President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would nominate former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). It’s a fulfillment of an implicit promise Trump made at a rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden in late October, where he said he would let Kennedy “go crazy with health.”
Kennedy, a former Democrat and scion of a wealthy political family, first rose to prominence as an environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist. Around 2015, he joined the board of directors of the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense (CHD), which alleges that conditions such as autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are caused by environmental factors, including harmful agents in vaccines. Kennedy has repeatedly spread misinformation about vaccines, and in 2021, the Center to Combat Digital Hate named him one of the “dozen misinformation” spreading misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
He has suggestedin contradiction to all accredited scientific research, that Covid-19 may have been “ethnically targeted” to save Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people and that HIV does not cause AIDSand implicit that vaccine mandates are worse than the Holocaust. he too saying in a 2012 statement that a worm ate part of his brain and then he died.
Kennedy’s account was banned from Instagram in 2021 for spreading vaccine misinformation. His account was restored in 2023, when he announced his candidacy for office.
In August, Kennedy suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump, saying, “If President Trump is elected and keeps his word, the enormous burden of chronic disease that burdens and ruins the country will disappear,” at the time. He launched a slogan parallel to Trump’s MAGA:Making America Healthy Again (MAHA)—focused on “prioritizing regenerative agriculture, preserving natural habitats, and removing toxins from our food, water, and air.”
HHS oversees 13 federal agencies:which Kennedy has indicated would gut—including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Kennedy’s position, however, still depends on congressional approval. Previous HHS leaders have had long careers in public health or within the department itself before taking office. A Republican-controlled Senate could defer to Trump, or it could point to Kennedy’s aggressive promotion of conspiracy theories, his long career as a loyal Democrat and Confusing positions on abortion. as reasons to block their accession.
Although Kennedy has promised to overhaul the entire system, experts who spoke to WIRED say he will likely run into long-standing regulations that would be difficult to circumvent. Health policies are also heavily informed by advisory committees, which are packed with medical and public health experts, and would take time to completely change government recommendations.
Still, Kennedy as HHS director would have substantial power lay off staff and declare public health emergencies.