President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement that he will nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services has some national and state health officials concerned.
During the campaign, Kennedy told NewsNation that Trump had asked him to “reorganize” agencies under HHS, the massive federal department that includes the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, and oversees Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.
Trump said Kennedy would target drugs, food additives and chemicals.
In a brief interview exclusively with the AJC on Friday, CDC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Debra Houry said the CDC has not formally started the transition process for the new administration, but she said she looks forward to meeting with the transition team to take an “in-depth look at questions or criticisms they have so we can accurately and proactively address them and to discuss administration priorities and opportunities in public health.”
While the CDC’s mission could be in for big changes, Houry declined to speculate, stressing it’s early in the process. Kennedy has not yet been confirmed for the HHS job.
Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, is perhaps best known for his criticism of childhood vaccines. In a 2021 podcast Kennedy urged people to “resist” CDC guidelines that advise when kids should receive routine vaccinations. In July, he said in a podcast interview that “There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective” and told Fox News that he still believes in the long-ago debunked idea that vaccines can cause autism. Kennedy has more recently said he will not “take vaccines away from anybody.”
Dr. Mandy Cohen, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an e-mail, “I don’t want to go backwards and see children or adults suffer or lose their lives to remind us that vaccines work, and so I am concerned. Any misinformation coming from places of influence or power are concerning.”
James Curran, dean emeritus of Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, said he was “flabbergasted” by the nomination. Curran said his concerns go well beyond vaccine skepticism into Kennedy’s changing assertions when speaking to different audiences and his lack of actual research forming his opinions.
Curran’s concerns include whether Kennedy will defend HHS’s budget in tax cut talks, and whether his appointment will cause a brain drain among dedicated scientists who don’t want the stress of working under his leadership.
“I can’t question why he behaves the way he does, but we certainly can question about why someone so unqualified and destructive would be nominated to be secretary of Health and Human Services,” Curran said.
“People who avoid vaccines can die, or spread disease to your children,” Curran said. “So, you know, a whole lot of things make you realize that he’s a dangerous person to be in charge.” Curran also chairs the Georgia Department of Public Health’s board, which serves in an advisory role. Curran was not speaking for the board.
Dr. Lynn Paxton, who currently heads the public health districts including Fulton, Gwinnett, Newton and Rockdale counties, addressed a Friday morning conference of health workers and officials who often serve as the health safety net for metro Atlanta. The timing of Friday’s conference was unrelated to Trump’s announcement.
Paxton joked that on hearing the news fresh off an international flight she told herself to put in a prescription for herself for beta blockers, a medication for high blood pressure and heart attacks.
“I’m taking deep breaths,” Paxton said, recalling the moment. “But you know, one thing that kind of kept coming back to me is: ‘Number one, you survived this before. You can white-knuckle your way through it, if you have to.’ And then the second thing is, ‘Who’s doing the actual work?’”
Credit: Elijah Nouvelage
Credit: Elijah Nouvelage
“And when I think about that, I thought, the actual work is being done by people like us in this room. ... And so you might have a crackpot at the top — okay that might be the jet lag speaking — but it doesn’t necessarily mean that all of our work is going to be for naught. What it means is that ... you don’t take your foot off the gas. You just keep on going.”
Speaking to the AJC, John Haupert, CEO of Grady Health System, a major Atlanta safety net system, echoed others’ anxiety.
“As a public health advocate and as a social safety net advocate that gives me concern,” he said. “One of the ways we create health is vaccines. One of the ways we improve health community wide, is through robust Medicaid systems.”
Not all health officials are worried about what a Kennedy confirmation might mean. Gainesville doctor and former president of the Medical Association of Georgia Dr. Andrew Reisman said he was not concerned about Kennedy.
Reisman, who supports vaccination, told the AJC in a text, “I don’t think RFK will prevent anyone from getting the vaccines they need or want.” Reisman went on to say he would disagree with any changes or loosening of requirements for vaccines for attending school. “That puts other people besides yourself at risk on those settings,” he said.
At the same time, Reisman said he was pleased Kennedy would focus on tackling artificial food dyes and preservatives in food.
Asked about Kennedy’s nomination, U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, a Georgia Republican and a pharmacist, said through a spokesman that “I have the utmost confidence in President Trump to nominate leaders to his cabinet that will effectively advance his agenda, shake up and change Washington, and advance the mandate the American people have given us. Americans deserve a better health care system that is accessible, affordable, and quality. I look forward to working with President Trump’s Administration to achieve these goals.”
Kennedy has pushed against processed foods and the use of herbicides like Roundup weed killer. He has long criticized the large commercial farms and animal feedlot operations that dominate the industry. He has promised a crackdown on food dyes and preservatives — an issue that has resonated with many concerned about chemicals in food.
Kennedy has also suggested that drugmakers be barred from advertising on TV, a multibillion-dollar enterprise that accounts for most of the industry’s marketing dollars. He also proposed eliminating fees that drugmakers pay the FDA to review their products.
Kennedy hails from one of the nation’s most storied political families and is the son of the late Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of President John F. Kennedy. He first challenged President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination last year. He then ran as an independent but abandoned his bid this summer after striking a deal to endorse Trump in exchange for a promise to serve in a health policy role during a second Trump administration.
He and the president-elect have since become good friends, campaigning together extensively during the race’s final stretch.
“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,” Trump said Thursday in a post on his Truth Social site announcing the nomination. Kennedy, he said, would “end the Chronic Disease epidemic.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This story has been updated to include additional voices reacting to Kennedy’s nomination.
