RFK Jr.'s HHS Secretary Qualifications Assessment

Speaking in an NPR interview in November, Kennedy said Trump had given him three 'instructions': to remove 'corruption' from health agencies, to return these bodies to 'evidence-based science and medicine', and 'to end the chronic disease epidemic'. Some of Kennedy's own stated aims for government are bound up with misinformation - and many medical experts have expressed serious concerns about his nomination, citing his views on vaccines and other health matters.

While Kennedy has denied on several occasions that he is anti-vaccination and said he and his children are vaccinated, he has repeatedly stated widely debunked claims about vaccine harm. One of his main false claims - repeated in a 2023 interview with Fox News, was that 'autism comes from vaccines'. This theory was popularised by discredited UK doctor Andrew Wakefield. But Wakefield's 1998 study was later retracted by the Lancet medical journal. Multiple studies since, across many countries, have concluded there is no link between vaccines and autism.

Speaking in an NPR interview in November, Kennedy said Trump had given him three 'instructions': to remove 'corruption' from health agencies, to return these bodies to 'evidence-based science and medicine', and 'to end the chronic disease epidemic'. Some of Kennedy's own stated aims for government are bound up with misinformation - and many medical experts have expressed serious concerns about his nomination, citing his views on vaccines and other health matters.

Speaking in an NPR interview in November, Kennedy said Trump had given him three 'instructions': to remove 'corruption' from health agencies, to return these bodies to 'evidence-based science and medicine', and 'to end the chronic disease epidemic'. Some of Kennedy's own stated aims for government are bound up with misinformation - and many medical experts have expressed serious concerns about his nomination, citing his views on vaccines and other health matters.

Kennedy is a longtime spreader of inaccurate information about vaccines, and we've written about many of his claims, particularly after Kennedy entered politics in April 2023 as a Democratic challenger to President Joe Biden. That October, he switched parties to run as an independent, before dropping out of the presidential race and endorsing Trump in August in exchange for a potential role in the administration. Kennedy is an environmental lawyer and founder of Children's Health Defense, a nonprofit that is one of the most prolific sources of vaccine misinformation.

As the nation's top health official, Kennedy would be in charge of the very agencies he has for years alleged are corrupt. The HHS secretary oversees 13 agencies, most notably the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health. HHS also includes the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the agency that provides health insurance for older adults and low-income people, as well as the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the government's agency for public health emergencies.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services comprises several agencies and offices including the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Office of the Surgeon General and much more. The HHS secretary has the authority to establish regulations that govern health, including food and drug safety, public health and health care quality. The HHS secretary can declare public health emergencies and coordinate federal responses to health crises, such as disease outbreaks or natural disasters.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services comprises several agencies and offices including the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Office of the Surgeon General and much more. There is a big difference between political appointees and career civil servants. Political appointees set strategic priorities and align their department or agency's policies with the current administration's objectives. Civil servants have the institutional knowledge to know how to get things done and have specialized scientific or technical expertise. Scientific questions require specialized expertise. This is why there are career scientists who advise the HHS secretary, NIH director, CDC director and FDA commissioner.

The HHS secretary has the authority to establish regulations that govern health, including food and drug safety, public health and health care quality. The HHS secretary can declare public health emergencies and coordinate federal responses to health crises, such as disease outbreaks or natural disasters. The secretary wields significant influence over the department's policies and its constituent agencies, which include the CDC, FDA, NIH and others. The HHS secretary is also in a position to shape public opinion if given a platform to do so by the media. Absent media attention, their influence on public opinion is more limited.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services comprises several agencies and offices including the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Office of the Surgeon General and much more. The HHS secretary has the authority to establish regulations that govern health, including food and drug safety, public health and health care quality. The HHS secretary can declare public health emergencies and coordinate federal responses to health crises, such as disease outbreaks or natural disasters.

He's not wrong that there is a relationship between diet and autism as well as diet and mental health. These are areas of ongoing research. No diet has been proven to cure or universally improve autism or mental health symptoms, but certain dietary interventions improve symptoms in some people. These dietary changes may include elimination of ultra-processed foods, eliminating gluten and avoiding certain food additives or preservatives.

