US President-elect Donald Trump has picked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Trump announced his pick on Thursday, adding that he was “thrilled” by his pick. According to an Associated Press report, Kennedy will lead a massive Cabinet agency which oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research. As well as the social safety net programs Medicare, Medicaid and Affordable Care Act.
Before the election, Trump said that would give Kennedy free rein over health policy.
“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 on X.
“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!”, he further added.
A famous descendant of the Democratic family, Kennedy has made his own name as an environmental attorney who successfully took on large corporations including DuPont and Monsanto. But over the past two decades, he focused his energy on promoting claims about vaccines that contradict the strong consensus among scientists.
While Kennedy has insisted he is not anti-vaccine and claimed that he never told people to not get vaccines. But he has repeatedly made his opposition to vaccines clear. In a podcast, “there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective” and urged people to resist CDC guidelines on when kids should get vaccinated.
According to a CNN report, he has been a prominent anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist for years and has spread false theories about the safety and efficacy of vaccines. After accepting the role on Thursday, in a statement, Kennedy emphasised the importance of getting rid of “corruption” in the HHS Department and also vowed “to provide Americans with transparency” so they can make individual health decisions.
He said he looked “forward to working with the more than 80,000 employees at HHS” and freeing the agencies from “the smothering cloud of corporate capture” so they can “make Americans once again the healthiest people on Earth,” Kennedy added as per CNN.
Kennedy had launched his own presidential bid last year as an independent candidate. But during the final days of his campaign, he met Trump on multiple occasions. During this, the two discussed the possibility of Kennedy endorsing Trump in exchange for a role in his administration.
Kennedy suspended his campaign in August and endorsed Trump that same day.
According to CNN, in October, Trump had teased the idea, that Kennedy would oversee the health portfolio while speaking at the rally in New York. He told the audience that he would let Kennedy “go wild on health,” “go wild on the food” and “go wild on medicines” if reelected.