United States President-elect Donald Trump has picked controversial politician and vaccine sceptic Robert F Kennedy Jr to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, a job he lobbied for when suspended his own election campaign and supported that of the Republican candidate.
“I am thrilled to announce Robert F Kennedy Jr as the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services [HHS],” Trump wrote on Thursday on his social media platform, 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.”
High profile and controversial
Kennedy is a contentious but not surprising appointment. He ran for president, first as a Democrat and then as an independent, before dropping out in August and endorsing Trump in exchange for a role in a future administration.
“He’s going to help make America healthy again,” Trump said in his victory speech on November 6. “He wants to do some things, and we’re going to let him get to it.”
The Department of Health and Human Services is in charge of just about everything related to health at a federal level in the US.
It oversees the Food and Drug Administration, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the massive Medicare and Medicaid Services programmes, which provide health coverage for those with limited income, those aged 65 and older, and disabled people.
Kennedy has been part of the transition team and reviewing candidates’ resumes for jobs in the department.
The selection of Kennedy is just one of a flurry of picks Trump has made in recent days to serve in his cabinet – if he can get them confirmed by the Senate.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio has been lined up for secretary of state, a choice that was met with widespread approval.
More controversial have been his selection of outspoken Congressman Matt Gaetz as attorney general, Fox News presenter Pete Hegseth as defence secretary, and former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.
False medical claims
Kennedy will also bring some complications of his own.
He has been criticised for making false medical claims, including that vaccines are linked to autism. He opposed state and federal restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic and was accused of spreading misinformation about the virus.
He also has said he would recommend removing fluoride from drinking water. The addition of the material has been cited as leading to improved dental health.
Historic family
Kennedy is from a family of leading Democratic politicians. His uncle was former President John F Kennedy, who was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, in 1963. His father, Robert F Kennedy, a former US attorney general and senator, was also fatally shot five years later when he was making his own run for the White House.
Kennedy became a high-profile environmental lawyer as founder of the Waterkeeper Alliance that was originally formed to clean up New York’s Hudson River. The group grew to be the largest nonprofit focused on clean water, expanding to 48 countries.
Kennedy suffers from a speech impediment called spasmodic dysphonia, which causes muscles in the larynx to spasm.
His priorities now focus on human health, addressing what he calls the “chronic disease epidemic” of conditions including obesity, diabetes and autism, and reducing chemicals in food.
Kennedy has suggested he would gut the 18,000-employee Food and Drug Administration – which ensures the safety of food, drugs and medical devices – and replace hundreds of employees at the National Institutes of Health.
He has accused the FDA of waging war on options for products that he claims could help human health such as raw milk, certain vitamins and stem cell therapy. He also doubts the effectiveness of measles vaccines.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kennedy claimed the virus was engineered to attack Caucasians and Black people, sparing Chinese people and Ashkenazi Jews.
He also talked about suffering health effects from a worm that got into his brain, ate part of it and died.
His controversial views have led his own family to disavow him. “Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgment,” his siblings said in a statement posted on X. “We denounce his candidacy and believe it to be perilous for our country.”
Taken together, those views could also raise questions about his ability to be confirmed even in a Senate controlled by Republicans.
However, he has become good friends with Trump, who essentially appears to be giving Kennedy free rein to change the US’s health agencies.
“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 said in his statement.
Kennedy’s first challenge may, in fact, be the eating habits of his new boss, who is famously fond of fast food.
He recently said in an interview with the Joe Polish show that Trump’s diet was very bad and that the food on the campaign plane was “practically poison”.