News

More headlines are rolling in that make it clear that RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine beliefs are particularly dangerous as the world faces serious health threats, including the emergence of bird flu (H5N1) and the rise of whooping cough and measles. Vaccines have eradicated diseases from measles and smallpox to polio and will be essential to combatting other infectious disease threats. In addition to RFK Jr. endorsing dangerous anti-vaccination beliefs, he has spread baseless lies and conspiracy theories about fluoride in the water supply, school shootings and antidepressants, and HIV/AIDS, and he promised to stop research on drug development and infectious diseases. 

RFK Jr. is not a public health official fit for office but, instead, an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist who embraces fringe ideas and won’t follow the science or trust the experts. His proposals threaten to raise costs and jeopardize jobs across the nation. The American people deserve a leader at HHS who believes in science, who believes in vaccines, and who is committed to lowering costs and protecting health care for families. If RFK Jr. is confirmed, health care for millions is at risk.

HEADLINES 

Stat: Former Trump FDA Chief Is Seeking to Undermine RFK Jr.’s Senate Confirmation.

• “‘I’ve had conversations, and I’ve raised my concerns and I will continue to raise my concerns,’ Gottlieb said on CNBC in response to a question about whether he’s spoken with individual senators about the prospect of confirming RFK Jr. Gottlieb’s remarks reflect an effort to undermine RFK Jr.’s. nomination before the Senate reconvenes after its Thanksgiving break, when RFK Jr. could begin meeting with senators to discuss his confirmation.” 
• “Beyond his criticism of RFK Jr., Gottlieb also called David Weldon, Trump’s pick to lead the CDC, a ‘very committed anti-vaxxer.’” 

HuffPost: Ex-FDA Commissioner Says RFK Jr. ‘Will Cost Lives’ As Head Of Health Department. 

• “‘If RFK follows through on his intentions — and I believe he will, and I believe he can — it will cost lives in this country,’ Gottlieb said Friday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” ‘You’re going to see measles, mumps and rubella vaccination rates go down,” he said, citing research that suggests just a 5% drop in measles vaccinations would likely have an outsized impact and lead to ‘large measles outbreaks.’”
• “‘I’m not sure how people really understand how Kennedy’s intentions are going to translate into policy, and how serious he is,’ he added on CNBC.

NBC: Trump’s Former FDA Commissioner: ‘It Will Cost Lives in This Country’ if RFK Jr. Follows Through on Intentions.

• “‘I think if RFK follows through on his intentions, and I believe he will, and I believe he can, it will cost lives in this country,” Gottlieb told CNBC, referring to Kennedy, whom President-elect Donald Trump has said he will nominate for health secretary. ‘You’re going to see measles, mumps and rubella vaccination rates go down,’ Gottlieb, who led the FDA under Trump’s first administration, added. ‘And like I said, if we lose another 5%, which could happen the next year or two, we will see large measles outbreaks. For every 1,000 cases of measles that occur in children, there will be one death. And we are not good in this country at diagnosing and treating measles.’”

Washington Post: Trump’s Former FDA Commissioner Warns RFK Jr. Could ‘Cost Lives’ if Confirmed.

• “The nation is approaching a ‘tipping point,’ Gottlieb said, where a continued decline in childhood vaccines could soon lead to measles outbreaks and deaths of children. ‘We’re going to start seeing epidemics of diseases that have long been vanquished, and, God forbid, we see polio reemerge in this country, he said.”
• “He added that Kennedy, who founded one of the country’s most prominent antivaccine groups, had ‘smart people’ around him who could take immediate steps to affect Americans’ access to vaccines, such as changing federal vaccine recommendations. ‘There’s a lot of things that they could do day one, very easily, administratively,’ Gottlieb said.”

NBC: RFK Jr. attacked the CDC’s ‘fascism’ and likened vaccinating children to abuse by the Catholic Church

• “At a 2013 speech for AutismOne, self-described as the largest parent-run autism conference, Kennedy vilified a nebulous group, including vaccine scientists, involved in what he falsely claimed was a conspiracy to hide vaccines as the cause of autism. ‘Is it hyperbole when I say these people should be in jail? They should be in jail and the key should be thrown away,’ Kennedy told the cheering AutismOne crowd before invoking the Bible.” 
• “Del Bigtree, Kennedy’s campaign communications director and leader of the country’s second-best-funded anti-vaccine organization, posted last week that Kennedy, while “strategic,” remains committed to the anti-vaccine cause. ‘Bobby didn’t get dragged through the mud for over a decade just so he could compromise his values once he finally got inside the castle,’ Bigtree said.”

The Independent: RFK Jr Likened CDC to a ‘Nazi Death Camp’ and Vaccinating Children to ‘Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church.’ 

• “RFK Jr said it was not for him to say ‘why someone else is doing something’ before launching into a conspiracy theory about ‘secret’ vaccine letters and how institutions like the CDC ‘go to the extremes.’ ‘To me, this is like the Nazi death camps,’ he said. ‘What happened to these kids, one in 31 boys in this country, is you know, their minds are being robbed.’”
• “His views on the CDC hadn’t changed by 2019, when he spoke at the conference again and likened the federal agency’s vaccine division to ‘fascism.’”