At stake is Kennedy's control of the nation's sprawling $1.7 trillion U.S. Health and Human Services agency, which oversees food and hospital inspections, health insurance for roughly half of the country and vaccine recommendations. The job would finally give him the kind of political power Kennedys have wielded for decades. He made a long-shot bid for the presidency last year, following uncles John, who won the White House in 1960, and Edward, who lost his bid in 1980, along with his father, Robert, a leading contender who was assassinated after winning the California primary in 1968.

Kennedy's numerous remarks, anti-vaccine nonprofit and lawsuits against immunizations are likely to haunt him. He's rejected the anti-vaccine label, instead casting himself as a crusader for 'medical freedom' who wants more research. He and Trump have vowed not to 'take away' vaccines. To defuse criticism, he resigned from the Children's Health Defense, his nonprofit that has filed dozens of lawsuits against vaccines, including the government authorizations of some of them.

President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic who spreads medical disinformation and conspiracy theories, to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) alarmed public health experts who say that Kennedy's potential confirmation could have dire consequences for the state of health and science in America. 'I can't think of a darker day for public health and science itself than the election of Donald Trump and the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of health,' says Lawrence Gostin, director of Georgetown University's O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. 'To say that RFK Jr. is unqualified is a considerable understatement,' he continues. 'The minimum qualification for being the head of the Department of Health and Human Services is fidelity to science and scientific evidence, and he spent his entire career fomenting distrust in public health and undermining science at every step of the way.'

Kennedy's nomination marks a departure from traditional HHS candidates, with Trump opting for a figure who has publicly criticized federal health agencies. His views have drawn criticism from scientists and lawmakers, including Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D, Oregon), who called Kennedy's positions 'disturbing' and signaled intense scrutiny during the confirmation process. Although Kennedy has pledged reforms to the FDA and HHS, and advocated tying drug prices to European standards, his broader health policy agenda remains uncertain, particularly regarding issues like the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid.

Kathleen Sebelius, who led HHS under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2014 talked with the health policy podcast Tradeoffs about the power of the position, and the checks and balances Kennedy may face in enacting some of his priorities. '[The HHS] secretary is in a position to do a lot of good, but also potentially do a lot of harm,' she said. A lot of the role of secretary is winning hearts and minds, because I can guarantee you nothing gets done in a federal agency unless a lot of the workers in that agency believe that they're part of the mission. I spent a good deal of time at the beginning of my tenure literally physically visiting each and every agency … having lunch with people on the ground.

At this point, I would say the discretion is limited by civil service protection. In the waning days of the last Trump administration, there was an executive order issued that would have removed civil service protection from a host of federal employees. I can't remember how many. The Biden incoming administration immediately rescinded that executive order, so it's never been carried out. [So, absent that] you really can't just fire people who are in a protected position. But I think just suggesting that you want to fire people before he knows anything about what those folks are doing, [there's a] likelihood that you lose the best talent right away because they walk out the door. The FDA scientists are well sought out by industry across the board.

Kennedy began his career as an assistant district attorney in New York City. In the mid-1980s, he joined two nonprofits focused on environmental protection, Riverkeeper and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). He became an adjunct professor of environmental law at Pace University School of Law in 1986. In 1987, Kennedy founded Pace's Environmental Litigation Clinic. He founded the nonprofit environmental group Waterkeeper Alliance in 1999.

Since 2005, Kennedy has promoted vaccine misinformation and public-health conspiracy theories, including the scientifically disproved claim of a causal link between vaccines and autism. He is the chairman and founder of Children's Health Defense, an anti-vaccine advocacy group and proponent of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation.

President-elect Donald Trump's plan to appoint Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to lead the Health and Human Services Department will put a prominent vaccine skeptic at the helm of the nation's sprawling public health apparatus. A scion of a famous Democratic dynasty, Kennedy made a name in his own right as an environmental attorney who successfully took on large corporations including DuPont and Monsanto. But over the past two decades, he's increasingly devoted his energy to promoting claims about vaccines that contradict the overwhelming consensus of scientists.

A scion of a famous Democratic dynasty, Kennedy made a name in his own right as an environmental attorney who successfully took on large corporations including DuPont and Monsanto. But over the past two decades, he's increasingly devoted his energy to promoting claims about vaccines that contradict the overwhelming consensus of scientists.

