Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be the next Secretary of Health in Donald Trump’s government.
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The president-elect made the announcement Thursday.
AFP
This is a move that adds to the future president’s “provocative” choices and could test the loyalty of Senate Republicans, according to CNN.
“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and pharmaceutical companies that indulged […] to disinformation and lies in matters of public health,” the future president wrote in X on Thursday, announcing the news.
“Mr. “Kennedy will restore these agencies to the tradition of high-level scientific research and transparency to end the chronic disease epidemic,” he added.
The nephew of assassinated President John F. Kennedy is one of America’s most popular anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists. He has often spread false conspiracy theories about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.
The politician had tried to run for president as an independent before abandoning his campaign to join that of Donald Trump.
At the Republican rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden last October, the president-elect suggested that Mr. Kennedy would take a job in Public Health, telling his voters that he would let him “run amok on health.”
AFP
Several health administrations are likely to criticize this decision, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Mr. Kennedy confirmed, during an interview with MSNBC, that he was considering making cuts to FDA staff.
RFK Jr., however, qualified his comments last week, saying that he would “immediately” begin studying the effectiveness and safety of the vaccines, but that he would not remove them from pharmacies and other health centers, according to CNN .
The politician also raised the possibility of asking states and municipalities to stop adding fluoride to running water.
