Earlier this week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. a Zoom call to tell his supporters that Donald Trump had promised him “control” of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the federal agency that includes the Centers for Disease Control. , Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, as well as the Department of Agriculture. Given Kennedy's support for debunked anti-vaccine nonsense, this represents a potential public health nightmare.
A few days later, Howard Lutnick, a co-chair of Trump's transition team, appeared on CNN to deny that RFK Jr. would be in charge of HHS. But he followed that with a long tirade repeating Kennedy's false claims about vaccines. This provides another indication of how anti-vaccine activism has become deeply intertwined with Republican politics, to the point where things could be just as bad even if Kennedy is not appointed.
Trump as Kennedy's route to power
Kennedy has a long history of health misinformation, with a particular focus on vaccines. This includes the extensively debunked suggestion that there is a link between vaccinations and the incidence of autism, and extends to a general skepticism about the safety of vaccines. That is mixed with conspiracy theories about collusion between federal regulators and pharmaceutical companies.
Although there is no evidence for this, and some of it is clearly false, the conspiracies have real world consequences. An anti-vaccine activist in Samoa, aided by a visit from RFK Jr., helped pave the way for a measles outbreak that paralyzed the government and eventually led to more than 80 deaths.
Kennedy has long been interested in gaining access to the agencies that regulate vaccines and other interests of his, such as food safety, on the assumption that they hide the data that would justify his positions. And long before his recent presidential run, he viewed Trump as the route to that access. Shortly before Trump's inauguration in 2017, Kennedy claimed he would be appointed head of a vaccine safety committee that Trump would supposedly create once in office. Nothing ever came of that, and it was never clear whether it was due to Trump lying to him, Kennedy exaggerating his meaning, or Trump simply telling him what he wanted to hear at the time and never following through .
