Why people are so concerned about Trump picking RFK Jr. to lead US public health

Trump’s pick for health secretary wants to increase access to raw milk, remove fluoride from drinking water, and has said that vaccines cause autism and that WiFi causes cancer.

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Jr. to serve as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), despite the fact that he has no medical or public health degrees and has promoted anti-vaccine conspiracies for years.

In August, Kennedy suspended his own campaign for president and endorsed Trump.

“The safety and health of all Americans is the most important role of any administration, and HHS will play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming health crisis in this country,” Trump said in a post on X.

“Mr. Kennedy 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!” Trump added. 

Kennedy has embraced policies aimed at overhauling environmental and food safety guidelines.

He’s said he would seek to remove fluoride from drinking water, reversing a decades-old intervention widely credited for boosting public health and preventing tooth decay.

Kennedy additionally wants to increase access to raw milk, which refers to milk that has not undergone pasteurization, a type of food processing designed to kill microorganisms. Drinking raw milk can be extremely dangerous as it can carry dangerous germs such as Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria, and more. 

His campaign website, which is still active, also pledges to “denounce carbon capture and carbon dioxide disposal pipelines,” which work to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and industrial facilities and therefore slow down the pace of climate change. 

Kennedy has also proposed restructuring public funding for vaccine research by “immediately” beginning to study vaccine safety and efficacy, despite the fact that the CDC already has a detailed, seven-step process for developing and approving vaccines.  

He’s also said he’d push for more coverage of “functional medicine,” which uses a holistic approach to chronic diseases, with a focus on nutrition. He also wants to devote 50% of the National Institutes of Health budget to “preventive, alternative, and holistic approaches to health.” 

A history of embracing conspiracy theories

Kennedy has long espoused that vaccines cause autism, so as HHS secretary, he’s likely to conduct additional studies on them, even though vaccines have proven to be incredibly safe and scientific studies and reviews continue to show no relationship between vaccines and autism.

He’s also likely to revisit federal vaccine recommendations, as he’s long criticized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommended list of childhood immunizations, saying the recommendations lack scientific basis and compel parents to vaccinate their children.

It’s worth noting that vaccines are not mandatory, and parents do in fact have a choice in whether or not to vaccinate their children in the United States. 

Kennedy has also claimed that America’s mass shooting epidemic is linked to violent video games and the use of antidepressants like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). He’s spread conspiracy theories that claim that WiFi causes cancer, 5G and cryptocurrency are “instruments of control,” and that chemicals in drinking water are making children transgender, although the video of him saying the latter has since been pulled from YouTube. 

He’s additionally claimed that the COVID-19 virus was somehow genetically targeted to affect specific racial groups. Kennedy’s claims were denounced by groups like the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee, which called the remarks “deeply offensive and incredibly dangerous” in a statement to CNN. In fact, Kennedy also said he believes that COVID vaccine requirements were more restrictive than Nazi Germany, although the video of him saying this has also since been removed from YouTube.

Kennedy also repeatedly framed Dr. Anthony Fauci as a dangerous villain who poses a threat to public health, democracy, and free speech. He even wrote a book about it. 

In continuing his crusade against Fauci—who served as the first Director of AIDS Research for the NIH—RFK Jr. claimed that Fauci attributed the AIDS epidemic to a virus “because that made it an infectious disease, and it allowed him to take control of it.”

In reality, AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), although Kennedy has attributed the devastating spread of HIV/AIDS to the “gay lifestyle” and recreational drugs, saying “there were poppers on sale everywhere at the gay bar.”

Kennedy’s statements are cataloged in the GLAAD Accountability Project, which compiles “anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and discriminatory actions of politicians, commentators, organization heads, religious leaders, and legal figures, who have used their platforms, influence, and power to spread misinformation and harm LGBTQ people.”

Reactions to RFK’s nomination

Despite his conspiracy-fueled views on public health, as HHS secretary, Kennedy would be given enormous power and be responsible for overseeing the operations of the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid, as well as the CDC, the US Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health as the top health official in the US. 

Kennedy’s views have alarmed experts and sparked fear among government health employees. Some FDA employees are even considering resigning from their jobs, which many of them also considered doing when Trump took office for the first time.

“With the first administration, more people took a wait-and-see approach. Now, between the concerns about new post-employment restrictions and the risk of involuntary separation, more people are looking proactively,” one former official told NBC News. 

In response to his nomination, Public Citizen, a progressive nonprofit organization that focuses on consumer advocacy, called Kennedy “a clear and present danger to the nation’s health.” 

“He shouldn’t be allowed in the building at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), let alone be placed in charge of the nation’s public health agency,” the group said in a statement. 

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) called Kennedy’s nomination “f—ing insane” in a post on X. 

“He’s a vaccine denier and a tin foil hat conspiracy theorist,” he wrote. “He will destroy our public health infrastructure and our vaccine distribution systems. This is going to cost lives.” 

RFK Jr.’s nomination will need to be approved by the Senate after Trump’s inauguration.