As Donald Trump prepares to retake his seat at the Resolute Desk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has positioned himself to wield sweeping influence over US health care from day one of a new Trump administration.
The Kennedy scion claimed that he and the president elect will remove fluoride from drinking water on Jan. 20. and provide “information” on vaccines, in a Wednesday interview with NPR.
Kennedy, a former environmental attorney—who holds no degrees in public health, science, or medicine—is considered one of nation’s loudest anti-vaccine voices (a movement he denies being affiliated with). According to him, he and Trump will “make America healthy again.”
ADVERTISEMENT
“He knows it better than anybody,” Trump said about the man he once called the “dumbest member” of the Kennedy dynasty on Nov. 1, adding that he “has some views I happen to agree with strongly and I have for a long time.”
Drug companies and federal health agencies, Kennedy has long alleged, are making Americans less healthy.
In an August interview with the Daily Beast, he pointed to wanting to change “emphasis at the NIH from drug development and infectious disease toward ending the chronic disease epidemic,” including what he called the “autism epidemic,” as priority action items.
Although he rejects the label of “anti-vax,” critics point to Kennedy’s involvement as the founder of Children’s Health Defense, the most well-funded anti-vaccine organization in nation, and his vocal opposition to mandatory inoculation at a time when previously eradicated viruses are on the rise in the country as further evidence of him being anti-vaccine.
For years, he has also touted various controversial theories related to to the COVID-19 vaccine and other inoculations, having repeatedly claimed that vaccines are linked to autism, a long debunked idea. He has also suggested that some vaccines be taken off the market—a stance not ruled out by Trump.
“There’s nothing that I would do in office, for people who are happy with their vaccines, that would take that away from them,” Kennedy told the Beast, “I don’t think any medical intervention should be mandated.”
The potential impact of Kennedy’s vaccine rhetoric is not lost on experts, many of whom have warned about potential catastrophic effects.
“He misinforms to the point that children suffer or die, and also stands back and doesn’t take any responsibility for it,” Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia told CNBC.
Kennedy’s sister Kerry Kennedy, also voiced anxiety over her brother’s vaccine rhetoric. “I’m concerned about childhood vaccines and in assuring that the United States both domestically and internationally continues to make all those vaccines available to people and to our Children and to our world,” she said on CNN Wednesday.
As for other potential Trump era public health and health care overhauls, the president elect reportedly tasked Kennedy with tackling women’s health, nutrition and healthy eating and pesticides.
Kennedy also supports removing fluoride from drinking water on the misrepresented argument that fluoride is associated with “arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders and thyroid disease.”
The CDC and the American Dental Association both say fluoridated water does not pose any of these risks at the level currently recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency. Water fluoridation has improved oral health for millions of Americans.
Kennedy’s anti-fluoride agenda, however, “sounds OK to me,” according to Trump.
How exactly Kennedy will execute his reported plans, remains unclear. In a leaked audio recording, he alleged that Trump promised him “control of the public health agencies,” including the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Department of Agriculture.
While Trump transition co-chair Howard Lutnick denied plans to appoint Kennedy as the secretary of Health and Human Services, the president elect himself confirmed Kennedy would have a “very big role” in health care.
The Daily Beast Podcast episodes are released every Thursday. Like and download on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcast app. And click here for email updates as each new episode drops.
