Trump’s controversial pick for health czar raises concern

US Senate on Thursday confirmed US President Donald Trump’s contentious pick for secretary of health and human services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

Known as RFK Jr, he is the nephew of former US president John F Kennedy and the son of Robert F Kennedy, the former attorney general and senator. He has been a lifelong Democrat, but joined Trump in the run-up to the election,  promising to “Make America healthy again”. 

The role of US health secretary is much like that of South Africa’s health minister, with broad oversight of everything from health research and food and drug regulation to public health insurance programmes.   

But RFK Jr is best known for his wild beliefs about health. He has demonstrated an antivaccine stance and  has claimed that  HIV is not the sole cause of Aids, that fluoride in water lowers IQ levels and that Covid was bio-engineered to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.

He’s also an environmental lawyer who took on agrichemical giant Monsanto. He was a supporter of abortion and has opposed US reliance on fossil fuels, saying it worsens climate change — policies at odds with those of the Trump administration. He continues to be aggressively critical of Big Pharma and Big Food, having crusaded against pharmaceutical advertising and ultra-processed food.  

It’s that combination of misinformation and common sense that is so dangerous, says William Bird, the director of Media Monitoring Africa.  “Misinformation with a touch of truth … it’s sufficient to sow doubt so that you no longer know what is real and what absolutely isn’t.” 

 Distrust of vaccines 

During his Senate confirmation hearings, RFK Jr refused to back down from his belief that vaccines cause autism. 

“Will you reassure mothers unequivocally and without qualification that the measles and hepatitis B vaccines do not cause autism?” asked Senator Bill Cassidy, a physician who is the chair of the Senate committee on health, education, labour and pensions. RFK Jr refused to give a yes or no answer, asking for data that supported that view. 

His belief is largely based on a discredited 1998 study of 12 children that suggested a link between the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism. The theory has been repeatedly debunked by numerous studies over the past two decades.

The concern is that in his position at the reins of the US health-care system he could halt mandatory child vaccinations like MMR.  

Epidemiologist Salim Abdool Karim, a professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and Columbia University, tells Bhekisisa: “The consequence of all of that [would be] the re-emergence of all diseases. Measles will probably be among the first, because measles spreads very easily unless nearly everyone is vaccinated.” 

False claims and financial gains 

In 2023 RFK posted on X that the Gardasil human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine “appears to be increasing the risk of cervical cancer” — the very thing the vaccine is meant to prevent. The post got half a million likes. But studies have shown that the vaccine can be up to 100% effective in preventing cervical cancer.

During the hearings, RFK Jr admitted that he was collecting fees from suing the HPV vaccine manufacturer Gardasil — effectively giving him a financial stake in finding fault with vaccines, a huge conflict of interest. he agreed to hand over any proceeds to his son.

Making a leap

In an interview with conservative podcaster Jordan Peterson, RFK Jr said toxins in the environment could be causing a rise in the number of people who identify as transgender, pointing to a 2010 study that showed that a weed killer, atrazine, can give male frogs both male and female characteristics. 

Michael Pepper, the director of the Institute for Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Pretoria, says that what we learn from studying other species doesn’t always apply to humans, though we can’t ignore it either. 

He says there could be a number of reasons people are expressing different gender identities. That includes nonbiological ones such greater acceptance at present, which makes it easier for people to be themselves. Meanwhile, medical treatments like surgery and hormones have made it easier for those who want to transition.

But in the US at least some of that acceptance is being rolled back. In January Trump  mandated that all federal employees should remove their pronoun preferences from their e-mail signatures and other forms, and issued a slew of other antitrans executive orders.

Raw milk

In 2023, RFK Jr boasted that he drinks only raw milk, claiming health benefits. At present the FDA site warns about the health dangers of raw milk — it can carry bacteria like salmonella, listeria and E. coli, which cause food poisoning with symptoms such as diarrhoea, nausea and fever and are particularly dangerous for young children and older adults. 

The FDA strongly recommends pasteurisation, the process of heating milk to kill harmful bacteria and then cooling it quickly to keep it safe and fresh.

Raw milk consumption in the US is particularly dangerous now.  There has been a sharp rise in H5N1, the virus which leads to bird flu; it has been detected in dairy farms across the US. One person died in January and dozens have been infected with the virus since 2024, mainly from close contact with infected animals. Researchers found the virus can survive in raw milk and are concerned about a potential human avian influenza pandemic.

‘Things can go terribly wrong’

David Spurrett, professor of philosophy of science at the University of KwaZulu-Natal says politicians should stay in their lane. 

“It is really important that political officeholders should not confuse the political mandate with [expertise] … when they [do confuse it] things can go terribly wrong,” he says. “When we tried exactly that in South Africa — where the president and the minister of health were pushing their own views about the causes of HIV and Aids — the consequences were terrible. ”

The health of the US could look a lot different in four years.

“I think we will have to see how much damage is done,” says Abdool Karim. “I think it will be very hard to put Humpty Dumpty together again”.

[UPDATE] This article was updated at 7.12pm on February 13 to reflect RFK Jr’s confirmation as US health secretary, the number of bird flu cases in the US since initial publication and additional antitrans mandates handed down by President Trump.  

This story was produced by the Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism. Sign up for the newsletter.