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Senate confirmation hearings will likely start in January for President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet nominees, including Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. | Photo by Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons
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By Suzanne Potter, Producer
Groups fighting to improve access to health care are asking the U.S. Senate to reject Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Kennedy is an environmental lawyer who ran for president, then threw his support to Donald Trump in August.
Matthew Herdman, California state director for the nonprofit Protect our Care, said Kennedy has falsely linked vaccines to autism.
“When he went to American Samoa to talk about vaccine safety there, almost immediately afterward, there was a large measles outbreak that led to 83 Americans losing their lives,” Herdman recounted. “I would be terrified to see that happen, spread nationwide across our country.”
Kennedy has said one of his priorities would be to reexamine pesticides that are legal in the U.S. but banned or being phased out in Europe. He has also promoted raw milk, despite warnings from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that unpasteurized milk can carry salmonella, E. coli, Listeria and the virus that causes bird flu.
Dr. Diana Dayal, an emergency room resident physician at UCLA Medical Center and a union representative, said she’s troubled by Kennedy’s beliefs.
“He has touted countless baseless claims time and time again that have later been contradicted by expert review,” Dayal pointed out. “From his takes on vaccine development to fluoride safety, he misrepresents isolated data as conclusive and then interprets other studies incorrectly. Conveniently he then ignores vast scientific evidence and peer review that runs counter to his beliefs.”
Chris Noble, organizing director for the group Health Access California, noted Kennedy once called the COVID-19 vaccine the “deadliest vaccine ever made.”
“RFK Jr. will continue to propagate medical conspiracies that further erode trust in evidence-based medicine that will result in preventable death and grave threats to public health if given a seat of power,” Noble contended.
Billions of dollars in federal subsidies for health plans on CoveredCA are set to expire next year unless the Republican-controlled Senate reinstates them. Kennedy has so far not taken a public position on the issue.
Disclosure: Health Access contributes to Public News Service’s fund for reporting on Health Issues. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, visit https://www.publicnewsservice.org/dn1.php.
