Among Donald Trump’s controversial Cabinet picks for his second presidential administration, his choice of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services secretary is undoubtedly one of the most worrisome and consequential. Kennedy, who has vowed to “Make America Healthy Again,” is an infamous proponent of various alternative views about public health and food and drug safety, a well-known vaccine skeptic, a purveyor of numerous debunked conspiracy theories, and a hostile longtime critic of the agencies he would oversee if confirmed by the Senate. Below is an running list of what he’s planning, and what he can and can’t do, as HHS secretary.
“I’m not going to take away anybody’s vaccines”
Neither Kennedy nor Trump have the power to ban FDA-approved vaccines outright, neither has said they would, and it’s likely that any effort to do so would face significant legal challenges, and that the Supreme Court would be skeptical of any politically motivated efforts to overturn a science-based FDA vaccine approval. RFK Jr. has repeatedly said that he isn’t planning to ban vaccines — repeating the day after the election that “I’m not going to take away anybody’s vaccines” — but there are other ways he can, as HHS secretary, cast doubt on them and reduce their use.
Reexamine (and possibly discredit) vaccine safety and effectiveness
Kennedy has said he plans to take a hard look at the safety and efficacy of existing vaccines with the aim of arming the public with better information and transparency. “I’m going to make sure scientific safety studies and efficacy are out there, and people can make individual assessments about whether that product is going to be good for them.” One way he might do that is to order new studies of existing federal health data regarding vaccine safety. If that work is selectively done by vaccine skeptics in service of a pre-existing conclusion, it won’t be credible and could be misleading if not dangerous.
Change or limit federal vaccine guidance and approval
Kennedy could instruct the CDC director to disband the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or re-staff it with vaccine skeptics, effectively ending or subverting federal vaccine guidance. They could limit access to vaccines by changing the recommendations for which routine vaccines health insurers are required to cover. They could also limit or distort the information available to medical professionals and the public about vaccines.
RFK Jr. would also have the power, along with the FDA commissioner, to slow down or hamper the process by which new vaccines are evaluated, approved, and recommended. That could discourage pharmaceutical companies from developing new or reformulated vaccines.
Limit or eliminate the CDC’s Vaccines for Children program
Kennedy could work to cut or wholly eliminate funding for the program, which provides free vaccines to Medicaid eligible, uninsured, and underinsured children.
Suspend NIH drug development and infectious disease research
During a town hall in June, RFK Jr. said that if he was elected president, he would order the NIH to pause its funding of drug development and infectious disease research for eight years. It’s not clear if he still plans to pursue that plan of action as HHS secretary, but he has called for firing and replacing hundreds of career employees at the agency. He has also called for ending federally funded “gain of function” infectious disease research.
Eliminate “entire departments” at the FDA
Kennedy has vowed to make some big changes at the agency, which employs some 18,000 scientists, researchers, and inspectors. As HHS secretary, Kennedy has the authority to reorganize the agency, working with the FDA commissioner. He says he wants to fully eliminate “entire departments” at the agency, including the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, which he says can’t be trusted to do its job.
Encourage state and local authorities to stop adding fluoride to drinking water
Kennedy announced, and Trump later sort of confirmed, that the White House would advise against the addition of fluoride to water supplies. Kennedy has made wildly exaggerated claims about the health risks linked to fluoride, which is widely considered a safe and effective public health intervention, but his ability to change the policies of state and local water authorities is limited. The federal government can only offer advice, not ban those authorities from adding fluoride.
Regulate or restrict food additives
Kennedy has long advocated against various food additives, including artificial food dyes, various chemicals, and seed oils — arguing that they are harmful to the people’s health. He and his allies may try to rewrite FDA “GRAS” regulations regarding additives and prevent companies from being able to self-certify the safety of their food ingredients, and many experts seem to agree that FDA regulations need reform in this area. Kennedy has also made a number of questionable, exaggerated, or false claims about food safety and nutrition.
Increase access to raw milk
Kennedy is a loud and proud drinker of raw milk, which is milk that hasn’t been pasteurized to eliminate pathogens. Kennedy says that consuming raw milk “advances human health” and he has accused the FDA of “aggressive suppression” of raw milk and many other products. Many states allow either retail or on-farm sale of raw milk; the FDA bans the sale of raw milk across state lines.
Unpasteurized raw milk can contain harmful bacteria like E. coli, salmonella, listeria, and Campylobacter which can trigger foodborne illnesses which are especially dangerous for children, seniors, pregnant women, and the immunocompromised. The CDC is also monitoring whether or not the H5N1 bird flu can be transmitted from infected dairy cows to humans via raw milk. The supposed health benefits of raw milk over pasteurized milk are not backed up by evidence, according to most food scientists.
Increase access to a long list of other products
Kennedy posted on X in late October that the “FDA’s war on public health is about to end” and cited its “suppression” of:
psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything else that advances human health and can’t be patented by Pharma.
It’s not clear exactly how he’ll end the suppression of these things.
