Donald Trump, the projected winner of the 2024 presidential election, vowed to give Robert F. Kennedy Jr. a significant role in health care under his new administration.
Kennedy, a former presidential hopeful, is known for pushing debunked public health claims and is the founder of the Children's Health Defense — a nonprofit group that advocates against the use of vaccines.
In an interview with MSNBC on Wednesday, Kennedy said he's prepared to make changes to the Food and Drug Administration.
"In some categories, there are entire departments, like the nutrition department at the FDA, that have to go," he said.
Kennedy added, "They're not protecting our kids. Why do we have Fruit Loops in this country that have 18 or 19 ingredients and you go to Canada and it's got two or three?"
Kennedy claimed last week that Trump "promised" him "control of the public health agencies, which are HHS and its sub-agencies, CDC, FDA, NIH, and a few others."
The former president declined to say whether he would seek a Cabinet role for Kennedy, which would require Senate confirmation, but added, "He’s going to have a big role in the administration.”
While speaking with reporters on Election Day about Kennedy’s potential future role, Trump said, “He’s a great guy, RFK, and he’s going to do pretty much what he wants as far as I’m concerned.” He also said, “I happen to agree with a lot of the things he says.”
In an interview Wednesday with NPR, Kennedy said a senate-confirmed position is a "possibility" but that the two haven't discussed
it in detail.
Kennedy told NPR that Trump has given him "three instructions," including removing the "corruption and the conflicts out of the regulatory agencies," "return the agencies to the gold standard" and "end the chronic disease epidemic."
Recently, Kennedy has said he wants Trump to ban fluoride in public drinking water on his first day in office to which Trump said, “It’s possible.”
Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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It also appears Kennedy would push his anti-vaccine agenda, something he spoke about during his own campaign.
According to The Associated Press, a co-chair of Trump's transition team said Kennedy wants access to federal health data so he can show vaccines are unsafe and lead to them being pulled from the market in a second Trump administration.
Public health experts have said that giving influence to one of the most prominent anti-vaccine activists in the world could lead to what one said would be “severe health consequences” for Americans, especially children, The Associated Press reported.
Even if Kennedy is given a lesser role where he provides input and comments but doesn't have control over policy, it could still be damaging, according to people who have served in public health roles in government.
“Advisers like Scott Atlas have demonstrated the significant influence they can wield without congressional oversight, raising fears of misinformation and harm,” Trump's own surgeon general, Dr. Jerome Adams, wrote in an email, referring to Trump’s former COVID-19 pandemic advisor, a radiologist with no background in infectious disease, who advocated for the widely discredited herd immunity strategy.
Adams said he believed it was unlikely that Kennedy could be appointed to lead a major health agency because he has no medical expertise, it would likely be difficult for him to pass a background check for a top secret clearance and he’d likely lack support in Congress — though Trump circumvented the background check system during his first administration and stocked his Cabinet with acting officials who had not received congressional approval.
Kennedy’s anti-vaccine organization has a lawsuit pending against news organizations including The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy is on leave from the group but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.
Republican lawmakers have long enjoyed – and reciprocated – support from pharmaceutical companies, even vowing to dismantle a law signed by Democratic President Joe Biden that allows the government to negotiate the price of prescription drugs for Medicare enrollees. Republicans have argued the law will hurt businesses and stifle innovation in the industry. But vaccine skepticism, growing across the country, has become deeper among conservatives.
In addition to people's health and well-being, the possibility that Kennedy's influence would result in debunked ideas like a vaccine link to autism being again dredged up and wasting time, energy and money disheartened public health advocates.
“Trump helped bring the vaccine to market, and he took the vaccine. ... I don’t know why he’s giving this person this mouthpiece," said Amy Pisani, CEO of Vaccinate Your Family, noting Trump’s Operation Warp Speed helped bring the COVID-19 vaccine to market, though Kennedy has relentlessly attacked it.
Vaccinate Your Family is a nonpartisan group co-founded by former First Lady Rosalynn Carter and former Arkansas First Lady Betty Bumpers that has worked on vaccine programs with both Republican and Democratic presidential administrations for the past 30 years.
“I don’t want to go back 30 years to fighting the anti-vaccine movement again,” Pisani said. "To go back in time and waste millions and millions of taxpayer dollars on this witch hunt again is just untenable.”