MSNBC: Gov. Green Is Also a Doctor. Here’s Why He Thinks RFK, Jr. ‘Could Doom Us.’

• “83 children had just died, and over 5000 cases of measles that we diagnosed had been spread through the country. It was a disaster, and it was caused in large part by RFK Jr. So he is a terrible pick for HHS secretary, and if he does become our lead health official in the country, you’re going to see outbreaks like this in rural communities, in cities across America. Children will die or have severe disabilities.”

The Guardian: ‘We Learned the Hard Way’: Samoa Remembers a Deadly Measles Outbreak and a Visit From RFK Jr.

• “‘We cannot and should not stay silent. We know what this appointment means. It means more platforms for anti-vaxxers and less funding for vaccines and health programmes,’ Aiono Prof Alec Ekeroma, Samoa’s director general of health, told the Guardian. ‘It must be treated as a threat to our health security.’”

New York Times Opinion: I’ll Never Forget What Kennedy Did During Samoa’s Measles Outbreak.

• “I was in Samoa during that outbreak as part of my more than 16 years of reporting on the anti-vaccine movement. The cause of the outbreak was not the vaccine, but most likely an infected traveler who brought the virus from New Zealand, which that year had had the biggest measles outbreaks in decades, especially among that country’s Indigenous and Pacific Islander communities.” 
• “But, as an editorial in The New Zealand Medical Journal reported, so too was a factor that Mr. Kennedy specializes in: ‘increasing circulation of misinformation leading to distrust and reduced vaccination uptake.’ Samoa’s vaccination rates had fallen to fewer than a third of eligible 1-year-olds.”

Boston Globe Opinion: Rep. Jake Auchincloss: Senate Must Reject Kennedy as Health Secretary. 

• “Kennedy is not just unqualified, he is dangerous — particularly for children. The Senate must reject him.”
• “If Kennedy is charged with overseeing the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he will fuse his personal brand with organs of state to pump out quackery and conspiracy.”
• “Healthier school lunches and less ultraprocessed foods were good ideas when former First Lady Michelle Obama promoted them, and they’re good ideas now. There are thousands of respected health experts, though, who could execute that agenda without also bringing back polio.”

MSNBC: How Trump’s Public Health Picks Could Undermine Americans’ Safety.

• “Trump’s choice to lead that critical department is none other than Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He’s an environmental lawyer by trade, but over the years he has pushed anti-vaccine viewpoints. He said just this year that ‘there is no vaccine that is safe and effective.’”
• “He has pushed flat-out false statements that erode public trust in our top medical institutions, which will likely discourage people from opting to get vaccines that prevent deadly and debilitating diseases.”
• “Public health programs, especially disease prevention, work when enacted on a large scale by the government. When an effort to inoculate a population against a disease works, it’s largely invisible. The absence of an outbreak — or the lack of a crisis — is proof of a successful public health program. No one notices when it works, because that’s the goal. Nothing has gone wrong. When your public health system is strong, you don’t notice that kids don’t get measles, polio or whooping cough.”

New York Times: How Kennedy Has Worked Abroad to Weaken Global Public Health Policy

• “[Kennedy] also spent years working abroad to undermine policies that have been pillars of global health policy for a half-century, records show…by lending his celebrity, and the name of his nonprofit group, Children’s Health Defense, to a network of overseas chapters that sow distrust in vaccine safety and spread misinformation far and wide.”
• “Mr. Kennedy has partnered with, financed or promoted fringe figures — people who claim that 5G cellphone towers cause cancer, that homosexuality and contraceptive education are part of a global conspiracy to reduce African fertility and that the World Health Organization is trying to steal countries’ sovereignty.”

CNN: ‘Drastic and Terrible Impact’: What Kennedy’s Confirmation as HHS Secretary Could Mean for Global Health.

• “Health experts fear that he could undercut decades of work to control the spread of infectious diseases such as measles, polio and HIV; hamper international research collaborations; and scuttle current efforts to increase global coordination and cooperation ahead of future pandemics.”
• “‘Ultimately, the secretary is the CEO of the largest health, medical and scientific enterprise in the world,’ said Dr. Richard Carmona, who served as US surgeon general under President George W. Bush. ‘The world depends on us, for our science, for our emergency capabilities, for our ability to surge and help others.’”

Axios: How RFK Jr. Could Use Levers of HHS to Shape Vaccine and Drug Outcomes.

• “Experts say RFK Jr.’s public calls for more transparency and vows to shore up the trustworthiness of federal health agencies may translate into more requests for vaccine safety data and into appointing like-minded individuals to advisory panels that could influence coverage of drugs, services and devices. They also say it could result in shifting public health funding to chronic disease or environmental health and away from infectious disease, or a diversion of federal investment to study unproven health issues instead of known risks. And they’re expecting attempts to remove job protections from career federal employees who work in policymaking roles and reduce the ranks of officials who don’t align with RFK Jr.’s goals.”

Salon: Bird Flu Is Getting Worse. Disease Experts Worry Trump and RFK Jr. Will Mangle Response Like COVID.

