RFK Jr., an anti-vax activist, will lead Health and Human Services following Senate confirmation
Source: The Verge
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is now President Donald Trump’s new secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) following a Senate confirmation vote.
As head of the HHS, Kennedy will oversee agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration. While Kennedy has said that he is not anti-vaccine, a CNN fact check chronicles false claims he has made about vaccines, including that parents should not vaccinate their babies.
The Senate voted 52-48 on his nomination, with polio survivor Sen. Mitch McConnell being the only Republican to not vote for Kennedy, NPR reports.
“In my lifetime, I’ve watched vaccines save millions of lives from devastating diseases across America and around the world,” McConnell said in a statement, according to NPR. “I will not condone the re-litigation of proven cures, and neither will millions of Americans who credit their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles.”
Kennedy launched his own bid for the 2024 presidential election in 2023, initially running as a Democrat but then switching to run as an independent. He eventually selected Nicole Shanahan, who is Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s ex-wife, as his running mate. Shanahan told The New York Times that while she is “not an anti-vaxxer,” she said that “I do wonder about vaccine injuries.”
