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President-elect Donald Trump has nominated vaccine skeptic and lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to guide the HHS in a controversial choice that’s anticipated to attract ire from some public well being specialists.
Trump introduced the appointment on social media platform Fact Social.
“For too lengthy, Individuals have been crushed by the commercial meals complicated and drug firms who’ve engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation on the subject of Public Well being,” Trump wrote Thursday.
His function as secretary of the HHS would give him oversight over a price range of almost $2 billion and businesses together with the Meals and Drug Administration and the CMS, which is accountable for administering federal healthcare packages like Medicare and Medicaid.
Kennedy has beforehand promised to overtake the federal public well being business. “FDA’s battle on public well being is about to finish,” Kennedy wrote in October in a submit on X.
Most just lately, Kennedy said he needed to eradicate fluoride within the nation’s water provide, a call that might upend one of many nation’s largest public well being initiatives. Over social media, Kennedy has additionally criticized what he calls an epidemic of “persistent illness,” together with autism, weight problems and diabetes.
Initially a candidate for president, Kennedy endorsed Trump after dropping out of the race in August. On the marketing campaign path, Trump promised to let Kennedy “go wild” on healthcare.
If confirmed by the Senate, Kennedy would succeed the Biden administration’s Secretary Xavier Becerra.