• “Dr. Rajendram Rajnarayanan, of the New York Institute of Technology campus in Jonesboro, Arkansas, told Salon he’s concerned about proposed cuts to staff at various government agencies and how that will affect the future of bird flu monitoring. ‘Cuts to these agencies could severely diminish their capacity to monitor and respond to emerging infectious diseases,’ Rajnarayanan said.”

HuffPost: The Biden Administration Made A Big Decision On Ozempic, But RFK Jr. Could Tank It.

• “But the process of changing federal regulations can take months, or sometimes years. That means the fate of this proposal will be in the hands of Becerra’s successor, which means it could be in the hands of Kennedy. And Kennedy has made his opposition to the drugs clear.”

New York Times: Kennedy’s Inheritance: How Addiction and Trauma Shaped a Turbulent Life.

• “As an anti-vaccine advocate, Mr. Kennedy has plunged into dark and conspiratorial views of government, the press, scientific institutions and especially the drug industry. He has promoted wild and debunked theories, suggesting AIDS could be caused by ‘poppers,’ an inhaled drug popularized by gay men in the 1970s, rather than H.I.V. He backed a documentary asserting that the 2020 pandemic was a ‘plandemic’ — an event orchestrated by the government as part of an effort to undermine American liberties.”

Axios: RFK Jr.’s Past Could Haunt Nomination Process.

• “News stories published over the past few days highlight Kennedy’s key vulnerabilities, including the wildcard presented by his colorful past. A deeply reported piece by the New York Times discusses his ‘drug addiction, compulsive sexual behavior and deep dives into conspiracy theories,’ including his arrest and conviction for heroin possession and a journal he kept documenting sexual encounters with more than three dozen women in one year. Kennedy was accused of sexual assault in the late 1990s by a woman who interned at his law clinic and babysat for his family. The woman has said she’s willing to testify before the Senate, the Wall Street Journal reports.”

Mother Jones: A Super-PAC Backing RFK Offers Paid Access to Him at Mar-a-Lago.

• “The price of enjoying Kennedy’s company at the fundraiser, set to take place on the Trump-owned club’s Lakeview Terrace, is $25,000 each, or $40,000 for a couple. Experts on federal election law say that such a bald exchange—a large donation in exchange for access to a powerful incoming government official—is technically legal, but ethically ill-advised.”

***MEDIA ADVISORY FOR MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, AT 12 PM CT // 1 PM ET***

RFK Jr.’s Nomination for HHS Secretary puts American Lives at Risk and Threatens the Future of Health Care

Saint Paul, Minn. – On Monday, December 2 at 12 PM CT // 1 PM ET, Attorney General Keith Ellison will join Protect Our Care Minnesota to sound the alarm on Donald Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary. If RFK Jr. is confirmed, it will put Minnesotans’ lives at risk and jeopardize critical programs like the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid. RFK Jr. is deeply unqualified to serve in this position as he has no leadership qualifications in any role in public health or a government agency. Additionally, his fringe views on vaccines and his disregard of science and public health makes him a danger to the American people.

As HHS Secretary, RFK Jr.’s sole focus will be pushing these radical policies that will undermine decades of progress to lower health care costs, conduct research on life-saving cures for diseases, and keep Minnesotans healthy. Minnesotans deserve a leader at HHS who believes in science, the efficacy of vaccines, and who is committed to strengthening and expanding health care policies enacted since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Speakers will discuss how RFK Jr.’s leadership will affect nearly every Minnesotan, as he will prioritize his own interests and bolster MAGA efforts to increase health care costs by slashing Medicaid, repealing the ACA, and banning Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices.

PRESS CALL

WHO:
Attorney General Keith Ellison
Patsy Stinchfield, NP, retired infectious disease consultant
Jessica Intermill, health care advocate
Laura Smith, Protect Our Care Minnesota

WHAT: Virtual Press Conference

WHEN: Monday, December 2, 2024 at 12 PM CT // 1 PM ET

WHERE: Register for the virtual event here (Registration required)

***MEDIA ADVISORY FOR TUESDAY NOVEMBER 26***

U.S. Reps. Dan Goldman, Wiley Nickel, State Lawmakers, Health Care Advocates Headline Events in New York and North Carolina

Today, U.S. Representatives Dan Goldman (NY-10) and Wiley Nickel (NC-13), state lawmakers, health care professionals, and advocates will join Protect Our Care in five states to sound the alarm on Donald Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary. If RFK Jr. is confirmed, it will put American lives at risk and jeopardize critical programs like the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid. RFK Jr. is deeply unqualified to serve in this position as he has no leadership qualifications in any role in public health or a government agency. Additionally, his fringe views on vaccines and his disregard of science and public health makes him a danger to the American people. 

As HHS Secretary, RFK Jr.’s sole focus will be pushing these radical policies that will undermine decades of progress to lower health care costs, conduct research on life-saving cures for diseases, and keep Americans healthy. America deserves a leader at HHS who believes in science, the efficacy of vaccines, and who is committed to strengthening and expanding health care policies enacted since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Speakers will discuss how RFK Jr. ‘s leadership will affect nearly every person across the country, as he will prioritize his own interests and bolster MAGA efforts to increase health care costs by slashing Medicaid, repealing the ACA, and banning Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices. 

