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Robert F Kennedy Jr, a longtime conspiracy theorist and vaccine opponent, now has the ear of President-elect Donald Trump to promote what he's calling the "Make America Healthy Again" agenda.
It's an unlikely alliance between the Kennedy family scion, once a celebrated environmental champion who called for prosecuting climate change deniers, and the returning Republican leader.
What they share, however, is a profound distrust of institutions.
Trump announced Thursday he would nominate Kennedy to become the next secretary of Health and Human Services, fulfilling a campaign promise to award the 70-year-old a "big role in healthcare" that raised alarm in public health circles.
Not long ago Kennedy was a high-powered climate attorney and was even in the mix to become former president Barack Obama's first environment chief.
This makes him a complex figure, some experts say.
In recent days, he's tried to allay fears, telling NPR, "We're not going to take vaccines away from anybody," while adding, "We are going to make sure that Americans have good information."
But Kennedy has spent two decades promoting vaccine conspiracy theories, especially around Covid-19 shots -- the vaccines developed in record time under Trump's first administration.
He also suggested the coronavirus itself was "ethnically targeted" to harm Black and white people while sparing "Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese."
Running initially as an independent candidate, the nephew of the late President John F Kennedy set the campaign ablaze with a string of bizarre revelations.
His claim to have recovered from a parasitic brain worm, made during a divorce deposition, was resurfaced by the New York Times.
He released a video admitting that a decade earlier he had placed a dead six-month-old bear cub in Central Park after initially planning to skin it for meat.
And the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reportedly opened an investigation that Kennedy used a chainsaw to decapitate a dead whale two decades ago to take to his home, as recounted by his daughter Kathleen to Town and Country magazine in 2012.
In August, he withdrew to endorse Trump, a decision denounced by five of his siblings who called it a "betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear."
The pair then hit the trail together to promote the "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) movement, a play on Trump's "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) slogan.
"Our big priority will be to clean up the public health agencies," he declared in a video, echoing progressive critiques that these agencies have become entangled with the very industries they are meant to regulate.
He has also stirred controversy by suggesting he would stop the addition of fluoride to tap water -- a practice aimed at preventing cavities that the CDC considers one of the top 10 health achievements of the 20th century.
But some experts saw merit. "It's not an entirely crazy idea," physician Leana Wen wrote in the Washington Post, noting that, since more and more fluoride comes from toothpaste, the Public Health Service in 2015 recommended lowering its levels in water.
Some studies have linked it to interfering with early brain development and the CDC urges parents of young children to guard against excessive toothpaste use.
If confirmed by the Senate, Kennedy could face pressure from conservative quarters to undo stringent privacy protections for women seeking abortions out-of-state put in place by President Joe Biden's health secretary, Xavier Becerra.
Yet RFK Jr.'s stance on reproductive rights defies easy categorization. Earlier this year, he defended a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy at any stage, saying, "Ultimately, I don't trust government to have jurisdiction over people's bodies."
He later revised his position, favoring a ban after fetal viability, around 24 weeks -- the limit set by a Supreme Court ruling that held sway for half a century before it was overturned in 2022, thanks to Trump-appointed justices.
Kennedy will also tackle the nation's food health, a curious task considering Trump's well-known affection for McDonald's.
He also insists America must curb its chronic disease epidemic, with a particular focus on obesity. But he's also a fan of raw milk, a practice health experts strongly discourage.
© 2024 AFP
43 Comments
buchailldana
Kennedy and Gaetz.
Beyond parody.
This is going to be slash and burn of the most serious variety.
Like a vulture company taking over a country.
Not going to end prettily.
bass4funk
This is great news!
ok1517
With JFK (it's such a disgrace he is carrying that name) another yes-sayer will join Donald's horror cabinet.
Spreading conspiracy theories, fake information, promoting Donald's favorite diet in the future, and so on.
What kind of "human services" will he provide?
Jimizo
Alex Jones might be up for job next. He’s had a few financial problems recently.
dagon
The contradictions between RFK and Trump are just too numerous.
Purely a marriage of convenience with Trump getting the Kennedy glamour and RFK Jr finally ascending to a pivotal government role.
FizzBit
Excellent news. Take the corporate food out of school lunches is one of my big issues. Disgusting processed food. sweetened milk?? Just dumb for the health of our kids.
dutch
Listening to the Louder with Crowder podcast today, they are over the moon with RFKjr's appointment here.
More WONDERFUL news.
What a team of SUPERSTARS!!
