Howard Lutnick, co-chairman of President Donald J. Trump’s transition team, has said that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will not be head of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in a restored Trump administration. However, he defended the former Democrat’s position on vaccine safety, suggesting he wants data, not a Cabinet position.
Lutnick told CNN he had a two-and-a-half-hour meeting with RFK Jr. and that Kennedy had informed him that vaccines were being released for years without any product liability. He explained Kennedy’s concerns around the historical rate of autism in the United States, noting it now afflicts one in 34 young boys.
Despite CNN host Kaitlan Collins claiming that all vaccines are “safe,” Lutnick pushed back, asking, “How do you know they are safe?”
Lutnick confirmed that RFK Jr. will not be put in charge of HHS but said he will be granted access to data that could potentially find links between vaccines and autism. He said a future Trump administration would make companies liable for unsafe vaccines.
RFK Jr. had previously told supporters that President Trump had promised him “control” of the health agencies, including “HHS and its subagencies, CDC, FDA, NIH, and a few others, and then also the USDA.”
Last month, former CDC Director Robert Redfield backed RFK and his policies, saying, “The failing health of our kids, the needless suffering and death, can be ended by a Kennedy Commission on Childhood Chronic Disease—and the vast burden of chronic disease that now demoralizes and bankrupts our nation can disappear.”
Other members of the health establishment, however, have expressed fear of RFK’s influence, particularly regarding childhood vaccines.
Trump transition co-chair Howard Lutnick — in charge of helping staff the gov if he wins — says he had a 2.5 hour meeting with RFK Jr. who talked about pulling (safe and proven) vaccines from the market. Lutnick says RFK will not be in charge of HHS, despite what RFK said. pic.twitter.com/K6wFo6EwqP
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) October 31, 2024