President-elect Donald Trump announced Thursday that he will nominate former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). It follows an implicit promise Trump made at a rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden in late October, where he said he would let Kennedy “go wild on health.”
Kennedy, a former Democrat and scion of a wealthy political family, first rose to prominence as an environmental advocate and anti-vaccine activist. Around 2015, he joined the board of the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense, which alleges that conditions like autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are caused by environmental factors, including harmful agents in vaccines. . Kennedy has repeatedly spread misinformation about vaccines and in 2021 was named by the Center for Countering Digital Hate as one of the “disinformation dozen” spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. was
He has proposed, contrary to all known scientific research, that Covid-19 can be “racially targeted” to protect Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people, and that HIV does not cause AIDS, and that means It’s that vaccine mandates are worse than the Holocaust. He also said in a 2012 statement that a worm ate part of his brain and then died.
Kennedy’s account was banned from Instagram in 2021 for spreading vaccine misinformation. His account was reinstated in 2023, when he announced his candidacy for office.
In August, Kennedy suspended his campaign and threw his support behind Trump, saying, “If President Trump is elected and honors his word, the country will be left with a lot of chronic disease that bankrupts and bankrupts.” A great burden will be lifted.” It launched a parallel slogan to Trump’s MAGA—Make America Healthy Again (MAHA)—centered on “prioritizing renewable agriculture, protecting natural habitats, and removing toxins from our food, water, and air.” Focused on ending.
HHS oversees 13 federal agencies—which Kennedy has indicated will be gutted—including the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control.
However, Kennedy’s position still depends on congressional approval. Previous HHS leaders have had long careers in public health or within the department before serving as chief. The Republican-controlled Senate could defer to Trump, or it could cite Kennedy’s aggressive promotion of conspiracy theories, long career as a staunch Democrat, and confusing positions on abortion as reasons to block his accession. can point to.
Although Kennedy has promised to overhaul the entire system, experts who spoke to WIRED say he will likely come up against long-standing regulations that will be difficult to break. Health policies are also heavily informed by advisory committees, which are filled with medical and public health experts, and it will take time for changes to fully replace government recommendations.
Still, as HHS director, Kennedy would have considerable power to fire staff and declare a public health emergency.
