WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who may play a key role overseeing public health issues in a second Trump administration, said Wednesday that he won’t take away people’s vaccines.
“I’m not going to take away anybody’s vaccines,” Kennedy said in an interview with NBC News when asked if there are specific vaccines that he would remove from the market.
Kennedy rejected the idea that he’s “anti-vaccine” despite his repeated claims about vaccines being linked to autism — and his involvement with Children’s Health Defense, a leading anti-vaccine group — and reiterated that he wouldn’t take them away from Americans.
He will meet with senior Trump aides on Wednesday to discuss his role going forward. Kennedy said that they hadn’t decided yet what his job in the new administration would be, but he didn’t rule out secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and also floated the idea of being a “White House health czar.”
“If vaccines are working for somebody, I’m not going to take them away. People ought to have choice, and that choice ought to be informed by the best information,” he said. “So I’m going to make sure scientific safety studies and efficacy are out there, and people can make individual assessments about whether that product is going to be good for them.”
Three days before the election, Trump hadn’t ruled out whether he would ban certain vaccines. “Well, I’m going to talk to him [Kennedy] and talk to other people, and I’ll make a decision, but he’s a very talented guy and has strong views,” Trump told NBC News.
Jennifer Kates, director of the Global Health & HIV Policy Program at KFF, a health policy research group, said that even if Trump wanted to ban vaccines, it’s unlikely he would have the power to do so, adding that states, not the federal government, have the authority to mandate or limit vaccines.
Trump, however, could potentially change the process for determining which vaccines are recommended for insurance coverage, including those on the routine childhood vaccination schedule, Kates said. Insurers base their coverage on recommendations from Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
“If RFK or others in a Trump administration question or reject this evidence, seek to change this system, or otherwise pressure states to make different decisions, it could sow confusion and doubt, result in reduced requirements, and end up driving down already lowering vaccination rates among kids,” Kates said.
Asked about his warnings about the Covid vaccine that was fast-tracked and approved during the pandemic, Kennedy said that he was saying at the time that the shot wouldn’t prevent transmission.
“I knew in May of 2020 that the vaccines were not going to protect against transmission because I was actually reading the monkey studies,” said Kennedy, who added that while he wouldn’t have “directly blocked it,” he would have been “honest” with the public about the vaccine to ensure it relied on the best science. “There was no effort to do that at that time.”
Kennedy said that Trump has tasked him in a second administration with cleaning up the corruption of federal agencies, returning agencies to “the gold standard science, the empirically based evidence” and to “end the chronic disease epidemic. He said, for example, that he would address the ingredients in America’s food that “are illegal in Europe” and other countries and “making our kids sick.”
He said that he would address the corruption by clearing out departments of federal workers who he believes haven’t been doing their jobs — “entire departments” in some cases. Kennedy said the nutrition departments at the Food and Drug Administration “have to go” because its workers are “not doing their job.”
“They’re not protecting our kids. Why do we have Fruit Loops in this country that have 18 or 19 ingredients, and you go to Canada and it’s got two or three?” he said.
Kennedy also spoke about his concerns about fluoride in the nation’s water supply. Fluoridated water has been heralded by major public health groups who point to studies saying it reduced tooth decay by at least 25%.
He said that while he wouldn’t force its removal, he would advise water districts “about their legal liability” to protect constituents. Major medical associations, however, support water fluoridation, saying that it’s safe and has benefits.
When asked what it was like to be a Kennedy at a Republican White House victory party on Tuesday night, he said, “Unusual. I never thought I would be here.” Kennedy said he chose to endorse Trump because the two men believed they were stronger together.
“Essentially, he said to me, ‘Let’s unify our parties because the landscapes on which we agree are much larger than those issues on which we disagree,'” Kennedy said.
Vaughn Hillyard reported from West Palm Beach, and Rebecca Shabad from New York.
