Robert F. Kennedy, anti-vaxxer, conspiracy theorist, and now US health secretary

Donald Trump’s battery of controversial appointments to his incoming administration continues apace. After naming Pete Hegseth, a Fox network host, to head the Pentagon, Tulsi Gabbard, an admirer of Vladimir Putin, to direct the intelligence services, and Matt Gaetz — who during his tenure as a congressman was the subject of a federal investigation into sexual misconduct allegations and accusations of drug use and misappropriation of funds — as attorney general, the president-elect has decided to nominate the anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Kennedy’s appointment has come as no surprise, as for weeks, Trump had made it clear that he would have a role in his administration. “He’s going to help make America healthy again,” the president-elect said at the victory celebration on election night itself. “He’s a great guy and he really means it. He wants to do some things, and we’re going to let him go to it.”

Kennedy began his presidential run as a Democratic candidate, the party of his family dynasty, in the primaries. When he saw that he had no chance against Joe Biden, he launched his candidacy as an independent, only to withdraw and throw his support behind Trump last August. On the eve of the presidential election, Kennedy let slip on social networks that he had received an invitation from the Republican candidate to be “responsible for health.” Shares of Moderna and Novovax, two of the leading makers of coronavirus vaccines, fell following news of the appointment.

“I am thrilled to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as The United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS),” Trump wrote on his social network, Truth Social. “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. 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. 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!” he added. Over the past few weeks, the hashtag Make America Healthy Again (#MAHA) has been gaining traction on the networks.

The day after the election, Kennedy confirmed on X that Trump had asked him for three things: “Clean up the corruption in our government health agencies. Return those agencies to their rich tradition of gold-standard, evidence-based science. Make America Healthy Again by ending the chronic disease epidemic.”

As he advanced on the same social network, Kennedy’s unhinged prescription for the country’s supposed health regeneration is to take on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA): “Their war on public health is about to end,” he said, referring to the “aggressive suppression of [treatments, some of them pseudoscientific, with] psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything else that advances human health and can’t be patented by Pharma. If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.”

The 13 agencies under the HHS, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which played a key role during the pandemic, have wide-ranging responsibilities, from ensuring the safety of medicines, vaccines, and food to medical research and the social safety net of the Medicare (for people aged over 65 and people with disabilities) and Medicaid (for low-income citizens) programs, on which millions of Americans depend. Among the new secretary’s plans is to fire experts from a number of these agencies, according to the public broadcaster PBS.

Kennedy has spread unfounded claims about the alleged link between childhood vaccines and autism, proposed the elimination of fluoride from drinking water and spoken of the potentially harmful effects of food dyes, but Trump has given him carte blanche to, in his own words, “go wild” on food, medicine, and health issues, which until now were overseen by the FDA.

As a lawyer, the black sheep of the Kennedy clan litigated against large corporations, pharmaceutical companies, and federal agencies for allegedly threatening or at least undermining, in his opinion, the health of Americans with toxic chemicals and additives, although he has denied being an anti-vaxxer, despite his demonstrated relationship with Children’s Health Defense, one of the main anti-immunization groups in the U.S. He advocates that studies and research on the subject be made public so that people can choose which, if any, vaccines they receive. In other words, immunization should be an individual decision, something that completely contradicts the herd immunity necessary in schools, for example.

His controversial and sometimes racist comments on Covid-19 — he went so far as to state that it was “targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese” — lockdown measures, vaccines, and other public health issues have caused him to be disowned by his immediate family, including his cousin Caroline — daughter of the assassinated president John F. Kennedy, his uncle — and especially his sister Kerry and her son Jack Kennedy, who has openly mocked his ideas on social networks. The former has deplored her brother’s rhetoric, which in her opinion is “an inexplicable effort” to “set fire to the memory of my father,” Senator Robert Kennedy.

In addition to his conspiracy-laced discourse, very much in line with the circus atmosphere surrounding the future Trump administration, Kennedy has been the protagonist of scandals that seem to be taken from a B movie script, such as his recent confession that years ago he left the dead body of a bear cub unintentionally run over by a friend of his in Central Park.

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