Trump picks vaccine skeptic Kennedy to lead HHS, in what would be an upheaval of US health policy

President-elect Donald Trump has picked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be his next HHS secretary, likely giving the government’s most powerful healthcare post to a vaccine skeptic whose controversial views would be a huge break with decades of US health and scientific policies.

“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation and disinformation when it comes to public health,” Trump said in a social media post announcing the selection.

Kennedy is a longtime anti-vaccine crusader and environmental advocate who dropped out of the presidential race to endorse Trump in August. His “Make America Healthy Again” platform — a riff on Trump’s campaign slogan — emerged as a priority from various members of the former president’s camp, including Trump himself.

HHS is a massive agency that oversees nearly $2 trillion in federal spending. Its sub-agencies include the governance of Medicare and Medicaid, drug and food regulation at the FDA, the sprawling scientific work of the NIH, and numerous other bodies overseeing everything from public health to biodefense.

Last month, Kennedy gave a preview of what his leadership of the agency would mean. In a post on X, he said that “FDA’s war on public health is about to end,” and calling for stopping what he called the suppression of “psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything else that advances human health and can’t be patented by Pharma.”

Biotech stocks fell on reports of the pick, with the Nasdaq Biotech Index declining 2.4% at the close. Shares of vaccine makers fell as well, with Moderna $MRNA dropping 5.6% after the news broke and Pfizer $PFE down 2.6%.

‘Go wild on health’

Trump has promised to give Kennedy wide latitude on healthcare issues. “I’m gonna let him go wild on health,” Trump said at an October campaign event in Madison Square Garden in New York. “I’m gonna let him go wild on the food. I’m gonna let him go wild on the medicines.”

A name mentioned as a possible FDA pick under a Kennedy HHS is Casey Means, a Stanford-trained physician-turned-wellness advocate who might prove to be almost as controversial as Kennedy.

Means, like Kennedy, has raised questions about the safety of vaccines, implying a link to autism. Such a link has never been proven, and an older study that has been the basis of many of those claims has been retracted and debunked.

In addition to Kennedy’s anti-vaccine views, he has threatened to eliminate portions of federal health agencies and push out or discipline staff. “If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags,” Kennedy said in the October post on X.

He has also espoused a number of more mainstream positions, including calling for a focus on wellness and the prevention of chronic disease, overhauling regulations for direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical ads, having Americans pay no more than other developed nations for drugs, and eliminating many pollutants and additives from the food supply, according to an opinion piece he wrote for the Wall Street Journal in September.

But many of those views have been overshadowed by Kennedy’s embrace of conspiracy theories, such as his apparent support for the idea that high-altitude airplane contrails are in fact a government program to disperse chemicals. (They are actually condensed water.)

Those positions could make for a less-than-certain Senate confirmation process, since they would almost certainly include a thorough review of his many controversial positions that are at odds with much of the healthcare establishment, as well as a number of recent personal scandals.

Kennedy would hardly be the only controversial choice for the Trump administration. This week, he said he had chosen former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida to be his attorney general. Gaetz has been the subject of an ethics complaint over allegations of sex trafficking, as well as a fierce Trump ally and critic of the Department of Justice.

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