Trump Picks Kennedy, Vaccine Skeptic, for Health Secretary

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., leader of the loosely defined Make America Healthy Again coalition, will head the Department of Health and Human Services in the new administration, said President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday. “For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to public health,” said Trump in announcing the nomination on social media.

The Food and Drug Administration, which oversees most of the U.S. food supply, is part of HHS. The USDA has jurisdiction over meat and poultry products.

Before the Nov. 5 elections, Kennedy filmed a video outside USDA headquarters and said, “America’s current ag policy is destroying America’s health on every level. It destroys the health of America’s soil and water by tilting the playing field in favor of more chemicals, more herbicides, more insecticides, more concentrated mono-crops and feedlots, and, finally, it destroys the health of consumers.” Kennedy, who’s best known as a vaccine skeptic, encouraged regenerative farming, more “natural, unprocessed foods,” and a ban on “the worst agricultural chemicals.”

Kennedy has spoken of getting rid of processed foods in school lunches, reported the Food Fix newsletter.

The nomination was “the latest revenge prank” from Trump, said Ken Cook of the Environmental Working Group. “Far from being funny, the decision to make Bobby Kennedy America’s top health official could well be deadly.”

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, cheered the Kennedy nomination, saying, “What I’m most optimistic about is taking on big pharma and the corporate ag oligopoly to improve our health.” On social media, Polis said he agreed with Kennedy on moving away from “pesticide-intensive agriculture.”