Medical Groups Wary of RFK Jr. Nom to Lead HHS

Some public health and medical organizations are expressing concern over President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to be secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), citing his vaccine skepticism and fringe medical views.

Kennedy has falsely linked vaccines to autism and opposes community water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he promoted unproven remedies such as ivermectin. He has said he would focus on chronic disease, food policy, and rooting out “corruption” in the department.

If his nomination is approved, Kennedy would preside over a sprawling agency that employs more than 80,000 people and includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. 

CDC Director Mandy Cohen, MD, told the New York Times she feared that Kennedy could spread misinformation and sow distrust if given a leadership position. 

Benjamin Hoffman, MD, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement that Kennedy’s nomination “offers an important opportunity to share the settled science on vaccines with government leaders, policymakers and the American public.” Hoffman added, “Vaccines are the safest and most cost-effective way to protect children, families and communities from disease, disability and death.”

Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH, former White House COVID-19 response coordinator and dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health wrote on X (formerly Twitter): 

“The HHS Secretary shapes health policy in profound ways. … [Kennedy’s] ideas may sound good on bumper stickers but are unserious and often downright harmful. Our healthcare system is far from perfect. But it has spurred so much progress that has benefitted the American people. This appointment, if confirmed, puts all of that at risk.” 

Worldwide Reaction

Kennedy’s nomination has reverberated overseas. “There is a real concern that his appointment could provide a new platform which he might use to pursue the same anti-science positions on life-saving public health interventions that he has advanced previously, and that he could continue to promote and misrepresent evidence to support spurious claims on vaccines,” said Sir Andrew Pollard FMedSci FRS, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford, in a statement.

Peter G. Lurie, MD, MPH, a former associate commissioner at the FDA and now president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), said in a statement that Kennedy “is not remotely qualified for the role and should be nowhere near the science-based agencies that safeguard our nutrition, food safety, and health.” CSPI opposes Kennedy’s nomination “and any other nominees who are a direct threat to science and evidence-based solutions,” he said.

HHS has 13 operating divisions, including 10 agencies in the US Public Health Service and three human services agencies. HHS regulates and makes policy on issues ranging from new drugs and medical devices to food additives, vaccines, tobacco and health information technology, substance abuse, and mental health. It also funds basic scientific research and training of new physicians, among many other functions.

The HHS budget in 2023 — at $889 billion — was the largest of any federal agency, including the Department of Defense. 

“We need a [Secretary who] believes in an NIH and medical research enterprise that continues to be a crown jewel of science in the world, as well as a CDC that continues to be highly competent and capable of taking on public health problems across the gamut that is also world class,” said Tom Inglesby, MD, on X. The director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health said he had “major concerns” about Kennedy’s nomination.

Some US Senators — who will be responsible for confirming Kennedy, unless Trump bypasses the confirmation process — were neutral, while others expressed disdain. 

Republican Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho, who as the likely chairman of the Finance Committee will oversee the confirmation hearing, said in a statement posted to X that he believed that Kennedy “has prioritized addressing chronic diseases through consumer choice and healthy lifestyle.” Crapo added, “I look forward to considering his nomination before the Finance Committee.”

Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington) said on X that Kennedy’s nomination “could not be more dangerous,” adding, “There’s no telling how far an anti-vaxxer & fringe conspiracy theorist like RFK Jr. could set America back in terms of public health, reproductive rights, research, & more.”

Kennedy has said he would seek to eliminate ties between the drug industry and the FDA and its employees. His “Make America Healthy Again” campaign said on its website that one of its missions is “to dismantle the corporate stranglehold on our government agencies that has led to widespread chronic disease, environmental degradation, and rampant public distrust.”

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) said in a statement, “this industry is a crown jewel of the American economy, giving American patients more medicine choices than anywhere else in the world and supporting millions of high-paying, high-tech jobs around the country.”

“We want to work with the Trump administration to further strengthen our innovation ecosystem and improve health care for patients,” said PhRMA President and CEO Stephen J. Ubl, and reminded Kennedy that the industry had long thought that “the U.S. must do more to address the growing epidemic of chronic disease.”

Alicia Ault is a Saint Petersburg, Florida-based freelance journalist whose work has appeared in publications including JAMA and Smithsonian.com. You can find her on X @aliciaault.