NEW YORK

WHO:
Congressman Dan Goldman (NY-10)
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine
Amelia Bittel, Syracuse health care advocate
Jennie Spector, Brooklyn health care advocate
Raziya Hill, Buffalo advocate

WHAT: Virtual Press Conference

WHEN: Tuesday, November 26, 2024 at 9 AM ET

WHERE: Register for the virtual event here (Registration required)

NORTH CAROLINA

WHO:
Congressman Wiley Nickel (NC-13)
Stacy Staggs, Little Lobbyists
Haywood Watson, health care storyteller

WHAT: Virtual Press Conference

WHEN: Tuesday, November 26th at 10 AM ET

WHERE: Register for the virtual event here (Registration required)

PENNSYLVANIA

WHO:
Rep. Arvind Venkat, MD
Rebecca Parks, Protect Our Care Research Director
Michael Berman, Protect Our Care Pennsylvania Director 

WHAT: Virtual Press Conference

WHEN: Tuesday, November 26th at 11 AM ET

WHERE: Register for the virtual event here (Registration required)

ARIZONA

WHO:
Dr. Larry DeLuca
Ashley Chambers, Arizona Families for Vaccines
Bridget Sharpe, HRC Arizona

WHAT: Virtual Press Conference

WHEN: Tuesday, November 26th at 10 AM MST // 12 PM ET

WHERE: Register for the virtual event here (Registration required)

ALASKA

WHO:
Senator Elvi Gray-Jackson
AFL-CIO President Joelle Hall
Alaska Caretaker’s Union Senior Political and Advocacy Advisor Judy Jessen

WHAT: Virtual Press Conference 

WHEN: Tuesday, November 26th at 5:30 PM AKST // 9:30 PM ET

WHERE: Register for the virtual event here (Registration required)

Over the weekend, Donald Trump announced another round of critical health care nominations: David Weldon as CDC Director, Marty Makary as FDA Commissioner, and Dr. Janette Nesheiwat as Surgeon General. All of these nominees have expressed dangerous anti-vaccine beliefs and hold radical positions that would put the health and well-being of millions of Americans at stake. Combined with the nominations of RFK Jr. for HHS Secretary and Dr. Mehmet Oz for CMS Administrator, these choices indicate that Trump is all in on his mission to cut critical public health programs, undermine research for diseases, and throw the health care system into chaos. Experts say with the rise of H5N1, the next pandemic is right around the corner. With Trump’s nominees at the helm of our health care system, America will be severely underprepared for whatever we face next. 

COVERAGE

The Choices Donald Trump Makes Regarding Health Care and Public Health Will Be ”Catastrophic.” “Diplomats for the world’s nations are nearly three years into talks aimed at setting countries’ obligations whenever the next pandemic comes. But with President-elect Donald Trump likely to pull the U.S. out of the negotiations, the entire effort could fall apart. A U.S. withdrawal could potentially see other nations withdraw from the talks, as Trump might try to persuade allied nations to follow suit, said Larry Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University. ‘This would be catastrophic after all we suffered with Covid — three years of international negotiations to see it all unravel because of the election of one isolationist,’ he said.” [Politico, 11/13/24]

• The CDC May To Lose Authority to Act In Public Health Emergencies. “Health-related agencies are most likely to see a loss in capabilities, namely the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)… Under Trump, the agency would ‘most likely lose the authority to enact the few actions it is empowered to use in public emergencies,’ said The New York Times. This includes ‘pausing housing evictions, limiting the movements of cruise ships and requiring masks on public transportation.’” [The Week, 11/21/24]

People Who Know Best Are Sounding the Alarm at the State of the Trump Public Health Agenda.“Some doctors and scientists are bracing themselves for the gutting of public health agencies, a loss of scientific expertise and the injection of politics into realms once reserved for academics. The result, they fear, could be worse health outcomes, more preventable deaths and a reduced ability to respond to looming health threats, like the next pandemic.” [New York Times, 11/23/24]

• CDC Director Mandy Cohen Is Worried About The Future. “With two months to go before the end of the Biden administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Mandy Cohen says she’s worried about the future of the public health agency and the people it serves. House GOP appropriators are pushing a 22 percent cut to the sprawling public health agency. President-elect Donald Trump has nominated a vaccine skeptic, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to lead the Department of Health and Human Services… She worries that… combined with Kennedy and a Republican-led Congress skeptical of the agency, [Trump] will undo much of the progress the Biden administration made in upping vaccination coverage and reducing unnecessary deaths.” [Roll Call, 11/20/24]
• Dr. Jerome Adams, Trump’s First-Term U.S. Surgeon General, Warns About Whooping Cough, Measles, and H5N1. “Dr. Jerome Adams, who served as U.S. surgeon general during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term, warned on Saturday that the incoming administration needs a ‘strong infectious disease response plan’ as cases rise in three public health threats. ‘The new administration had better have a strong infectious disease response plan- and had better ensure public health and vaccine confidence stays high. Or they’ll be distracted with outbreaks for 4 years this time instead of 1,’ he wrote, referencing the COVID-19 pandemic. Whooping cough, or pertussis, cases are ‘up 5x this year,’ Adams said on Saturday of the highly contagious respiratory illness. Adams also warned about measles, noting that this year there have been ‘100,000 global measles deaths—mostly in kids.’ Adams then turned to bird flu, writing on Saturday in his X post: ‘H5N1 steamrolling towards pandemic status.’” [Newsweek, 11/23/24]

