President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to tap Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health and human services secretary has sent a ripple of panic through much of the public health world, given Kennedy’s history of false or misleading claims regarding vaccines, fluoride and other topics.
Health was a centerpiece of Kennedy’s presidential bid, which he suspended over the summer. At the time, his key issues included reducing pharmaceutical companies’ influence on government agencies, combating chronic health issues among children and improving food safety. In promoting those causes, he put forward a mixture of ideas — some supported by science, others that have been debunked several times over.
After endorsing Trump in August, Kennedy continued to promote a similar agenda dubbed “Make America Healthy Again.” Trump said last month that if elected, he would let Kennedy “go wild” on health, food and medicine. Around the same time, Kennedy said that a future Trump administration would end the Food and Drug Administration’s “aggressive suppression” of vitamins, raw milk, stem cells and certain drugs.
Kennedy’s team did not respond to a request for comment. Trump’s team did not comment on Kennedy’s past claims and instead referred NBC News to Trump’s statement announcing his pick . If confirmed as HHS secretary, Kennedy would oversee 13 federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, FDA, National Institutes of Health, and Centers for .
