Associated Press
The Senate on Thursday confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as President Donald Trump’s Health Secretary, putting the prominent vaccine skeptic in control of $1.7 trillion in federal spending, vaccine recommendations and food safety as well as health insurance programs for roughly half the country.
Nearly all Republicans fell in line behind Trump despite hesitancy over Kennedy views on vaccines, voting 52-48 to elevate the scion of one of America’s most storied political — and Democratic — families to secretary of the Health and Human Services Department. Democrats unanimously opposed Kennedy.
Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, who had polio as a child, was the only “no” vote among Republicans, mirroring his stands against Trump’s picks for the Pentagon chief and Director of National Intelligence.
“I’m a survivor of childhood polio. In my lifetime, I’ve watched vaccines save millions of lives from devastating diseases across America and around the world,” McConnell said in a statement afterwards. “I will not condone the re-litigation of proven cures, and neither will millions of Americans who credit their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles.”
The rest of the GOP, however, has embraced Kennedy’s vision with a directive for the public health agencies to focus on chronic diseases such as obesity.
“We’ve got to get into the business of making America healthy again,” said Sen. Mike Crapo, an Idaho Republican, adding that Kennedy will bring a “fresh perspective” to the office.
Kennedy, 71, whose name and family tragedies have put him in the national spotlight since he was a child, has earned a formidable following with his populist and sometimes extreme views on food, chemicals and vaccines.
His audience only grew during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Kennedy devoted much of his time to a nonprofit that sued vaccine makers and harnessed social media campaigns to erode trust in vaccines as well as the government agencies that promote them.
With Trump’s backing, Kennedy insisted he was “uniquely positioned” to revive trust in those public health agencies, which include the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes for Health.
Last week, U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, said he hoped Kennedy “goes wild” in reining in health care costs and improving Americans’ health. But before agreeing to support Kennedy, potential holdout Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a doctor who leads the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, required assurances that Kennedy would not make changes to existing vaccine recommendations.
During Senate hearings, Democrats tried to prod Kennedy to deny a long-discredited theory that vaccines cause autism. Some lawmakers also raised alarms about Kennedy financially benefiting from changing vaccine guidelines or weakening federal lawsuit protections against vaccine makers.
Kennedy made more than $850,000 last year from an arrangement referring clients to a law firm that has sued the makers of Gardasil, a human papillomavirus vaccine that protects against cervical cancer. If confirmed as health secretary, he promised to reroute fees collected from the arrangement to his son.
Kennedy will take over the agency in the midst of a massive federal government shakeup, led by billionaire Elon Musk, that has shut off — even if temporarily — billions of taxpayer dollars in public health funding and left thousands of federal workers unsure about their jobs.
On Friday, the NIH announced it would cap billions of dollars in medical research given to universities and cancer being used to develop treatments for diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s.
Kennedy, too, has called for a staffing overhaul at the NIH, FDA and CDC. Last year, he promised to fire 600 employees at the NIH, the nation’s largest funder of biomedical research.
___
Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
17 comments
PeterH
February 13, 2025 at 2:12 pm
Trump has installed agency leaders AND loyal subordinates in every single government body.
Unfortunately, Americans can no longer rely on the US Government to provide truthful reliable information ON ANY topic. We must now rely on healthcare professionals and statistics from Great Britain, Canada and Australia. Please consider any and all information coming from the Trump administration, surrogates or its agencies as lies.
SuzyQ
February 13, 2025 at 10:58 pm
Substitute the past tense of the modal verb “can”, to wit, “could”, to make your statement valid and sound. Instead of using the first person plural pronoun, you opt to refer to Americans in the third person. Why? Perhaps, you’re not an American or no longer identity as one.
PeterH
February 14, 2025 at 12:11 am
I’m glad I’m working your wingnut nerves. LOL
SuzyQ
February 15, 2025 at 4:51 pm
You employ deflection rather than answer a simple question. In so doing, you have, albeit indirectly.
You’re not “glad”. You’re rather angry in a way only an anti-American wokester can be. It’s a joy to live rent-free in your small, ever contracting mind.
JD
February 15, 2025 at 11:47 pm
You amuse us more than you know SuzQ.
Propaganda much?
Michael K
February 13, 2025 at 3:16 pm
The guy who says HIV does not cause AIDS – and that Jewish and Asian people were spared COVID? Mitch McConnel – the man who narrowly survived polio – finally found a spine to vote against this supremely unqualified MAGA affirmative action hire. Pulling out of the World Health Organization? Hiding the truth of avian flu? This is an unserious appointment that resembles more of a death wish than protector of pubic health. And shame on the Republicans who are willing to see people die of ignorance and hate rather than challenge lies and conspiracy theories. We are the laughing stock of the world.
PeterH
February 13, 2025 at 4:03 pm
Any foreign governments that share ANY classified or confidential information with the Trump regime should do so at their own peril.
Chinny Chinois
February 13, 2025 at 4:12 pm
The Chinese know that. They’ve been keeping secrets for years. As a result many people died, while Democrats did nothing except shake the foundations of American liberty, perhaps in an attempt to further the Chinese goal. Taller, stronger and more permanent barriers around the American people are what is needed, and to hell with Chinois germ secrets.
PeterH
February 13, 2025 at 5:18 pm
The Trump administration can no longer be trusted here at home or by our ally intelligence agencies abroad. World leaders need to turn their back on the USA because we’re no longer a leader or reliable.
SuzyQ
February 13, 2025 at 10:50 pm
“ally intelligence agencies”? That’s an oxymoron if there ever was one. “World leaders”? You are not an American. You’re an anti-American globalist. Globalists need to be purged from the body politic. I’m still waiting for these “World leaders [sic]” to turn against these United States; but, alas, they keep making concession after concession to the Trump administration.
PeterH
February 14, 2025 at 12:12 am
Republicans are America’s worst enemy! Vote all Republicans out of office!
SuzyQ
February 15, 2025 at 4:54 pm
Easier said than done. You must beside yourself in rage why we Americans don’t take the advice of an anti-American simpleton.
JD
February 15, 2025 at 11:52 pm
Not all Americans take your advice either. You propagandist and apologist.
Michael K
February 14, 2025 at 12:41 pm
The word “globalist,” we all know, is based in anti-semitism.
Ask Iranians how isolationism is working? Ask the Taliban. In a global economy, isolationism does not work. Bullying is not policy – bullying is not strength, and it certainly does not build trust. Destroying decades of alliances is wreckless. It weakens our nation and our standing in the world.
JD
February 15, 2025 at 11:52 pm
Spot on. She’s a paid shill that amuses us more than she knows.
SuzyQ
February 15, 2025 at 5:03 pm
Now you’re our resident expert on anti-Semitism in addition to geopolitics and macroeconomics. I think not, Mr. Globalist. Are you in Davos with your fellow globalists, most of whom are anti-Semites?
JD
February 15, 2025 at 11:51 pm
The propaganist and apologist says Michael K is a globalist like it is a slur.
Being an American Patriot is not mutually exclusive to being. a Globalist Mr. SuzQ.
You amuse us more than you know.
Comments are closed.