmental activist who has spread misinformation on vaccines, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, the United States’ top health agency.

Kennedy ran for president in this year’s election as an independent before dropping out in August and endorsing Trump in exchange for a role in the Republican’s administration.

“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 post to social media.

The Department of Health and Human Services oversees the Food and Drug Administration, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the massive Medicare and Medicaid Services programs, which provide health coverage for the poor, those aged 65 and older, and the disabled.

Medicaid and Medicare’s tens of millions of enrollees mean HHS had a US$3.09 trillion budget for fiscal year 2024, representing 22.8 percent of the US federal budget.

Kennedy’s health priorities

Kennedy, the son and nephew of two titans of Democratic politics, has been a part of Trump’s transition team and has been reviewing candidate resumes for the top jobs at US health agencies.

Over posts on social media platform X and interviews in recent weeks, Kennedy has indicated his priorities include addressing what he calls the “chronic disease epidemic” of conditions including obesity, diabetes and autism, and reducing chemicals in food.

Despite high levels of spending on healthcare and pharmaceuticals, Americans are unhealthier than their peers in wealthy countries around world, according to a report from the Commonwealth Fund in 2023.

Kennedy also suggested he would gut the 18,000-employee Food and Drug Administration – which ensures the safety of food, drugs and medical devices – and replace hundreds of employees at the National Institutes of Health.

“FDA’s war on public health is about to end,” he wrote on X in late October, adding that includes its “aggressive suppression” of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, sunshine, and other items.

“If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags,” he wrote.

In early November, he said he would recommend fluoride be removed from public water supplies, falsely claiming on X the chemical is associated with bone fractures and cancer. The American Dental Association says the decades-old intervention reduces tooth decay by more than 25 percent in adults and children.

Kennedy criticised in September a New York Times opinion article about the weight loss drug Ozempic, saying, “Instead of fixing our food system and addressing the obesity crisis at its root, the author focuses on a drug that may palliate the symptom and gladden the wallets of distant Big Pharma execs.”

Kennedy and vaccines

Kennedy has been criticized for making false medical claims, including that vaccines are linked to autism. He opposed state and federal restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic and was accused of spreading misinformation about the virus.

He disputes the anti-vaccine tag, saying he wants more rigourous testing of vaccines instead. However, he chaired the Children’s Health Defence, a nonprofit organization that focuses on anti-vaccine messaging.

In an interview in March, when he was still running for president, Kennedy said Americans who wants a vaccine for themselves or their children would continue to have access to them if he were to be elected. But he said he doubted the efficacy of measles vaccines.

Measles is one of the most contagious human viruses and is almost entirely preventable through vaccination. It requires 95 percent vaccine coverage to prevent outbreaks among populations. However, US coverage rates have fallen below that level among young children, the CDC said this month.

Kennedy, who first sought the Democratic nomination before becoming an independent, had a rocky presidential run marked by attention-grabbing media headlines.

During his campaign, he acknowledged in a video posted online that he dumped a dead bear in New York City’s Central Park a decade ago and staged it to look like a bike had hit it. He proclaimed he had “so many skeletons in my closet” after a former family babysitter accused him of sexual assault. He denied that a large animal in a picture of him posing with a barbecued carcass belonged to a canine.

Kennedy’s campaign also confirmed a report that he had a parasite in his brain more than a decade ago, but has since fully recovered.

– Reuters