President-elect Donald Trump stated Thursday that he’ll nominate vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Well being and Human Providers Division.
If the Senate approves Kennedy, the previous unbiased presidential candidate will lead a sprawling division chargeable for the large Medicare and Medicaid well being protection packages, the Meals and Drug Administration, the Nationwide Institutes of Well being, and the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
HHS’s choices on spending and insurance policies have main results on the U.S. health-care system and associated companies.
Kennedy, 70, is the son of Robert F. Kennedy, the late U.S. legal professional common and Democratic senator from New York who was assassinated in 1968 by a gunman in Los Angeles as he ran for president. He’s the nephew of former President John Kennedy who was assassinated in 1963.
Trump stated in October that if elected he would let Kennedy “go wild on well being.”
“I’m thrilled to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as America Secretary of Well being and Human Providers,” Trump wrote in a publish on his Fact Social website Thursday.
“For too lengthy, Individuals have been crushed by the economic meals advanced and drug firms who’ve engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation in terms of Public Well being,” Trump wrote.
“The Security and Well being of all Individuals is an important position of any Administration, and HHS will play an enormous position in serving to be certain that all people will likely be protected against dangerous chemical substances, pollution, pesticides, pharmaceutical merchandise, and meals components which have contributed to the overwhelming Well being Disaster on this Nation.”
Kennedy, in a publish on X, thanked Trump and wrote, “I am dedicated to advancing your imaginative and prescient to Make America Well being Once more.”
“We have now a generational alternative to deliver collectively the best minds in science, drugs, trade, and authorities to place an finish to the continual illness epidemic,” Kennedy wrote. “I look ahead to working with the greater than 80,000 staff at HHS to free the companies from the smothering cloud of company seize to allow them to pursue their mission to make Individuals as soon as once more the healthiest individuals on Earth.”
Kennedy informed NBC Information in a current interview that Trump has stated he needs Kennedy to “clear up corruption” at federal well being companies, return these companies to science-based insurance policies and “make America wholesome once more.” Kennedy stated that “there are total departments, just like the vitamin division on the FDA, that should go.”
Inventory costs of vaccine makers fell earlier Thursday on stories that Trump would faucet Kennedy for the HHS publish.
Kennedy final yr advised that the Covid-19 virus, which CDC performed a serious position in combatting, was engineered to “assault Caucasians and Black individuals,” and to be much less more likely to hurt “Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese language” individuals.
He beforehand promoted theories that autism was linked to childhood vaccines, a connection that has been disproved.
Kennedy outraged a lot of his siblings by endorsing Trump in August after abandoning his long-short presidential candidacy.
Trump’s choice of Kennedy got here a day after the Republican president-elect tapped Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz as legal professional common.
Gaetz’s choice instantly sparked controversy due largely to the truth that the Division of Justice, which he would lead as AG, beforehand investigated him for attainable intercourse trafficking of a 17-year-old woman.
Gaetz resigned from Congress efficient Thursday, eradicating him from the jurisdiction of the Home Ethics Committee. However various Republican senators have referred to as on that panel to launch a report of its investigation of the previous lawmaker.
Kennedy final week reportedly advised he would hearth 600 NIH employees and exchange them.
His “Make America Wholesome” web site has been looking for solutions from the general public for greater than 4,000 appointee posts throughout the federal authorities to be stuffed by Trump.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., blasted Kennedy in an announcement.
“Mr. Kennedy’s outlandish views on fundamental scientific details are disturbing and will fear all dad and mom who count on faculties and different public areas to be secure for his or her youngsters,” Wyden stated.
“When Mr. Kennedy comes earlier than the Finance Committee, it may be very clear what Individuals stand to lose beneath Trump and Republicans in Congress.”
One other Democrat, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, stated “Donald Trump’s choice of a infamous anti-vaxxer to guide HHS couldn’t be extra harmful — that is trigger for deep concern for each American.”
“There is no such thing as a telling how far a fringe conspiracy theorist like RFK Jr. might set again America when it comes to public well being, reproductive rights, analysis and innovation, and a lot else,” Murray stated.
Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, who will turn out to be Senate majority chief in January when Republicans take management of the chamber, stated he didn’t have any response to Kennedy being picked for the HHS job.
“Truthfully, the complete nomination course of is simply getting began, so let’s, let’s give it an opportunity to see what occurs,” Thune informed reporters.
“And these names, none of them have been formally submitted but, so there’s going to be a vetting course of. I’ve informed individuals, these will likely be labored out beneath advise and consent, and we’ll guarantee that we course of them there.”
However different Republican senators, together with Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Kentucky’s Rand Paul and Josh Hawley of Missouri, praised Kennedy’s choice.
“Unhealthy day for Large Pharma,” Hawley tweeted.
Andrea Ducas, vice chairman of well being coverage for the advocacy group Middle for American Progress, in an announcement referred to as Trump’s selection of Kennedy “nothing wanting disastrous for the nation.”
“His observe file and open skepticism of longstanding medical science might jeopardize the unbelievable public well being positive aspects we have achieved as a nation – together with the positive aspects we have made in combatting infectious illness by childhood vaccination packages and in making our meals provide safer by pasteurization,” Ducas stated.
“This choose is particularly troubling coming on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, the place lifesaving vaccines averted numerous infections and deaths.”