Trump picks controversial Kennedy to lead major US health department
Former presidential candidate **RFK Jr** gets nominated to run the nations biggest health agency. His non-traditional views on vaccines and plans to reshape FDA raise questions about future health-care policies
Earlier this month Donald Trump made a surprising pick - Robert F Kennedy Jr will head the Health and Human Services Department (a move that shocked many health-care experts)
Last summer Kennedy ended his own run for president and backed Trump instead; now hes getting a key role in the next administration. The Department manages huge programs like Medicare and Medicaid with its massive 3.09-trillion budget for this year
The Safety and Health of all Americans is the most important role of any Administration
The choice is getting mixed reactions: Kennedy doesnt have typical health-care management background but has strong ideas about changing things. He wants to make big-time changes at FDA; which checks if medicines and foods are safe. “If you work at FDA and are part of this corrupt system preserve your records and pack your bags“ he wrote on social-media last month
His past statements about health topics have caused debates. Kennedy questions vaccine safety (even though experts say vaccines saved millions of lives in past 50 years). He also wants to stop adding fluoride to drinking-water and thinks food-system changes are better than weight-loss drugs
The departments size is huge - it runs Medicare and Medicaid for about 140 million people‚ manages CDC NIH and other key health offices. Current data shows Americans health is worse than people in other rich countries; despite all the money spent
- Wants major FDA staff changes
- Plans to review vaccine policies
- Aims to change food-system rules
- Questions common health practices
Drew Altman from health research group KFF calls it historic: “hes not your usual pick - has views outside normal thinking and its really a wild-card choice“
