President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would nominate former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). It’s the fulfillment of an implied promise that Trump made at a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York in late October, where he said he would let Kennedy “go wild on health.”
Kennedy, a former Democrat and scion of the wealthy political family, first rose to prominence as an environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist. Around 2015, he joined the board of the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense (CHD), which alleges that conditions like autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are caused by environmental factors, including harmful agents in vaccines. Kennedy has repeatedly spread misinformation about vaccines, and in 2021 was named by the Center for Countering Digital Hate as one of the “disinformation dozen,” spreading misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic across Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
He has suggested, in contradiction to all reputable scientific research, that Covid-19 may have been “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people and that HIV does not cause AIDS, and implied that vaccine mandates are worse than the Holocaust. He also said in a 2012 deposition that a worm ate part of his brain and then died.
Kennedy’s account was banned from Instagram in 2021 for spreading vaccine misinformation. His account was restored in 2023, when he announced his run for office.
In August, Kennedy suspended his campaign and threw his support behind Trump, saying, “If President Trump is elected and honors his word, the vast burden of chronic disease that burdens and bankrupts the country will disappear,” at the time. He launched a parallel slogan to Trump’s MAGA—Make America Healthy Again (MAHA)—focused on “prioritizing regenerative agriculture, preserving natural habitats, and eliminating toxins from our food, water, and air.”
HHS oversees 13 federal agencies—which Kennedy has indicated he would gut—including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Kennedy’s position, however, is still contingent on congressional approval. Previous HHS leaders have had long careers in the public health field or within the department itself before serving as the head. A Republican-controlled Senate might defer to Trump, or might point to Kennedy’s aggressive promotion of conspiracy theories, long career as a loyal Democrat, and muddled positions on abortion as reasons to block his accession.
Though Kennedy has promised to overhaul the entire system, experts who spoke to WIRED say that he would likely come up against longstanding regulations that would be hard to outmaneuver. Health policies are also heavily informed by advisory committees, which are stacked with medical and public health experts, and would take time to shift in order to fully change the government’s recommendations.
Still, Kennedy as HHS director would have substantial power to dismiss staff and declare public health emergencies.