JJE
Fantastic news and a big win for public decency and a healthier future. This appointment is actually garnering some bipartisan accolades because many know Big Ag/Pharma are out of control.
Look at his muscles, then criticise him to his face.
virusrex
I guess Samoa was too far for the US public to recognize how nefarious RFKjr is, hopefully he has no actual power to re-enact the same stunt that left scores of dead children by measles thanks to him.
bass4funk
So he has to tow the Democrat-Kennedy line? Why?
I see, so I have to trust these people FDA and big Pharma because their titles tell me to?
We shall see. Relax.
bass4funk
And this from a Democrat. Wow!
https://x.com/jaredpolis/status/1857173250586911189?s=46&t=YGWP_lcRZjddiWlx4QxURQ
Tokyo Guy
Man, I really hope the next major pandemic doesn't kick off with this guy in charge.
wallace
The end of American health care
stormcrow
A convicted felon has nominated a certified quack to take care of America’s health.
buchailldana
So basically Bass, you deem yourself more qualified on medical issues than qualified professionals?
virusrex
No, because they have the evidence to support what they say.
It is also positive that they have not been found to openly lie like RFKjr, lack of brain worms also.
M-pox and Malburg are getting under control, but there are reports of rodent vectored disease outbreaks and arthropod transmitted infections are increasing on importance so it is a race to see if the next pandemic happens before he gets into enough trouble to be fired.
Local outbreaks thanks to new influenza variants (and people promoting raw milk) are a sure bet, things will happen with him at charge and scientists all over the world are going to have lots of new data to show how people denying scientific knowledge can make a lot of damage.
Is going to be like the papers showing how republicans died more from covid but in a much more general way.
bass4funk
Not private
Better than the previous ones that will soon be gone and hopefully to never be seen again. Fantastic news. I hope RFK goes in with a wrecking ball!
Tokyo Guy
A convicted felon has nominated a certified quack to take care of America’s health.
America, the snapshot, 2024.
virusrex
Apparently that is the whole point, to gut public health so private companies can squeeze as much as possible from those in need of any kind of medical attention.
Except for the population, better for the pharmaceutical companies and maybe future generations that can benefit from the reports using the soon available negative control groups for vaccines, medicines, therapies, etc.
wallace
bass4funk
ROFL
40% of Americans can’t afford basic healthcare. Trump promised to change that.
Blacklabel
That’s 2 Democrats in the Cabinet now, great show of unity and bipartisanship from President Trump that has been sorely lacking.
Peter Neil
no doubt that big pharma is a cancer in america.
but a guy who had a worm eat his brain might not be the guy to fix anything.
bass4funk
Maybe that will come in time, but it’s not on the first immediate priority list
bass4funk
As long as they don’t touch my private healthcare provider, I’m OK, Congress needs to work with the Democrats to figure this out for the 22 million that don’t have adequate healthcare.
Bad Haircut
The comments here are hilarious. If Kennedy had taken on this role in a Democrat administration, you lot would be hailing him as a hero standing against the might of the evil food processing and pharma companies. I hope he goes through the FDA with a fine-tooth comb and kicks out anyone with a conflict of interest between them and the people they're supposed to regulate.
There's likely to be a hell of a lot of job vacancies popping up there soon.
Norm
So, what specific programs would like to see decimated? ACA? Medicare? Medicade?
bass4funk
ACA
Fighto!
JJE-
LOL.
What exactly is the old "ex"-heroin junkie going to do?
Zaphod
It is amazing to see the "unbiased" legacy media clamouring against the idea of making the population healthy again. The political derangement still runs strong.
Norm
Of course. American’s first! But we hate Obama, so let’s immediately eliminate the ACA and chuck tens of millions of Americans to the curb and then decide on an alternative healthcare plan whenever it’s convenient for us.
Raw Beer
This is such a disgustingly deceptive way to represent what he said.
You can hear directly what he said here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHyHQiKS3f0
The more they deceptively attack RFKjr, the more people become convinced he's the right person for the job.
bass4funk
Let me ask you something. California has over 58K homeless people, that's just California, we didn't talk about Oregon, Washington State, NYC, or even DC, now these are Dem-run cities, why won't they help these people? Newsom always brags about how well CA is doing. Why do they hate him so much? Before blaming Republicans look at your own toxic policies
https://x.com/RealJamesWoods/status/1857163193509872018
virusrex
Of course they will not, even when it stops covering drugs/surgeries/procedures that will skyrocket in price. The providers will be fine, the insured? not really, but this has been well known already so it should not be a surprise.
