Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the infamous vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theorist who specialists warn will sabotage public well being efforts worldwide, has been confirmed as President Donald Trump’s choose to steer the Division of Health and Human Providers.
The chamber confirmed Kennedy by a vote of 52-48 largely alongside occasion strains.
Former longtime Senate Majority Chief Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a childhood polio survivor, was the one member of his occasion to vote in opposition to Trump’s choose.
Kennedy, an “unfathomable” nominee within the eyes of public well being specialists, has questioned the hyperlink between HIV and AIDS, tied homosexual and transgender identities to chemical publicity, pushed to take away fluoride from consuming water, prompt COVID-19 was genetically engineered to focus on sure races, claimed Black folks might have totally different immune methods and prompt anti-depressants are extra addictive than opioids and are linked to college shootings.
However he’s maybe greatest recognized for the misinformation he’s unfold about vaccines. He’s mentioned they aren’t examined sufficient — one thing specialists dispute — and has prompt vaccine trials that may be ethically doubtful, doubtlessly requiring youngsters to go with out safety in opposition to extreme illness. He’s additionally falsely linked vaccines to autism. When given the possibility to stroll that declare again throughout his affirmation listening to, he refused.
Justifying his vote, McConnell mentioned in an announcement that over his lifetime, he has “watched vaccines save millions of lives from devastating diseases across America and around the world.”
“I will not condone the re-litigation of proven cures, and neither will millions of Americans who credit their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles,” he mentioned.
Now that Kennedy has been confirmed, he’ll have a number of avenues to curtail vaccine entry and uptake, together with by revising authorities vaccine advisories, abolishing the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, requiring extra post-market research on vaccines, sowing public mistrust in immunization and weakening authorized protections for vaccine makers.
Trump has prompt he’ll let Kennedy do no matter he desires with American well being pointers.
“I’m going to let him go wild on health. I’m going to let him go wild on the food. I’m going to let him go wild on the medicines,” Trump mentioned at a marketing campaign rally in October.
In 2023, when Kennedy was nonetheless a candidate for president, he mentioned at an anti-vaccine convention that with him in cost, the nation would “give infectious disease [research] a break for about eight years.” He has as a substitute emphasised a concentrate on dietary points and “chronic disease.”
An early take a look at of Kennedy’s management could also be his response to the rising outbreak of chicken flu, which largely presents in animals however has begun infecting people. Pandemic specialists say they’ve severe issues in regards to the virus swapping genes with the seasonal flu, permitting it to unfold extra simply.
Regardless of his many deceptive statements up to now, Kennedy spent a lot of his Senate affirmation hearings claiming that he’s supportive of vaccines. When confronted by Democrats with feedback he’s made within the latest years ― from saying that “there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective” in 2023, to saying he’d “pay anything” to return in time and never vaccinate his youngsters in 2020 ― Kennedy repeatedly mentioned his remarks had been taken out of context.
The pushback in opposition to Kennedy from the general public well being neighborhood has been monumental. Final month, greater than 700 specialists within the subject signed an open letter pleading with senators to not affirm him. Earlier than that, greater than 17,000 medical doctors signed an identical letter.
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“This appointment is a slap in the face to every health care professional who has spent their lives working to protect patients from preventable illness and death,” the medical doctors’ letter reads. “Americans deserve better.”
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who as soon as roomed with Kennedy in legislation college, was blunt with him through the affirmation listening to.
“Frankly, you frighten people,” Whitehouse advised him.