Trump would have Kennedy lead a massive Cabinet agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research and the social safety net programs Medicare and Medicaid. He said before the election he would give Kennedy free rein over health policy.

President Trump's nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services laid out these plans in a 2023 book he co-wrote, 'Vax-Unvax: Let the Science Speak,' and on the website of a nonprofit organization he has worked for that promotes the idea that vaccines are unsafe. The book, which argues that the cumulative effects of vaccination aren't studied enough, is one of several that RFK Jr. has written about vaccines and public health as part of his decades-long quest to question whether vaccines are safe.

His advocacy against vaccination has included disproven claims that 'autism comes from vaccines' and conspiracy theories purporting that government officials and former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates have colluded to advance vaccines to profit themselves. He's also advanced these ideas through the nonprofit organization Children's Health Defense, which has filed lawsuits related to vaccinations.

FDA approvals are granted at the center director level, which is not currently a political appointment, but the HHS secretary does make the final decision, Gostin said. Paul Offit, MD, a former member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) at CDC and a current member of the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, noted that if the FDA's vaccine advisory committee recommends a vaccine be licensed and the FDA agrees, the HHS secretary could disagree. 'He can say, I think this vaccine hasn't been tested well enough,' or even that existing vaccines have not been tested enough.

Gostin argued that making vaccine bans the 'holy grail' of an anti-vaccine agenda is flawed, given the many ways Kennedy, as HHS secretary, could potentially undermine trust in immunizations. Although he has the power to reverse an approval, Kennedy might hesitate to do so given the 'enormous' backlash he could face, and likely would instead undermine vaccines in other ways -- such as by appointing vaccine skeptics to advisory committees such as ACIP, he said.

Asked in an interview with NBC News whether 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. He reiterated that he wouldn't take them away from Americans.

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 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 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

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 wouldn't 'take away anybody's vaccines.' Asked in an interview with NBC News whether 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.

Public Citizen respectfully submits testimony to the Committee on behalf of our members and supporters in opposition to the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for the role of Secretary of Health and Human Services. The mission of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is to enhance and protect the health and well-being of all Americans. Among other critical functions, agencies operating within the Department protect Americans from unsafe and ineffective prescription drugs and medical devices, work to prevent and fight disease and provide trusted information and tools to help communities stay healthy, and oversee the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Installing as Secretary of HHS an individual, like Kennedy, who has regularly promoted conspiracy theories and spread anti-science views would threaten the lives of people throughout the country and the globe.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the largest department in the federal government in terms of budget, spends approximately $2 billion a day. The department's activities touch the lives of virtually all Americans—financing health care for elderly, disabled, and indigent individuals; protecting against domestic and global health threats; ensuring the safety of food and medications; advancing the science of fighting disease; and improving health care for everyone.

Unfortunately, HHS is not a high-performance organization, oriented to change and steady improvement. Over the years, change at HHS has been driven by the piecemeal accretion of programs legislatively mandated by various congressional committees, frequently without commensurate resources or regard for the department's capacity to manage them. One result is a department that is not optimally designed to meet the nation's current and future health challenges.

The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services is a presidential cabinet position in charge of a huge and complex organization comprising 11 separate agencies. The overall purpose of the department is to safeguard public health and provide essential services to all Americans. These services range from health insurance, to food safety, to Medicare and Medicaid, to preparing for and managing public health crises, and much more. It's an immensely powerful and important position, and in some ways, it isn't too much of an exaggeration to say that the Secretary has the lives and well-being of ordinary Americans in his or her hands.

As someone who oversees this sprawling department's deep and broad portfolio, the Secretary should have substantial relevant experience and education in public health, public administration, and medicine. The appointment process begins when the president selects a prospective appointee and sends a formal nomination to the Senate. Then follows what can be a lengthy and contentious confirmation process. The nomination is referred to any Senate Committees deemed relevant, who research the candidate.

Four of the top health policy challenges facing the Biden administration will be to improve competition in health care, repair and expand the ACA, reign in drug prices, and address equity concerns exacerbated by the pandemic. Attorney General Xavier Becerra has demonstrated leadership and has expertise in each of these areas which will serve him and the county should he be confirmed.