Him bein an antiscientific crank do not depend on which party he belongs, but since the Republican party has been the one that embraced scientific denialism it is not realistic to expect RFK to be nominated to anything from the party that has opposed this obviously invalid position.
What everybody is reacting against is a person that has zero qualifications to fulfill that purpose and have actively worked for decades against it based on only two things, debunked personal beliefs and personal profit. There is no bias in recognizing the brain-worm-vehicle nefarious actions that have already caused deaths.
Underworld
Bad Haircut
He's a nutjob. He wouldn't get a job in a Democrat administration.
bass4funk
And that is ok. He has a right to believe what he wants and to bring about or challenge other like-minded scientists who believe the way he does. I would never take the vaccine and I am glad that I didn't.
I think he will be confirmed.
virusrex
He said "covid-19" is ethnically targeted and attacks disproportionately caucasians and black people while others "races" are "mostly immune" in the context of biological weapons. (And tries to magic some imaginary race differences in the ACE receptor that supposedly justify this ethnic targeting)
That is literally how it was described in the text you quote, nothing deceptive in just repeating what he said, if anything you just proved he did say so.
Of course it is important to clarify that this is something he completely imagined and it has zero basis on anything outside of the realm of his worm, no papers at all even hit to this "targeting" he lies when he claims otherwise.
Not me, the scientific community have done that for decades, when you have to reduce yourself to make personal attacks instead of addressing this reality you simply prove you have no arguments against the scientists that have repeatedly criticized him for his lies and actions that have caused actual deaths.
virusrex
He has no right to promote his mistaken ideas when they have been repeatedly debunked, specially when that puts in danger the population. Having other people being as wrong as he to go with him is not the strong argument you think it is, it just means you can easily see how people that are willing to be wrong in public for personal profit tend to gravitate togheter.
What he can't ever do is to prove his beliefs are correct, which is understandable because he has zero qualifications (and an accepted mental disability), not so understandable for other people that should know better.
This is in response to you claiming he would be a star and nominated by the democrats, which makes still absolutely no sense since he is a prime example of what that party has been criticizing. You make no argument to refute this.
Bad Haircut
You commonly make the mistake of lumping all scientists together and inventing a consensus based on opinions you agree with. This is simply low-grade sophistry. There's a wide range of scientific opinion on various vaccines and how safe and effective they are. Not all experts in the field disagree with Kennedy, so you'd be well advised to withdraw your accusation.
Jimizo
Conspiracy theorists should be here for our amusement. It’s teenagers and stunted adults trying to appear perceptive and intelligent.
Don’t employ them in any capacity, let alone in positions of responsibility
virusrex
It is not my fault that the only public declarations from scientific sources addressing RFKjr do it in a terribly negative light based on his lies and deceptions. Which respected scientists say he is right? I would be very interesting to see the evidence they have that proves all the different times he has contradicted well supported conclusions (because obviously someone supporting him without any evidence would not be a scientist in the first place, much less an expert).
There is no sophistry involved, medical and scientific professionals have been repeatedly quoted criticizing him as someone nefarious that has caused deaths.
Personal opinions are not arguments, which person was candidate that has systematically rejected the scientific consensus? a big point of the democratic candidates was that republican denial of scientific truths would hurt the country badly, RFKjr is a prime example of these criticisms so it makes no sense to think he would be accepted as anything from this party.
Jimizo
Incompetent person, not a nut job.
Important distinction.
RFK is absolutely crackers.
Tokyo Guy
Think back to when Trump started with his whole "Covid-19 is a hoax" thing.
Many, many people died of Covid as a result of this. Remember Herman Cain, as a high profile example? Social media is full of other such stories.
The MAGA response was simply to try and shift the semantics of it (the whole "died OF or died WITH" thing).
America is now at a point where half the country literally wouldn't care if another pandemic came along and ripped through the country, as long as "their guy" was in charge of the response.
I would love it if, as a form of trolling, Anthony Fauci rebranded himself as a hardcore Trumper and held a press conference in a MAGA hat, advising everyone to get vaccinated against what might be coming. The cognitive dissonance among the MAGAts would be priceless.
it's interesting that "dying to own the libs" is a commonly used phrase, and yet you never see "dying to own the MAGATs"...
Tokyo Guy
There are loads of properly qualified doctors and scientists who are happy to see Kennedy get this job because they're sick and tired of a thoroughly corrupt FDA hampering their efforts to make sick people healthy and forcing them to give dangerous treatments under threat of losing their licence to practice.
I assume that asking you to provide a list of said "qualified doctors and scientists" would either result in the "do your own research" line or a list of people on X...