Robert F. Kennedy’s Anti-Vaccine Beliefs and Promotion of Raw Milk Potentially Deadly Amidst Growing H5N1 Outbreaks. “[Robert F.] Kennedy threatened to fire F.D.A. employees who have waged a ‘war on public health.’ He listed some of the products that he claimed the F.D.A. had subjected to ‘aggressive suppression,’ including ivermectin, raw milk and vitamins as well as therapies involving stem cells, and hyperbaric oxygen. …Promoting consumption of raw milk — or silencing the F.D.A. from warning about its risks — is ‘probably a bad idea,’ in the middle of a bird flu outbreak, said Dr. Georges C. Benjamin, the executive director of the American Public Health Association. Doing so ‘would be fine until he gets his first bacterial outbreak in the population of kids drinking raw milk and someone dies because he encouraged people to drink raw milk,’ Dr. Benjamin said.” [New York Times, 11/12/24]

• RFK Jr. Has “No Idea” About Public Health and Infectious Diseases. “With the Covid pandemic having struck only a few years ago and new health threats on the rise, Mr Kennedy’s nomination is considered a cause for concern by some. ‘As far as pandemic preparedness goes, this is likely to be a negative,’ Dr Abraar Karan, an infectious diseases doctor at Stanford University, told The National. ‘RFK has already said he wants to take focus away from infectious disease threats at a time when threats are increasing. This suggests to me that he really has no idea about what is actually going on here…’ Mr Kennedy said in a town hall when he was running as an independent presidential candidate that he would tell the NIH to pause drug development and infectious diseases work to focus on chronic disease” [The National News, 11/15/24]

The Choice of Dr. Oz Highlights Growing Concerns of the Anti-Vaccine, Pseudoscience “Snake Oil” Cures Taking Over the Trump Administration. “President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Mehmet Oz, the celebrity physician and TV personality known as Dr. Oz, to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. During the pandemic, Dr. Oz, 64, pushed unproven theories about Covid-19 cures, including hydroxychloroquine, that caught Trump’s eye.” [Politico, 11/19/24]

• Trump Has Given “His Middle Finger To Science.” “[Dr.] Oz has promoted questionable health advice to national television audiences. In 2014, he testified before the Senate after being accused of false advertising for supplements he promoted on his show. In 2015, 10 doctors wrote a letter urging Columbia University’s medical school to fire him, arguing that much of the advice on his TV show has been found to be unsupported by scientific evidence, and in some cases, contradicted by it… ‘By nominating RFK Jr & Mehmet Oz, Trump is giving his middle finger to science,’ wrote [faculty director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University Lawrence] Gostin. [NPR, 11/19/24]

Vaccine Skeptic and Fox News Contributor Chosen to Lead the FDA. “President-elect Donald Trump on Friday nominated… Marty Makary to lead the Food and Drug Administration… who gained national attention for opposing vaccine mandates and some other public health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.” [PBS, 11/24/24]

• Marty Makary is a TV Personality Who Gained Notoriety by Opposing Basic Public Health Measures During the COVID-19 Pandemic.  “[Marty Makary] frequently appeared on Fox News and wrote opinion articles that questioned the value of lockdowns and masks for children… Among his views was that the U.S. government was underestimating the number of people who were likely immune to the virus. In early 2021, he predicted much of the country would reach “herd immunity” by that April, reducing risk of the virus dramatically. That assumption, however, did not happen. As restrictions eased and a new variant surfaced, virus-related deaths soared from about 4,000 a week to about 15,000 a week by September, making 2021 a deadlier year than when the pandemic began.” [ABC, 11/22/24]

Dr. Dave Weldon Has Been Critical Of The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – The Very Agency He Is Nominated to Lead. “As a member of Congress, Dr. Weldon pushed the false notion that thimerosal, a preservative compound in some vaccines, had caused an explosion of autism — a hypothesis that experts say has no evidence. He also introduced a “vaccine safety bill” that aimed to relocate most vaccine safety research from the C.D.C. — which he said had an “inherent conflict of interest” — to a separate agency within the Department of Health and Human Services. [New York Times, 11/22/24]

• Dr. Weldon Has Pushed The Lie That Vaccines Cause Autism. “Weldon was one of the few members of Congress to support the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism and pushed the government to study a connection between vaccines and autism. He was a founding member of the Congressional Autism Caucus and pushed for thimerosal to be removed from vaccines. Thimerosal was largely removed from all childhood vaccines in 2001. Flu shots were an exception; Weldon sponsored legislation to ban preservative levels of thimerosal from them as well. In a 2008 press release, he accused the CDC of prioritizing high immunization rates while ‘vaccine safety ranks near the bottom both in priorities and funding.’” [Washington Post, 11/22/24]

