Rubella Back?: RFK Jr. Confirmed As Health Secretary, Nation Shudders
Written by djfrosty on February 17, 2025
Source: The Washington Post / Getty
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed by the Senate to be the Health and Human Services Secretary for President Donald Trump’s administration, worrying many observers.
On Thursday (February 13), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was officially confirmed by the Senate to be the new Health and Human Services Secretary, ending a tumultuous period of debate. The vote was a narrow one, 52-48, with Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell the lone Republican to join all the Democrat senators who voted against him. Kennedy, the son of America’s prestigious political family, will now oversee $1.7 trillion in federal spending, vaccine recommendations, and food safety as well as half of the nation’s health insurance policies. He will also oversee 80,000 employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Kennedy, 71, has been a controversial figure who has spread misinformation about vaccines in the past, particularly that they cause autism. He has also made claims about raw milk and fluoride in water, as well as asserting that Lyme disease and COVID-19 were bioengineered weapons. During his testimony before the Senate, he had issues confusing Medicare and Medicaid and was attacked for his flip-flopping on abortion. Although he gained some support for his “Make America Healthy Again” platform aiming at food additives, there is doubt that he will earnestly follow through on his proposals.
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren decried the confirmation. “Putting Kennedy in charge of the nation’s public health is a huge mistake. When dangerous diseases resurface and people can’t access lifesaving vaccines, all Americans will suffer,” Warren said in her statement. “And thanks to his serious, unresolved conflicts of interest, RFK Jr.’s family could continue getting richer from his anti-vaccine crusade while he’s in office.” Senator McConnell, who survived polio as a child, criticized Kennedy thoroughly. “In my lifetime, I’ve watched vaccines save millions of lives from devastating diseases across America and around the world. 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,” he said in a statement.
President Donald Trump took offense to the criticisms, particularly coming from McConnell as characterized the vote as a vote against him. “I have no idea if he had polio. All I can tell you about him is that he shouldn’t have been leader,” Trimp said to a reporter after the vote.