Nov. 14, 2024, 5:08 p.m.
Some congressional Republicans with health backgrounds appeared cautious this week about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who President-elect Trump nominated to be the Health and Human Services secretary.
Kennedy’s involvement with Trump’s team is already causing consternation for public health experts, given his unorthodox views around many areas of health, including vaccines. Trump has said he will let Kennedy “go wild” on health, food, and medicine.
Before Trump announced his nomination, Kennedy had already outlined goals for the incoming administration.
He wrote on X in late October the Food and Drug Administration’s “war on public health is about to end,” taking issue with the agency’s “suppression” of psychedelics, raw milk, and not-scientifically-backed COVID-19 treatments ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. A few days before the election, he posted that Trump will advise U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water.
Historically, Kennedy is known for his anti-vaccine views, although he claimed to not be anti-vaccine in an interview with NBC News. Kennedy also told the news outlet that he wouldn’t “take away anybody’s vaccines” and that he is “going to make sure scientific safety studies and efficacy are out there, and people can make individual assessments about whether that product is going to be good for them."
Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said despite Kennedy saying otherwise, he has “absolutely” been opposed to vaccinations, which is concerning.
“He’s not someone whose advice I would be comfortable with. … This is a guy who’s given us lots of bad advice,” Benjamin said. He added that Kennedy has “lost the public’s trust to start with. Anything he says is going to be suspect even if he says the right thing.”
On Capitol Hill, Republicans, including ones with medical backgrounds, gave mixed signals about Kennedy’s involvement with the Trump team.
Sen. Rand Paul, an ophthalmologist, said he’s “been a good voice for reassessing the crony capitalism that has big corporations, particularly Big Pharma, having an undue influence in regulation and approval of their drugs.”
Paul noted his bill that would require federal agency staff and members of the public health advisory committees to disclose information about royalties they receive. He said the bill has support from Kennedy and wants the Senate to pass it unanimously. The bill advanced out of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee on a 12-0 vote.
“I think we do need to reassess things because it’s almost gotten to the point where they’re destroying confidence in traditional vaccines because they’re now promoting your six-month-old take” a COVID-19 vaccine, he said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends everyone 6 months and older get a COVID-19 vaccine and states that safety monitoring of the vaccination shows that it is safe for children. “While adverse reactions are rare, the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the known risks of COVID-19 and possible severe complications,” the agency says.
But Paul questioned the science around the COVID-19 vaccines for infants while speaking with reporters Tuesday. The Kentucky senator has been critical about various pandemic policies and often sparred with former infectious disease official Anthony Fauci.
After Trump announced his official nomination of Kennedy to head HHS, Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician who will chair the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in the next Congress, said in a statement that Kennedy has championed issues like health foods and greater transparency in health care.
“I look forward to learning more about his other policy positions and how they will support a conservative, pro-American agenda,” he said.
Over in the House, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, also an ophthalmologist, said she needed to see more about his positions and policies.
“Certainly, there are healthy behaviors that we should definitely adopt and would help with chronic diseases and help with overall cost of health care,” she said. “I think that he’s tempered his viewpoint a little bit on vaccines, which I think is very important, especially when it comes to measles, mumps, rubella, polio. But other than that, I really need to know more about what he’s thinking and what policies he would advocate for.”
Rep. Buddy Carter, a pharmacist, said Kennedy’s ultimate role will be up to Trump but added that Kennedy had some “pretty extreme ideas out there” that are against the mainstream. “I think that the health care community is going to have a little bit of tribulation,” he said.
Carter said he met with Kennedy when the Georgia Republican first entered Congress 10 years ago to discuss vaccines. “He’s brought up some good points, but at the same time, vaccines over the years have just saved tremendous amounts of lives,” Carter said.
Rep. Brett Guthrie, chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee's Health Subcommittee, said that “different views are always good.”
“I know I’ve heard more and more people talk about what’s in our food. I know that’s a big issue for him,” said Guthrie, who is vying to be the next chair of the full Energy and Commerce Committee. Guthrie said he has considered food oversight reforms at the FDA in the past and said that it would be worth looking at this part of the agency.
The FDA announced it had started implementing a reorganization plan on Oct. 1, establishing the Human Foods Program to better prevent foodborne illness, reduce diet-related chronic disease, and ensure the safety of chemicals in food.
Lawrence Gostin, faculty director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, said even if Kennedy has some good points, particularly around chronic disease and the American diet, “no one who has a record of disregarding truth and science and evidence should be in the position to influence public health policy and practice in the United States.”
If Kennedy does not become head of a department or agency, he could still “actively deceive the public into believing things that are not true” and turn them against public health officials, said Gostin. “With a phone call, he could influence the decisions of the FDA, the [National Institutes of Health] on treatment guidelines, the CDC on vaccines and other issues,” he said.
Gostin described Kennedy as the “most well-funded and influential anti-vaxxer and science skeptic in the entire world. He should be nowhere near the reins of power.”