Janette Nesheiwat’s Lack of Public Health Experience May Be Dangerous for Americans Already Facing Down Three Outbreak-Level Crises. “President-elect Donald J. Trump on Friday selected Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a New York medical director with family ties to his first administration and a Fox News contributor, to be the next surgeon general of the United States… The selection of a doctor with little public health experience worried some experts… ‘the surgeon general can move public opinion on our national health with his or her reports and pronouncements,’ said Dr. Markel, the author of “Quarantine!,” a book about the 1892 typhus and cholera epidemics in New York. ‘Consequently, selecting a candidate many might deride as a ‘doc in the box’ director without any real public health credentials or experience is a time bomb without a clear idea of when ‘the boom’ is going to occur.’” [New York Times, 11/23/24]

• Trump Nominates Yet Another Fox News Contributor. “Many Americans will know her as a Fox News contributor who has discussed issues such as the mpox strain, the effects of alcohol and drug use, or natural disaster relief.” [Reuters, 11/22/24]

Another RFK Anti-Vaccine Ally Top of Trump’s List to Run NIH. “Covid-19 lockdown skeptic Jay Bhattacharya has emerged as the frontrunner to run the National Institutes of Health, according to two people familiar with the matter. The nomination of Bhattacharya, who rose to prominence during the pandemic for opposing lockdown restrictions, would put another ally of Robert Kennedy Jr, the vaccine skeptic who is Trump’s pick to run the US health department, in charge of one of the country’s most powerful public health agencies. Alongside two other[s]… Bhattacharya became the face of the ‘Great Barrington Declaration’ during the pandemic, an open letter published in October 2020 opposing widescale lockdowns and instead calling for restrictions focused on at-risk groups, such as elderly individuals. The letter provoked criticism from then-NIH director Francis Collins, who dismissed the authors as ‘fringe experts.’” [Financial Times, 11/23/24]

Across the country, health professionals and activists have raised the alarm in response to Donald Trump nominating conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the next Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). RFK Jr. is a MAGA loyalist who will ignore the needs of the American people in order to put first the personal interests of Donald Trump and his reckless schemes to take away Medicaid from millions, repeal the Affordable Care Act, and raise prescription drug prices. For years, Kennedy has spouted dangerous anti-vaccination beliefs and spread baseless lies about fluoride in the water supply. The bottom line is that RFK Jr. is unqualified to lead HHS and radically out of step with the medical community and American people. If confirmed, he will be a disaster for our public health. 

Maine Public: Medical Professionals Object to Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s Nomination. 

• “Dr. Patrica Hymanson, a former Maine state representative, said Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine and lack of leadership experience concern her most. ‘Mainers deserve a leader at HHS who follows science and who is committed to strengthening healthcare policies not torching them,’ Hymanson said.”

Portland Press Herald: Public Health Advocates Rail Against Trump’s Nomination of RFK Jr. For Cabinet Post.

• “But Dr. Patricia Hymanson, a retired physician and former state lawmaker, said Kennedy has ‘embraced radical conspiracy theories’ about science and medicine. Hymanson also called out Kennedy for wanting to pause scientific research into new medications.”
• “Kennedy made an appearance in 2015 before the Maine Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee, where he repeated debunked claims about vaccines as lawmakers were debating a vaccine bill. Maine lawmakers eventually passed a bill that eliminated religious and philosophic exemptions for school-required vaccinations. Since the law went into effect, Maine’s kindergarten vaccination rates have improved and are among the best in the nation.”

FOX 23: Maine Medical Professionals Warn Against RFK Jr. Becoming Head of DHHS.

• “‘With the swipe of a pen, he could stop vaccines from coming out, he could stop research into important medications,’ Dr. Patricia Hymanson said. ‘He could stop things that have historically saved lives.’”

WGME: Maine Medical Professionals Warn Against RFK Jr. Becoming Head of DHHS.

• “Speaking Friday at Portland City Hall a group of Maine health care professionals and activists said Kennedy is “deeply unqualified” and has fringe views on vaccines and a disregard for science, making him a danger to the American people.”

WMTW: “Protect Our Care” Warns Against Nomination of RFK Jr. to Lead HHS.

• “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is Trump’s pick for the Department of Health and Human Services but the organization “Protect Our Care” believes Kennedy is a threat to American healthcare. At a press conference this afternoon healthcare professionals warned Kennedy is unqualified for the position and they say his views on several public health issues will put the nation at risk.”

WABE: Sen. Kim Jackson Joins Protect Our Care Georgia to Speak Out Against RFK Jr.’s HHS Nomination.

• “During an early morning news conference, Jackson said she had a profound obligation to speak out against the nomination. ‘This is not just a bad idea. It is a threat to the health and well-being of every Georgian and every American.’”
• “Jackson warned that with Kennedy as the nation’s top health official, it could jeopardize the future of the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid. Senator Jackson also voiced concern about the department’s efforts to cure Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, diabetes and treat mental illness.”

Public News Service: Health Experts Speak Out Against RFK Jr. Leading Health and Human Services.

• “Dr. Diana Dayal, an emergency room resident physician at UCLA Medical Center and a union representative, said she’s troubled by Kennedy’s beliefs. ‘He has touted countless baseless claims time and time again that have later been contradicted by expert review,’ Dayal pointed out. ‘From his takes on vaccine development to fluoride safety, he misrepresents isolated data as conclusive and then interprets other studies incorrectly. Conveniently he then ignores vast scientific evidence and peer review that runs counter to his beliefs.’”
• “Chris Noble, organizing director for the group Health Access California, noted Kennedy once called the COVID-19 vaccine the ‘deadliest vaccine ever made.’ ‘RFK Jr. will continue to propagate medical conspiracies that further erode trust in evidence-based medicine that will result in preventable death and grave threats to public health if given a seat of power,’ Noble contended.”

