The public health establishment fears that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will influence Donald J. Trump now he has backed the former president and joined his transition team. A leaked call between RFK Jr. and Trump following the latter’s near-assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, shows Trump expressing misgivings about administering a large number of large dosage vaccines to babies and young children, and the possibility of Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, having a health-focused role in his administration.
Kennedy’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, believes Kennedy would do an “incredible job” as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Trump has not definitively assigned this specific role to Kennedy, and he may receive a more junior role heading a public health commission or agency—with the public health establishment particularly fearful at the prospect of RFK Jr. leading an organization like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“This would be nothing short of chaos,” complained one prominent professor, denouncing Kennedy as a “dangerous fanatic.”
RFK Jr. denies being dogmatically opposed to vaccinations but believes they may be linked to America’s ongoing chronic disease epidemic, particularly the huge rise in autism diagnoses. He believes the fact that pharmaceutical corporations cannot be sued if their vaccines have adverse side effects, in particular, disincentivizes comprehensive safety trials.
Kennedy’s ‘Make America Healthy Again’ platform also stresses the impact of forever chemicals and other pollutants on public health.
FACT: None of the vaccines the CDC recommends for routine injection into children were licensed by the FDA based on a long-term placebo-controlled trial. I will make sure these trials are conducted, so that parents and doctors can make informed choices about children’s health.…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) August 3, 2024