Most, but not all, docs slam RFK Jr. as a 'catastrophic' choice for HHS secretary — What's their silver lining?
Key Takeaways
President-elect Donald Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for the future Secretary of Health and Human Services; members of the medical community have primarily expressed concern over the appointment.
Kennedy’s plan to address chronic disease has been welcomed by some in the medical community, but others say Kennedy’s fringe views could be damaging to public health.
Physicians and public health experts have expressed concern about Donald Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
“It's a really bad appointment,” Gerald Kominski, PhD, senior fellow at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, tells MDLinx. “[RFK Jr.] does not have great qualifications for this position whatsoever, and because of his conspiracy theories, his negative attitudes towards vaccinations [are] dangerous ideas in a public health setting."
"[It’s] going to be damaging to the field of public health, and more importantly, it's going to be damaging to the health of the population."
— Gerald Kominski, PhD
"I just think it’s sending all the wrong messages,” Dr. Kominski adds.
@doctormike RFK jr.
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What the experts are saying
The American Public Health Association, the largest organization of public health professionals in the US, released a statement calling for a Secretary of Health and Human Services who will listen to, and not discredit, science.[]
“To effectively lead our nation’s top health agency, a candidate should have the proper training, management skills, temperament and the trust of the public. Unfortunately, Mr. Kennedy fails on all fronts,” the statement reads.[]
“Kennedy’s past statements and views on vaccines alone should disqualify him from consideration. He has stated that 'there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective' and touted misinformation claiming that vaccines cause autism. A serious candidate for this position would follow the decades of real-world evidence that shows that vaccines are safe and prevent as many as 5 million deaths each year.”[]
His views on vaccines
In an interview with Fox News last year, Kennedy linked autism with vaccinations.[] It’s a position Dean Blumberg, MD, a pediatrician and advisory council member for the California Immunization Coalition, says is a cause for concern.
“It just shows a disregard for science,” he tells MDLinx. “[The] leadership needs to be science based. That has to be the backbone of all the decisions. Of course, when the science isn't there, then people use their best judgment, but the science is settled in regards to vaccines and autism.”
Dr. Blumberg says these kind of “fringe views” set back vaccination efforts. “Ultimately they can lead to more children getting vaccine-preventable diseases, more children being hospitalized for these diseases, more children dying from these diseases,” he says, noting that low vaccination rates also lead to increased healthcare costs across the board.
His stance on fluoride
In early November, Kennedy took to social media platform X to outline the Trump administration’s plans for public fluoridation of water:
On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water. Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease. President…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) November 2, 2024
Kennedy’s message has raised alarm among physicians and public health experts alike.
"That's a devastating statement, to be perfectly blunt and honest. It's a reckless statement."
— Kanwar Kelley, MD, JD
“Adding fluoride to the water supply in the country has been one of the greatest public health accomplishments of the last century,” Kanwar Kelley, MD, JD, board-certified otolaryngologist and co-founder of Side Health, tells MDLinx. “Particularly for folks that otherwise wouldn't have access to dental care, fluoride treatments, [sometimes] that can be their only source of fluoride, and it's incredibly important for dental health.”
Dr. Kelley continues: “Some of those claims that he made are just completely baseless and off target. It's those types of statements that really have a lot of the medical community concerned about this election, and give us pause in terms of considering his qualifications for the role.”
On a more positive note...
But not all of Kennedy’s views have concerned physicians. His goal to address rates of chronic disease is one of them.
“He does advocate for a lot of policy changes that would probably be good,” Dr. Kelley says. “I think everybody can agree that treating chronic diseases at the root cause—which is food, obesity, and the supply chain, processed foods and other toxins and dyes and chemicals that are being added to our food—those things need to be looked at.”
Allowing the spread of misinformation
Some caution that Kennedy’s communication style can create the perfect storm for misinformation.
Consider this X post from October 26, in which Kennedy criticizes the FDA:
“FDA’s war on public health is about to end. This includes its aggressive 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.”
FDA’s war on public health is about to end. This includes its aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) October 25, 2024
It’s a strategy Dr. Blumberg argues is problematic. “There's a lot of things that are positive in what he says, but then a lot of things are negative, and [linking] the two is one of the cornerstones of spreading misinformation,” he says.
Promoting raw milk, Dr. Blumberg argues, is particularly worrying.
Related: The most dangerous thing you could drink right now“Raw milk is a real problem,” he says. “Any kind of increase in consumption of raw milk is pretty much guaranteed to increase the spread of gastrointestinal pathogens.”
"I don't think any scientist, any epidemiologist, anybody involved in public health wants to see that."
— Dean Blumberg, MD
Kennedy has pledged to work with the 80,000 employees of the Department of Health and Human Services to “free the agencies from the smothering cloud of corporate capture.”[] In doing so, Kennedy states that he plans “to make Americans once again the healthiest people on Earth.”[]
But many remain unconvinced.
"I, personally, do not have confidence that Mr. Kennedy has either the skills or the disposition or the attitude that's going to be necessary."
— Gerald Kominski, PhD
“Mr. Kennedy has proven time and again that he doesn't really believe in science,” Dr. Kominski continues. “He has his own theories and his own points of view, and unfortunately, he's going to be in a position to impose those points of view on hundreds of millions of Americans, and this may have worldwide consequences.”
What this means for you
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is president-elect Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services. Physicians and public health experts have expressed concern over Kennedy’s nomination, citing his positions on vaccines, raw milk, and fluoride as just some of the potentially problematic issues. While Kennedy’s plan to address chronic disease has been welcomed by some in the medical community, some physicians argue Kennedy’s fringe views could be damaging to public health.