Kiowa County Press: Healthcare Advocates Oppose RFK Jr.’s HHS Nomination Over Vaccine Views and Healthcare Stance.

• “Matthew Herdman, California State Director with the nonprofit Protect Our Care, says RFK Jr. has falsely linked vaccines to autism. ‘When he went to American Samoa to talk about vaccine safety there, almost immediately afterwards, there was a large measles outbreak that led to 83 Americans losing their lives. I would be terrified to see that happen, spread nationwide across our country.’”

KJZZ: Arizona Health Expert on RFK Jr. Nomination: He Uses ‘Folklore Rather Than Science.’

• “Humble says Kennedy sticks to his beliefs rather than using evidence.‘He’s got a long track record of honestly using folklore rather than science to form opinions about what he thinks should be public policy,’ he said. Humble notes Kennedy would have oversight over the government’s most pivotal health agencies, including the CDC, FDA and National Institutes of Health.”

AZ PBS: RFK Jr. Nominated as Health Secretary, Sparks Public Health Debate.

• “Will Humble, Executive Director at Arizona Public Health Association, joined “Arizona Horizon,” to discuss the ramifications of this decision.‘He [RFK] has a long track record of believing things that don’t have evidence associated with them,’ Humble said. ‘If you put a person who doesn’t believe in the scientific method and doesn’t use evidence to drive his decision making in charge of those agencies, it’s alarming.’”

***MEDIA ADVISORY FOR MONDAY NOVEMBER 25 AT 11 AM ET***

RFK Jr.’s Nomination for HHS Secretary puts American Lives at Risk and Threatens the Future of Health Care

Today, Monday, November 25 at 11 AM ET, Ohio leaders will join Protect Our Care Ohio to sound the alarm on Donald Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary. If RFK Jr. is confirmed, it will put Ohioan lives at risk and jeopardize critical programs like the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid.

RFK Jr. is deeply unqualified to serve in this position as he has no leadership qualifications in any role in public health or a government agency.  Additionally, his fringe views on vaccines and his disregard of science and public health makes him a danger to the American people. As HHS Secretary, RFK Jr.’s sole focus will be pushing these radical policies that will undermine decades of progress to lower health care costs, conduct research on life-saving cures for diseases, and keep Ohioans healthy. Ohioans deserve a leader at HHS who believes in science, the efficacy of vaccines, and who is committed to strengthening and expanding health care policies enacted since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Speakers will discuss how RFK Jr.’s leadership will affect nearly every Ohioan, as he will prioritize his own interests and bolster efforts to increase health care costs by slashing Medicaid, repealing the ACA, and banning Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices.

PRESS CALL

WHO:
State Rep. Elgin Rogers
State Rep. Michele Grim
State Rep. Terrence Upchurch
Dr. John Ross, President of the Board, Toledo Lucas County Health Department; former president of Physicians for a National Health Program

WHAT: Virtual Press Conference

WHEN: Monday, November 25 at 11 AM ET

WHERE: Register for the virtual event here (Registration required)

Public Health Experts Assail “Out-and-Out Crank” RFK Jr. and “Middle Finger To Science” Dr. Oz

Over the past week, Donald Trump has made two of the most devastating blows to American health care by nominating Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Oz to run the two biggest health institutions in the government. Throughout their careers, they have ignored science to instead promote fake “cures” that put lives at risk. Kennedy is an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist with no experience or qualifications for any role in managing our nation’s health care, least of all leading the Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Oz made his name by advertising health scams on television. Neither is fit to be in charge of millions of Americans’ health care.

Protect Our Care Executive Director Brad Woodhouse issued a statement:

“Both RFK Jr. and Dr. Oz have one thing in common: they are junk science grifters who are deeply unfit to run America’s health institutions. With the two of them at the helm of American health care, we would be headed down a dark path. The consequences of these reckless nominations will touch nearly every household in the nation and every senator who cares about the health of their constituents should oppose them.”

The Bulwark: Entering Our Crank Era. 

• “The first is that Trump’s nomination of an out-and-out crank to run HHS is the strongest proof yet that the president-elect truly learned nothing from his experience quarterbacking the federal pandemic response.”
• “Pandemic or no pandemic, putting Kennedy at the helm of HHS will matter. Such is the case when you entrust a guy to run our health agencies who has organized his entire worldview around the hunch that scientific and medical subject-matter experts can never be trusted.”
• “I spoke with Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician and virologist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. When it comes to public health, Offit is an American hero: He is the coinventor of the pediatric rotavirus vaccine, and he serves on the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee. He’s also no reflexive Trump hater. But when I asked him about RFK Jr., he didn’t hold back: ‘He’s like the anti-science secretary…I think anybody who hears what he says should realize you shouldn’t have a science denialist heading agencies that are based on science. As HHS secretary, Offit said, Kennedy would be able to do substantial damage very quickly. He could dissolve HHS’s advisory committees, which give the department an enviable reservoir of public health knowledge. He could grind the approval of new state-of-the-art treatments to a standstill and even revoke approvals from treatments and vaccines already on the market. He could work to expose vaccine manufacturers to additional frivolous legislation. Much of this, we should note, Kennedy is on record supporting.”

