Over the past month Donald Trump has announced his cabinet picks, one of them being Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy’s credentials are the opposite of what the job calls for and he has been proven incompetent on health related topics numerous times.
Many Democrats and health experts have criticized this pick due to some of Kennedy’s false claims over the years regarding COVID-19, vaccines, and other health issues.
Among these claims, Kennedy ] stated his belief in a 2023 Fox News Interview that “autism comes from vaccines,”]. His belief has been proven false by numerous studies
One of Kennedy’s lawyers, Aaron Siri, has petitioned the FDA to rescind its approval of the polio vaccine. The National Library of Medicine has estimated that the polio vaccine has prevented 29 million cases of polio worldwide from 1960-2021.
During a 2023 dinner at an upper-east side restaurant, Kennedy also voiced his belief (without evidence) that “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.” He later posted on X that he does not “believe and never implied that the ethnic effect was deliberately engineered,” claiming there was a report that supported this, but one of the report’s authors told BBC that Kennedy misinterpreted the report and there was no proof for Kennedy’s claims.
Kennedy has also criticized the use of fluoride in drinking water.
In a post on X, Kennedy explained he wanted to remove fluoride from drinking water because he believes it is “associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease.”
Professor Avijit Banerjee, chair of cariology and operative dentistry at King’s College London, told BBC “the potential harmful effects of fluoride cited have not been associated with the very low levels of fluoride used in water fluoridation programmes.”
So how is this person who has sketchy medical beliefs about to be running the most important health agency in the US?
Loyalty.
First of all, he dropped out of the presidential race. Following this, he endorsed President-elect Trump,and was then rewarded with a cabinet position.
Democrats have pushed back against this nomination, but Kennedy has a firm backing from Republicans and will most likely be confirmed by the Senate.
If Kennedy is approved as head of the Department of Health and Human Services, he will have the power to continue his spread of medical misinformation and diminish the effect of the FDA, NIH, and CDC through legal changes in partnership with President Trump.