KENNEDY: I will work immediately on that. That will be one of my priorities, to make sure that Americans - of course, we're not going to take vaccines away from anybody. We are going to make sure that Americans have good information. Right now the science on vaccine safety particularly has huge deficits in it, and we're going to make sure those scientific studies are done and that people can make informed choices about their vaccinations and their children's vaccinations.

HUANG: Yeah, exactly. As you're saying, what he's doing here is, on the one hand, saying that they - you know, we just want more information. On the other hand, he's challenging the safety of vaccines, which has long been established relative to the risks that they protect against. You know, Kennedy is a known vaccine skeptic. He's called COVID vaccines a crime against humanity, pushed claims that vaccines cause autism over and over. That is not true. It is disproven. Josh Sharfstein, a public health professor at Johns Hopkins University, says Kennedy has been sowing doubt in public health for years.

The 71-year-old Kennedy family scion started his career as an environmental attorney. But more recently, his public profile has been largely as a vaccine skeptic whose views many public health officials and experts say are dangerous because they erode trust in vaccines and therefore increase the risk of potentially lethal infectious diseases. Kennedy has been mostly quiet about his stance about vaccines since President Donald Trump nominated him to head HHS in November as he has shifted to his Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) campaign that prioritizes healthy eating and efforts to reduce chronic disease, particularly among children.

In a letter to the Office of Government Ethics, Kennedy has said he resigned from his position of chairman of the Children's Health Defense, an organization that he founded that has questioned the safety and efficacy of vaccines. Until December 2024, he was a salaried attorney with J W. Howard Attorneys, and if confirmed Kennedy will resign position at J. W .Howard, as well as with other law firms that he is associated with.

Warren indicates that she has concerns about his ability to lead HHS, pointing to his work with the Children's Health Defense. She called him the face of organization, which she said has disregarded scientific process and spread false information about vaccines and autism and about the COVID-19 vaccines. In December 2024, for example, the Children's Health Defense published a paper that suggests that women who have been vaccinated for COVID-19 were found to have menstrual abnormalities and suggested the abnormalities caused by the vaccines shedding the COVID-19 virus' spike protein. But that is misleading and confuses the science. Messenger RNA-based vaccines only contain the genetic material of the COVID-19 virus, not the actual virus. There is no 'shedding' of the virus.

Kennedy, who comes from one of the most high-profile families in Democratic politics, has held leadership roles as a lawyer and at nonprofit organizations but has more often been the public face of these operations than an executive manager. His presidential campaign was similarly run with Kennedy not closely involved in its daily management, according to interviews with a half dozen former campaign staffers.

"He's an inspirational leader who's able to communicate. But he's not a manager," said Jeff Hutt, spokesperson for the Make America Healthy Again political action committee and Kennedy's former national field director. Kennedy's campaign - his last professional endeavor - was suspended before anyone could cast a ballot for him and left him with $4.5 million in debt.

Kennedy has touted his experience as an environmental advocate and litigator as qualification for the role, but Kennedy has never run such a large team. The Department of Health and Human Services oversees 13 sub-agencies and has a budget of well over $1 trillion and more than 80,000 employees.

In 1984, Kennedy began volunteering at the Hudson River Fisherman's Association, renamed Riverkeeper in 1986 after a patrol boat it had built with settlement money from legal victories preceding Kennedy's arrival. After he was admitted to the New York bar in 1985, Riverkeeper hired him as senior attorney. Kennedy litigated and supervised environmental enforcement lawsuits on behalf of Hudson Riverkeeper and the Long Island Soundkeeper, where he was also a board member.

In 1987, Kennedy founded the Environmental Litigation Clinic at Pace University School of Law, where for three decades he was the clinic's supervising attorney and co-director and Clinical Professor of Law. Kennedy obtained a special order from the New York State Court of Appeals that permitted his 10 clinic students to practice law and try cases against Hudson River polluters in state and federal court, under the supervision of Kennedy and his co-director, Professor Karl Coplan.

In June 1999, as Riverkeeper's success on the Hudson began inspiring the creation of Waterkeepers across North America, Kennedy and a few dozen Riverkeepers gathered in Southampton, Long Island, to found the Waterkeeper Alliance, which is now the umbrella group for the 344 licensed Waterkeeper programs in 44 countries. As president, Kennedy oversaw its legal, membership, policy and fundraising programs.