Alternet: ‘Middle Finger To Science’: Experts Blast Trump’s ‘Single Most Important’ Healthy Policy Pick.

• “KFF chief executive officer Drew Altman wrote: ‘The single most important position in health policy goes to… Dr Oz.’”
• “American Economic Liberties Project researcher Matt Stoller commented: ‘Dr. Oz is not a good pick for a very powerful position in charge of a trillion dollars+ of health care spending. He wants to privatize what’s left of traditional Medicare and owns stock in a bunch of big health platform companies like United and CVS.’”
• “Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch wrote: ‘We are all going to die.’”
• “Lawrence Gostin, O’Neill Chair in Global Health Law at Georgetown Law, added: ‘Dr Oz is unfit to run CMS. He peddles conspiracy theories on vaccines & fake cures. He profits from fringe medical ideas. By nominating RFK Jr & Mehmet Oz, Trump is giving his middle finger to science. Having worked for 40 years in public health, it’s utterly disheartening.’”

Common Dreams: ‘Unfit’: Trump Nominates Dr. Oz to Run Medicare. 

• “If confirmed to be the next U.S. secretary of health and human services, anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could be working ‘closely’ with another official who’s infamous for his questionable health guidance: Dr. Mehmet Oz, who President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.”
• “Oz has spent years peddling health advice, half of which University of Alberta researchers found to be ‘baseless or wrong’ in a 2014 study published in the British Medical Journal.”
• “Oz has also maintained close ties to multi-level marketing companies that promote products like vitamins with false claims about their ability to treat, cure, or prevent diseases.”

Slate (Opinion): You Know RFK Jr. Is Going to Be Bad. It Might Get Even Worse. 

• “The most dangerous thing Donald Trump is poised to do in his second administration… is elevate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a messianic, conspiracy-theorist, anti-vaccine menace to society. If Kennedy stands for confirmation as secretary of Health and Human Services, as Trump has announced, we should all march on the Capitol with tetanus-tipped pitchforks (metaphorically, of course) to protect global health and prevent us from going back a hundred years in health time.”
• “It’s a fucking catastrophe. Kennedy can’t ban vaccines, but he can make it harder to get them. Even if you and yours are vaccinated, most vaccines don’t provide perfect immunity, so you are at risk as diseases circulate among unvaccinated people.” 
• “[A]s long as Kennedy is in the spotlight and getting respectful coverage, public health is at risk. Brace yourselves. We’re about to be deluged with the most brazen and dangerous lies of our lifetimes.”

The Los Angeles Times (Opinion): Trump’s Anti-Science Backers Go After Water Fluoridation, A Historic Healthcare Success. 

• “Kennedy’s tweet about fluoridation exemplifies the anti-vaccine crowd’s method of casting doubt on established public health policies. There are two elements. One is to portray rare adverse health effects — some so rare that their very existence is questionable — as major and acute threats. The second is to downplay the beneficial effects of a policy. That leaves the public believing that the policy has only adverse effects, and that those are immediate and severe.” 
• “Kennedy’s mindset is curious: He has promoted treatment of COVID-19 with ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, which have been proven to be useless for the purpose, but he campaigns against fluoridation, which has demonstrated a health benefit over nearly eight decades. Is this any way to run a public health agency such as the HHS?”

The New York Times: Dr. Oz, Tapped to Run Medicare, Has a Record of Promoting Health Misinformation.

• “On and off the screen, he has used his influence as one of the nation’s most recognizable doctors to champion healthy habits like a nutritious diet. But he has also sown misinformation — about Covid treatments, weight loss hacks and unproven supplements. He has invested in drug companies, even as he has publicly taken aim at Big Pharma, and has profited from a medical device that he helped invent but that has been subject to several recalls.”
• “His nomination has alarmed some doctors and those who work in public health. ‘I just don’t know what side of Dr. Oz we’re going to see,’ said Dr. Pieter Cohen, a physician and associate professor at Harvard Medical School who studies supplements.”

The Hill: 5 of RFK Jr.’s Most Controversial Views. 

• “President-elect Trump’s decision to nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary will put some of the former independent presidential candidate’s most controversial views under deep scrutiny.”
• “Kennedy is perhaps best known for his opposition to vaccinations, though he has balked at being labeled ‘anti-vaccine.’ The COVID-19 pandemic launched Kennedy’s anti-vaccine rhetoric to new heights.” 
• “He vehemently opposed the COVID vaccine and was banned from Instagram in February 2021 for repeatedly spreading vaccine misinformation.”

NBC: Mehmet Oz’s Controversial Health Claims, From the HCG Diet to Green Coffee Extract.

• “Many of those individual actions Oz recommended on his TV show over the years were based on questionable scientific evidence, Besser said. In a BMJ study from 2014, for instance, researchers evaluated health claims made on 40 randomly selected episodes of ‘The Dr. Oz Show,’ a syndicated daytime TV show that ran from 2009 to 2022. They found that about half of the recommendations made on the show were unsupported by scientific evidence.”