Trump taps RFK Jr. to run HHS, appointing a vaccine skeptic for the nation’s top health department.

President-elect Trump has tapped Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime environmental advocate and vaccine skeptic, for the nation’s top health care job, leading the Department of Health and Human Services. .

Trump announced the election on the social media platform, Truth Social, and said RFK Jr. will be charged with ending what he called the nation’s chronic disease epidemic and reforming US science and health institutions.

“For too long, Americans have been oppressed by industrial food and drug companies who have perpetrated deception, lies, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Trump wrote.

“HHS will play a major role in helping to ensure that everyone will be protected from the harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to Health crisis in this country,” he continued.

The Senate will finally decide whether to confirm RFK Jr. that role, although Trump has raised the prospect of defecting to lawmakers. Although Republicans hold the majority, many have so far not had an opinion on his choice and have said they will consider Trump’s choice based on the person’s qualifications for the role.

“RFK Jr. has championed issues like healthy eating and the need for transparency in our public health systems,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who is slated to head the Senate committee that will review the nomination. “I look forward to learning more about the other aspects of his policies and how they will support the American journalistic agenda.”

If confirmed, RFK Jr. will take over the reins of the $1.7 trillion agency that oversees vaccines, pharmaceuticals, scientific research, public health services, and health care plans for Americans who rely on Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care markets Act. The directors of the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who are still to be appointed, all report to the HHS secretary.

Donna Shalala, who led HHS during the Clinton administration, called RFK Jr. “totally unfit” for the role.

He said: “This is a very dangerous meeting. He is a danger to the health of people in our country and around the world.

Several health care advocacy groups have said they oppose the designation.

“Appointing an anti-vaxxer like Kennedy to HHS is like putting a Flat Earther at the head of NASA,” Peter G. Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said in a statement. CSPI is a consumer advocacy group that, in part, wants better food policy.

Consumer rights group Public Citizen also rejected the proposal, saying RFK Jr. “is a clear and present danger to the health of the country.”

RFK Jr. joined Trump this summer when he endorsed the former president after dropping out of his presidential campaign. He first ran in the Democratic primary before deciding to run as an independent. His “Make America Healthy Again” agenda to overhaul the food and drug industry quickly gained traction with Republicans and Trump himself, who said he would let RFK Jr. “emerging” in health, food and medicine.

Those promises, and RFK Jr.’s long history of vaccine skepticism, have alarmed current and former health officials. For years, he and the group he chairs, Children’s Health Defense, have questioned vaccine safety and pushed the baseless notion that vaccines can cause autism and chronic diseases.

During his job search, RFK Jr. he turned the speech into a broader issue about the crisis of chronic disease in America and criticized the ineffectiveness of public health organizations. In recent weeks, he has promised to stamp out “corporate corruption” at the government’s health and science agencies and clean up staff when he takes up his new role. He said he would eliminate “entire departments” at the Food and Drug Administration and could lay off at least 600 employees at the National Institutes of Health.

Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association said: “We don’t think he’s the right guy in terms of training, experience or personality. “We do not support his nomination at all and we hope that the Senate will do its job and look into his background thoroughly and see that he is not qualified.”

RFK Jr. provided proposed changes to the agency as strategies to prevent chronic diseases. Trump has echoed those messages, citing a “shocking” rise in chronic diseases and publicly supporting some of RFK Jr.’s proposals, such as a policy advising against adding fluoride to drinking water. That “sounds good to me,” the president-elect said.

Trump transition co-chairman Howard Lutnick suggested in October that RFK Jr. it could reduce the number of vaccines recommended by the government, and it could remove vaccine manufacturers’ immunity from lawsuits. But RFK Jr. has backed away from some of his broader anti-vaccination claims this year. He told NBC after Trump’s victory that he “won’t take it [vaccines] away” but that “people should have a choice.”

Now that Trump has been elected RFK Jr., other prominent faces in the “Make America Healthy Again” movement may also find their way into the administration.

According to a website open for nominations started by RFK Jr., nutritionist Casey Means is the popular choice to lead the FDA, along with several right-wing critics. of public health centers. FDA commissioners need Senate confirmation, as do nominees to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Calley Means, Casey’s brother, wrote on X.

GOP lawmakers who have criticized public health agencies in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic also quickly applauded the announcement.

“Finally, someone is going to detoxify the area after Fauci’s tenure,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ken.) tweeted at X. “Get ready for health care freedom and MAHA!”

Sen. Ron Johnson, (R-Wis.) who this September gathered a round table with many MAHAs who celebrated on Thursday, wrote with X that RFK Jr. is a “brilliant, courageous truth-teller” with an “unwavering commitment to transparency.

RFK Jr. he started as an assistant district attorney in New York before focusing on environmental law and anti-pollution advocacy. He first publicly floated controversial conspiracy theories about vaccines and autism in a 2005 article. In 2015, he became a board member of the anti-vaccine advocacy group Children’s Health Defense and started a series of lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers and public health organizations.

Rachel Cohrs Zhang and Isabella Cueto contributed to the reporting of this article.