By Stephanie Kelly
NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has selected Robert F. Kennedy Jr, an environmental activist who has spread misinformation on vaccines, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the country's top health agency, his son Donald Trump Jr announced on Thursday.
Kennedy ran for president in this year's election as an independent before dropping out in August and endorsing Trump in exchange for a role in the Republican's administration.
"He's going to help make America healthy again," Trump said in his victory speech on Nov. 6. "He wants to do some things, and we're going to let him get to it," he said.
The Department of Health and Human Services oversees the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the massive Medicare and Medicaid Services programs, which provide health coverage for the poor, those aged 65 and older, and the disabled.
Medicaid and Medicare's tens of millions of enrollees mean HHS had a $3.09 trillion budget for fiscal year 2024, representing 22.8% of the U.S. federal budget.
KENNEDY'S HEALTH PRIORITIES
Kennedy, the son and nephew of two titans of Democratic politics, has been a part of Trump's transition team and has been reviewing candidate resumes for the top jobs at U.S. health agencies.
Over posts on social media platform X and interviews in recent weeks, Kennedy has indicated his priorities include addressing what he calls the "chronic disease epidemic" of conditions including obesity, diabetes and autism, and reducing chemicals in food.
Despite high levels of spending on health care and pharmaceuticals, Americans are unhealthier than their peers in wealthy countries around world, according to a report from the Commonwealth Fund in 2023.
Kennedy also suggested he would gut the 18,000-employee Food and Drug Administration - which ensures the safety of food, drugs and medical devices - and replace hundreds of employees at the National Institutes of Health.
"FDA's war on public health is about to end," he wrote on X in late October, adding that includes its "aggressive suppression" of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, sunshine, and other items.
"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," he wrote.
In early November, he said he would recommend fluoride be removed from public water supplies, falsely claiming on X that the chemical is associated with bone fractures and cancer. The American Dental Association says the decades-old intervention reduces tooth decay by more than 25% in adults and children.
Kennedy criticized in September a New York Times opinion article about the weight loss drug Ozempic, saying, "Instead of fixing our food system and addressing the obesity crisis at its root, the author focuses on a drug that may palliate the symptom - and gladden the wallets of distant Big Pharma execs."
KENNEDY AND VACCINES
Kennedy has been criticized for making false medical claims, including that vaccines are linked to autism. He opposed state and federal restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic and was accused of spreading misinformation about the virus.
He disputes the anti-vaccine tag, saying he wants more rigorous testing of vaccines instead. However, he chaired the Children's Health Defense, a nonprofit organization that focuses on anti-vaccine messaging.
In an interview in March, when he was still running for president, Kennedy said Americans who wants a vaccine for themselves or their children would continue to have access to them if he were to be elected. But he said he doubted the efficacy of measles vaccines.
Measles is one of the most contagious human viruses and is almost entirely preventable through vaccination. It requires 95% vaccine coverage to prevent outbreaks among populations. However, U.S. coverage rates have fallen below that level among young children, the CDC said this month.
Kennedy, who first sought the Democratic nomination before becoming an independent, had a rocky presidential run marked by attention-grabbing media headlines.
During his campaign, he acknowledged in a video posted online that he dumped a dead bear in New York City's Central Park a decade ago and staged it to look like a bike had hit it. He proclaimed he had "so many skeletons in my closet" after a former family babysitter accused him of sexual assault. He denied that a large animal in a picture of him posing with a barbecued carcass belonged to a canine.
Kennedy's campaign also confirmed a report that he had a parasite in his brain more than a decade ago, but has since fully recovered.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward; Editing by Eric Beech)
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