Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination for Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is in serious jeopardy. Headlines from across the nation highlight growing opposition to his confirmation and more information on his grifting and lies. Between growing concerns from key senators on RFK Jr.’s dangerous views on vaccines to new revelations about RFK Jr.’s failure to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits from his anti-vaccine group, his nomination has hit rough waters.
Coverage paints a clear picture of the deep danger RFK Jr. poses to American health care. Not only does he oppose lifesaving vaccinations, but he has also downplayed the severity of infectious diseases and plans to gut funding from the FDA and NIH, which will halt progress of essential research on lifesaving drug and vaccine development. He also doesn’t have the experience and skills to run major health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid. RFK Jr. won’t follow the science or trust the experts. Instead, he’ll embrace fringe ideas and promote conspiracies and that’s the last thing we need in charge of America’s health care.
The Hill: Critics Lambast RFK Jr.’s Vax Rhetoric.
- “‘RFK Jr. can’t hide from his record of spreading baseless lies and conspiracy theories about vaccines – it speaks for itself,’ Protect Our Care Executive Director Brad Woodhouse said in a statement. ‘RFK Jr. has more than earned his reputation as an anti-vaccine extremist, and Americans will lose their lives if he is confirmed as HHS Secretary.’
Roll Call: How RFK Jr. Drove Mistrust of a Cancer Prevention Vaccine.
- “If confirmed as Health and Human Services secretary, Kennedy, whose confirmation hearings have not yet been announced, would have a megaphone to spread those claims to the broader public — even as the federal government works to increase HPV vaccination rates among teens.”
CBS News: Over 17,000 Doctors Sign Letter Urging Senate to Reject RFK Jr. As Health Secretary
- “In a letter posted online by the Committee to Protect Health Care, a physician organization that advocates for health policy issues, thousands of doctors urge senators to reject the nomination of Kennedy, saying he is ‘unqualified to lead’ and is ‘actively dangerous.’ ‘This appointment is a slap in the face to every health care professional who has spent their lives working to protect patients from preventable illness and death,’ the letter reads. ‘Americans deserve better.’”
The New York Times: Group of Experts Says R.F.K. Jr. Would ‘Significantly Undermine’ Public Health.
- “A new national coalition of health professionals and scientists, mobilizing to oppose Senate confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the United States’ next health secretary, released a public letter on Monday warning that his ‘unfounded, fringe beliefs could significantly undermine public health practices across the country and around the world.’”
NPR: RFK Jr. Faces a Complicated Confirmation With Some Opposition on Both Sides of the Aisle.
- “Kennedy denies spreading misinformation, though his criticism of vaccines is well known. That’s why some Republicans are also raising concerns, including Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. ‘I’m old enough to remember when children couldn’t go to school for quite some time because of measles,’ Cassidy told NewsNation in November, when Kennedy was being floated as a potential pick for the Department of Health and Human Services.”
Politico: Sen. Bill Cassidy Offers Tepid Response After Meeting With RFK Jr.
- “Bill Cassidy (R-La.) wrote in a tepid social media post following the meeting that he had a ‘frank’ conversation with Kennedy and that the two spoke ‘at length’ about vaccines. On Sunday, Cassidy, a doctor, told Fox News that Kennedy, who has for years contradicted health authorities by advocating against vaccination, was ‘wrong’ about them.”
Daily Beast: RFK Jr. Admits He Didn’t Come Clean on Anti-Vax Fortune.
- “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. failed to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars he made from his anti-vax crusade, Donald Trump’s transition team has admitted to the Daily Beast. Trump’s pick for health secretary previously said his career as the founder, chairman, and general counsel of the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense was ‘unpaid’ and ‘the opposite of a profit motive.’”
Mother Jones: At RFK Jr.-Led Environmental Group, Insiders Questioned How He Spent $67 Million.
- “Tamminen’s letter suggested that he was concerned about possible misconduct at Waterkeeper Alliance, a network of hundreds of organizations across the globe that protect bodies of water, and that he worried that Kennedy was not being straightforward about the matter. The Nygård complaint was ultimately dismissed. But with Kennedy, an anti-vaxxer and conspiracy theorist, tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to run the massive Department of Health and Human Services, this episode—involving millions of dollars—could shed light on his managerial experience and competence.”
Senator Patty Murray: Senator Murray Statement on Meeting with HHS Secretary Nominee RFK Jr.
- “‘But as I have said from the outset—I utterly oppose RFK Jr.’s nomination. If you cannot tell American families the same thing centuries of science and experience tells us—that vaccines save lives—you have no business leading HHS.’”
- “‘It takes no imagination to see how dangerous it would be to confirm RFK Jr. as Health Secretary, and it takes mountains of willful ignorance to ignore it.’”
New York Times: How Lagging Vaccination Could Lead to a Polio Resurgence.
- “Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic who may become the secretary of health and human services, has said the idea that vaccination has nearly eradicated polio is ‘a mythology.’”
- “But the secretary of health and human services has the authority to discourage vaccination in less direct ways. He or she could withdraw federal funds for childhood vaccination programs, hasten the end of school mandates in states already disinclined toward vaccines or fuel doubts about the shots, exacerbating a decline in immunization rates. If polio vaccination rates were to fall, scientists say, the virus could slip into pockets of the country where significant numbers of people are unvaccinated, wreaking havoc once more. The virus may be nearly eradicated in its original form, but resurgence remains a constant threat.”
ProPublica: The Second Trump White House Could Drastically Reshape Infectious Disease Research. Here’s What’s at Stake.
- More recently, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the NIH, has said he wants to fire and replace 600 of the agency’s 20,000 employees and shift research away from infectious diseases and vaccines, which are at the core of NIAID’s mission to understand, treat and prevent infectious, immunologic and allergic diseases.
The Guardian: ‘Life-Or-Death Consequences’: Families Fear Rollback of School Vaccine Requirements Under RFK Jr.
- “Currently, all 50 states have vaccine requirements for children entering childcare and schools. But with Robert F Kennedy Jr – who has peddled baseless conspiracy theories and once said: ‘There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective’ – potentially at the helm of the Department of Health and Human Services, advocates and parents are right to fear a rollback of requirements, enforcements and funding, according to interviews with about a dozen experts.”
NPR: How Would RFK Jr. Handle Bird Flu? His Record On Vaccines Has Experts On Edge.
- “At every step, he can certainly play a role in hampering or being a barrier,” says Syra Madad, director of the special pathogens program at NYC Health + Hospitals. This could be of huge consequence for how prepared the country is to face an escalating crisis.
Politico: Pence Organization Slams RFK Jr.
- “Former Vice President Mike Pence’s organization, Advancing American Freedom, is calling for senators to vote against Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s nomination for Health and Human Services secretary over his past support for abortion access.”