Antonia Mufarech | (TNS) Bloomberg News
Donald Trump’s election win opens the door for vaccine denier Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to play a significant role in the administration and drastically change the nation’s public health practices.
The former presidential candidate emerged as one of the leading voices in the anti-vaccine movement during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he challenged the safety of preventive shots. He’s also an opponent of drinking water fluoridation, a measure that has improved oral health for millions of Americans.
“RFK Jr. is probably the best financed and most influential anti-vaxxer, anti-science conspiracy theorist in the world,” said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University. “And now he’s likely to join at a high level in the White House — that should send shivers down the spine of anyone who thinks that health, safety and the environment are important.”
Kennedy has said that Trump offered him “control of the public health agencies,” citing potential leadership of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture.
“He’s going to help make America healthy again,” Trump said of Kennedy in his victory speech Wednesday. Trump said Kennedy should stay away from oil and gas, but “other than that, go have a good time, Bobby.”
Trump has encouraged Kennedy, the son of the late U.S. attorney general and senator who was assassinated during his 1968 presidential campaign, to work on more specific issues.
“I said, ‘Bobby, you work on women’s health, you work on health, you work on what we eat,” Trump said at a rally in Macon, Georgia, on Sunday. “You work on pesticides. You work on everything.”
Experts and officials have previously raised concerns about Kennedy, saying his statements about vaccines and other pandemic-related issues are misleading and dangerous to public health. In July 2023, the Biden administration denounced comments by Kennedy that falsely claimed Jewish and Chinese people were “most immune“ to COVID-19.
Jason Schwartz, an associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health, said the United States is “in for a very significant change in terms of the federal government’s approach to public health and the priorities and actions of our government health agencies.”
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Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
