WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 20: Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. listens before the start of a hearing with the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government on Capitol Hill on July 20, 2023 in Washington, DC. Members of the committee held the hearing to discuss instances of the U.S. government's alleged censoring of citizens, political figures and journalists. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
President-elect Donald Trump‘s announcement that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be his pick for Department of Health and Human Services Secretary has alarmed the scientific community.
”Mr. Kennedy will restore these Agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Kennedy is a prominent anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist who has spread false theories about the safety of vaccines.
Kennedy said in a statement that he looks forward to eliminating the department’s conflicts of interest “so they can pursue their mission to make Americans once again the healthiest people on Earth.”
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If confirmed, Kennedy would oversee the Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare), Medicare and Medicaid. Trump repeatedly tried to repeal Obamacare fully during his first term but said at the debate that he only had “concepts of a plan” to replace it.
Kennedy will be involved in any changes the Trump administration wants to make to Medicare, which provides health care coverage for nearly 70 million low-income Americans. In his first term, Trump sought to institute work requirements for the program.
Days before Kennedy’s selection was announced, Trump’s transition co-chair Howard Lutnick told CNN Kennedy would not be in the Cabinet.
In Kennedy’s presidential campaign, he proposed policies to overhaul food safety and environmental regulations, promote holistic medicine and restructure funding for vaccine research.
Once Kennedy suspended his campaign, he endorsed Trump the same day. Since Election Day, Kennedy has pledged not to take away vaccines from anyone but committed to recommending states remove fluoride from public water. He also wants to cut hundreds of people from public health agencies and hand-pick people for the staff.
”President Trump has given me three instructions. He wants me find the corruption and conflicts out of the regulatory agencies. He wants to return the agencies to the gold standard, empirically-based, evidence-based science and medicine that we were once famous for. And he wants to end the chronic disease epidemic with measurable impacts on a diminishment of chronic disease within two years,” said Kennedy in an NPR interview.
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