Former president Donald Trump announced at his Madison Square Garden rally in New York City this past weekend that he plans to give Robert F. Kennedy Jr. free reign over health policies. Kennedy, a former Democrat who suspended his presidential campaign in August and endorsed Trump, has since launched the Make America Healthy Again campaign. However, given Kennedy’s anti-vaccination stance and conspiratorial leanings, some experts and former government officials are concerned about how his views could shape the nation’s health agenda.
Kennedy has a history of making false statements about the safety of vaccines and promoting unproven treatments for Covid-19. On the campaign trail, he has also targeted seed oils, blaming them for various chronic health conditions. It is unclear what specific role Trump is considering for Kennedy, but it could potentially be a high-level position within the Department of Health and Human Services or one of its agencies.
This would be a departure from Trump’s previous top health picks, who had extensive government or public health experience. Kennedy’s daughter-in-law, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, stated that his priorities include ending conflicts and corruption within agencies, ensuring unbiased testing, and releasing all trial results to the public. However, some experts, such as former US surgeon general Jerome Adams, are concerned about the potential impact of Kennedy’s views on national health policy.
