Lily Huynh/The Cougar
On Feb. 13, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, despite massive outcry from both sides of the political aisle.
As plenty of President Donald Trump’s choices since the beginning of his second term have, Kennedy’s appointment for this position spells danger for the future of public health.
Even before his nomination, Kennedy had a history of spreading egregious medical misinformation. This includes claims that COVID-19 targets certain races, sparing Jewish and Chinese people, blasting fluoridated water and processed food and a myriad of either misleading or false statements about vaccines.
One of these was brought to question during his Senate confirmation hearing when Sen. Alsobrooks reminded Kennedy of his comments regarding vaccines and race. Kennedy had claimed that Black people should be on different vaccine schedules, citing a study by Greg Poland in 2014.
Not only did this cause an argument with Sen. Alsobrooks, but also brought pushback from medical experts. One expert is Andrea Love, an immunologist who has fought against much of Kennedy’s rhetoric.
“This claim was based on a false manipulation of a study conducted by Greg Poland at Mayo in 2014,” Love said. “Even Dr. Poland has stated RFK Jr’s claims distort his study and have no science to support them.”
Further, Kennedy’s past statements on vaccines causing autism were brought forth, though this claim is something that has been scientifically disproved time and time again.
This rhetoric calling vaccine safety to question is not a simple game of devil’s advocate. In reality, someone of such high standing making these misinformed claims will only serve to erode trust in vaccines and sow anxiety regarding medical research.
Over time, this means that more parents may refuse to vaccinate their children altogether, resulting in more of the sorts of outbreaks we’ve seen within recent months. Despite vaccines having basically eliminated preventable diseases such as measles and polio, the threat of global outbreak worsens with every lie Kennedy perpetuates.
It’s important to keep in mind that Kennedy’s bizarre claims aren’t just out of a supposed concern for public health. Kennedy actually profits from his fear-mongering, though he lied about earning anything as the chairman of the Children’s Health Defense.
This sort of disingenuous attitude, consistently ignoring scientific studies and delegitimizing medical practices, is going to harm millions in time. Kennedy is not a medical professional, and questioning where his rhetoric is coming from is more than necessary.
“These claims—and RFK Jr. on the whole—are a current and future threat to health of Americans and the planet,” said Love. “I would say RFK Jr. is the most unqualified individual for the role of HHS secretary.”
Kennedy’s appointment as HHS secretary was a mistake. His priorities clearly lie with profit, he has no medical training and his history is a mess of misinformation and conflicting statements.
Public health is no joke, and one can only hope that Kennedy’s legitimacy is questioned at every step.
Parker H-B is a journalism sophomore who can be reached at [email protected]
