WASHINGTON—Will Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Republican president-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head the giant Health and Human Services Department, be—in the words of the warning on cigarette packages—a hazard to your health?
Off both his past stands against vaccines, against fluoridation of water, against the Food and Drug Administration, and more, the answer to that may well be “yes.”
And he’s never spoken out, as National Nurses United has, against Big Pharma or for-profit hospital chains that greedily gobble up health care facilities and slash staff and services in the name of the almighty dollar.
Kennedy’s also been silent about the deadly players who really impact the nation’s health care, or lack of it, by controlling the purse strings that determine whether people can afford health care, medicines or not: The giant health insurers and the pharmacy benefit managers.
Both special interests are staffed by bean-counters, mostly untrained in health, whose motive is to rake in premiums while denying care. A study several years ago by the Harvard Medical School concluded that deliberate denial of care by insurers refusing to pay for it cost the U.S. 44,000 needless deaths annually.
Kennedy hasn’t said a word about that, either.
The Committee on Interns and Residents, a Service Employees sector that has been unionizing those underpaid, overworked groups in hospitals, has.
“Before the election, we were fighting for a better healthcare system for our country,” said Dr. Taylor Walker, president of CIR/SEIU and a family physician and abortion provider in Massachusetts. “That fight will continue until every person in this country can receive quality, affordable care from their physician regardless of their race, gender, income, pregnancy status, or immigration status.
“More and more often we are hearing about pregnant people being turned away from receiving life-saving care when they encounter a complication during their pregnancy, causing many of them to die as a result. This is especially true for people of color. That has to stop.
“Too often money that should be spent on resources and staffing to improve patient care is going to executives’ pockets. That has to stop.
“Our patients rely on us to provide them the best possible care, and we will continue to fight for the tools we need to provide that care. We need strong contracts that give doctors a voice at the decision-making table to ensure we have resources for cutting-edge technology, patient support, and clean and safe working conditions.
“Today, tomorrow, and always, our plan stays the same: WE FIGHT. Solidarity forever.”
In a straight political payoff, Trump nominated Kennedy, a son of the murdered presidential candidate, U.S. senator and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, to head the Department of Health and Human Services, the sprawling entity which handles everything from public health to Medicare and Medicaid and more.
Kennedy Jr., a former Democrat, first challenged incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden in party primaries, then turned independent to mount his own run for the White House, then dropped out of that to endorse Trump—but with the caveat that Kennedy would stay on the ballot in states where voting for him wouldn’t make a difference. It worked, and Trump rewarded him with the HHS nomination.
Kennedy first made a name for himself as an environmental lawyer, but has since veered off the deep end into anti-health crusades, so much so that his siblings, including former Maryland Lieutenant Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, and his cousin, JFK’s sole survivor, daughter Caroline Kennedy, made very clear early in the campaign that RFK Jr. had zero family support.
Kennedy opposes vaccination—a favorite bugaboo of Trump supporters during the coronavirus pandemic—fluoridation of water, which helps prevent tooth decay, and opposes regulating the nation’s food and medicines.
Those RFK policies, if imposed, could lead to further health crises. In one case, in American Samoa, they already did.
“It is hard to overstate what a terrible decision” the nomination is, British Columbia physician Robert McAlpine tweeted on X Thursday. “RFK, Jr. has no medical training. He is a hardcore anti-vaccine and misinformation peddler. The last time he meddled in a state’s medical affairs” in American Samoa, “83 children died of measles.”
McAlpine explained that in 2018 two nurses in Samoa accidentally prepared the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine using muscle relaxant rather than water. Two infants died after receiving the contaminated formula. The Samoan government temporarily halted vaccinations to investigate but eventually concluded the problem was the error in mixing, not with the vaccine in general.
That didn’t matter to Kennedy.
He descended on the island with his anti-vaccine front group, Children’s Health Defense, to exploit the deaths. News reports said his organization ran a massive publicity campaign to spread falsehoods about vaccines and to encourage parents not to vaccinate their children. Vaccination rates dropped from nearly 70% to 30%.
57,000 infected, 83 dead
One year later, a sick traveler brought measles to the island and sparked an epidemic that infected over 57,000 people and killed 83, including children.
Kennedy’s record didn’t give pause to Sen. Bill Cassidy Jr., R-La., an M.D. who, more importantly, will chair the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in the next Congress. The HELP panel will hold the confirmation hearings on the Kennedy nod.
“RFK, Jr. has championed issues like healthy foods and the need for greater transparency in our public health infrastructure,” said Cassidy. “I look forward to learning more about his other policy positions and how they will support a conservative, pro-American agenda.”
Trump’s Kennedy nod has yet to produce specific anti-Kennedy reactions from most top health and medical groups. But recognizing the danger of ideology to public health in general, some are taking preventive action.
Health care policies from a new administration “can on occasion, even take us back a few steps,” warned Dr. George Benjamin, M.D., president of the American Public Health Association, three days after Trump’s election.
“As we look toward a new administration and session of Congress, APHA will not waver from its commitment to support strong evidence- and science-based policies and champion efforts for optimal, equitable health and well-being for all. We still believe it is important we work together and collaborate across sectors with health-minded officials, community leaders, local health practitioners and others to achieve success.
“The American public wants, and deserves, clean air and water, access to care, reproductive health and so much more of what we advocate for.
“While we expect significant policy changes with the new administration, we reject the idea that the values, perspectives and guidance we have articulated for many years are wrong and that we should back off. I assure you, that’s not going to happen.
“We will continue to work on behalf of the American people to improve their health by advocating for the best science-based social and health policies and programs. Achieving optimal health regardless of race, ethnicity, gender identity, age, economic status or geographic residence will remain our chief objective.”
Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the Michigan family physician who blew the whistle a decade ago on the health hazard of lead in the drinking water of Flint, Mich.—and elsewhere—sounded the same theme when her institution, Michigan State University, named her associate dean of its new school of public health policy.
“A public health approach focuses not on treating individual patients when they become ill, but on what keeps people healthy,” she said then. “There is a seismic shift in how we think about health care, partly driven by the pandemic. We want to know how to make an impact on health at the population level. How can we do better?”
The many social determinants of health, including racism, poverty, violence, climate change, mental health and other factors “all impact health. Your census tract is one of the greatest predictors of health outcomes,” Hanna-Attisha said.
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