New York: US President-elect Donald Trump is handing over the Health Department to the eccentric scion of the Kennedy clan, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who advocates unconventional ideas including opposition to vaccines.
Naming Kennedy Jr. the next Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary, Trump made it sound like a war on the pharmaceutical and food industries.
“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Trump said.
He wrote on Truth Social that Kennedy Jr. “will restore these Agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again”!
Kennedy Jr. posted on X that he would work with HHS employees “to free the agencies from the smothering cloud of corporate capture so they can pursue their mission to make Americans once again the healthiest people on Earth”.
Besides opposition to vaccines, some of Kennedy’s ideas are against the pasteurisation of milk, and laws making psychedelic drugs illegal, and therapies like using for people ivermectin, a drug used for horses, and wider use of stem cells.
Ironically one of Trump’s biggest achievements in his last term was the development of vaccines against Covid-19 in record time, which he now downplays because many in the right wing of the party are against vaccines.
Kennedy Jr. has said that despite his opposition, he will not ban vaccines.
In agreement with Trump’s suggestion to use hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid, in a tweet he accused the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) of aggressively suppressing it.
Kennedy Jr. could throw the entire US health system in disarray if he has his way.
If confirmed he will have authority over 13 agencies that come under the HHS and these include the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control which also has an international role, the National Institutes of Health that do cutting edge research, and Medicare, the government health insurance for seniors.
Kennedy Jr. is a former Democrat who embraced Trump after failed attempts to seek the presidency and endorsed him.
Kennedy Jr. ran for the Democratic Party nomination against President Joe Biden and later against Vice President Kamala Harris, before ending it and declaring himself an Independent.
He dropped that and endorsed Trump, who said in return, he would let him “go wild on health”.
Despite Trump’s campaign promise, his appointment as the HHS Secretary was a surprise because of his eccentric advocacies and he may have a rough ride in Senate confirmation hearings.
His nomination — like that of Matt Gaetz, who was under a Congressional ethics probe for alleged sexual misconduct and drug use, as the Attorney General — is Trump’s show of defiance against the mainstream and a demand for acquiescence from his party Senators.
Kennedy Jr. is the nephew of President John F Kennedy and the son of his brother, Robert, a Senator and former Attorney General.
Both leaders were assassinated, Robert Kennedy while pursuing the Democratic nomination for President.
Kennedy Jr. has had his sights for long on the health portfolio and lobbied for the post with former President Barack Obama, who reportedly rejected him for alleged past involvement with drugs.
He was an environment activist and lawyer, with a colourful past of escapades like dumping a dead bear in New York’s Central Park.
During his presidential campaign, he revealed that a tapeworm had been found eating a part of his brain.
