- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the new US health secretary.
- Kennedy, a vocal critic of vaccines, insisted in his confirmation hearings that he's not anti-vaccine.
- He promised to be an advocate for children and moms and thanked "MAHA moms" for their support.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent opponent of vaccine mandates and leader of a clean-eating campaign, has been confirmed as the new health secretary of the United States.
In his confirmation hearings, Kennedy promised to advocate for "America's children" and "especially the moms" as leader of the nation's health services. He also thanked the "MAHA moms" — a nod to his popular "make America healthy again" movement — before he was grilled by the Senate Finance Committee on January 29.
Kennedy was flanked by his wife, the actor Cheryl Hines, and major players in his MAHA movement: former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, "Food Babe" influencer Vani Hari, brother-sister wellness influencers Calley and Casey Means, and Del Bigtree, the anti-vaccine proponent who is petitioning to trademark "MAHA" as a brand.
To get the job, Kennedy was interrogated about his views on vaccines, controversial statements about race and Lyme disease, and gaps in understanding about what the role of the Health and Human Services secretary entails.
He was not questioned about his passionate views on the weight-loss-drug industry, which he could influence since the Food and Drug Administration falls under the purview of the HHS.
Here's what you need to know:
'I'm supportive of vaccines'
One of Kennedy's biggest hurdles in securing the job was winning over Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who heads the Senate health committee and spent 30 years practicing medicine. Cassidy expressed grave concerns about Kennedy's views on vaccines, sharing that he had seen firsthand how vaccines saved children from preventable illnesses.
As he voted in favor of Kennedy on last Tuesday, Cassidy said he had received "serious commitments" from the Trump administration that he and Kennedy would have an "unprecedentedly close" working relationship.
"Ultimately restoring trust in our public health institutions is too important, and I think Mr. Kennedy can help get that done," Cassidy said.
Throughout Kennedy's two days of confirmation hearings, senators on both sides of the aisle questioned Kennedy about his years of advocacy against vaccine mandates. They mentioned:
- Kennedy's chairmanship for Children's Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group. (Kennedy resigned from the Children's Health Defense board in December.)
- His visit to Samoa in 2019, as chairman of Children's Health Defense, as part of an anti-measles-vaccine movement.
- His ongoing financial involvement in a lawsuit against Merck, the maker of the HPV vaccine, which prevents cervical cancer.
- His 2021 book, "The Measles Book: Thirty-Five Secrets the Government and the Media Aren't Telling You about Measles and the Measles Vaccine." Kennedy promotes vitamin A and chicken soup as alternative measles treatments in the book.
- His belief Black and white Americans should have different vaccine regimens.
At the beginning of his testimony in January, Kennedy said his six children had all been vaccinated. "News reports claim that I am anti-vaccine," he said. "All of my kids are vaccinated."
Senators cited a 2020 video in which Kennedy said he wished his children were not vaccinated. "I would do anything for that," he said in the video for Children's Health Defense. "I would pay anything to be able to do that."
"I support the measles vaccine. I support the polio vaccine. I will do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking either of those vaccines," Kennedy said during the hearing. "Every medicine has people who are sensitive to them, including vaccines."
A history of controversial statements
Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat from Colorado, listed several controversial statements Kennedy had made in interviews and asked him to clarify what he meant.
- When asked if he said Lyme disease is very likely a militarily engineered bioweapon — a long-running and debunked Lyme disease conspiracy theory — Kennedy said: "I did probably say that."
- Kennedy denied saying that exposure to pesticides causes children to become transgender. CNN reported that Kennedy said that on a podcast in 2022.
- Bennet read a quote from one of Kennedy's books saying that "African AIDS" is "entirely different" from "Western AIDS." Kennedy said he was not sure if he said that.
- When asked to confirm that he said COVID-19 was designed to kill Black people and to spare "Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese" people, Kennedy said he was quoting a study, not his own beliefs. (The study, published in 2020, does not mention Chinese people and does not suggest that the disease was designed to spare or target any group.)
How Kennedy would work with Trump on fast food, abortion, and climate change
Kennedy said he agreed with his boss, President Donald Trump, on two major policy areas — but they agreed to disagree on another.
Clean eating: Kennedy has gained broad support from Democrats and Republicans in his campaign to clean up America's food system. He has promised to ban synthetic food dyes and to take on seed oils in our food system, saying "it's time to make frying oil tallow again."
Still, during his hearing, Kennedy said his views on food regulation will not clash with Trump's.
"If you like a McDonald's cheeseburger or a Diet Coke, which my boss loves, you should be able to get them," Kennedy said as the room erupted in laughter at his reference to President Donald Trump. "If you want to eat Hostess Twinkies, you should be able to do that, but you should know what the impacts are on your family and on your health."
"Something is poisoning the American people, and we know that the primary culprit [is] our changing food supply, the switch to highly chemical-intensive processed foods," he added.
Abortion: Kennedy, once pro-choice, pledged to follow Trump's lead on abortion. "Whatever he does, I will implement those policies," he said.
Senators in Kennedy's confirmation hearing focused on the so-called abortion pill mifepristone, which is used for noninvasive abortions up to 10 or 11 weeks.
Anti-abortion activists are calling on Trump to ban the pill or limit access to it through the mail. Trump has said he is not yet planning to curb access to the pill.
Kennedy suggested that the FDA and NIH should review the pill's safety, which was FDA-approved in 2000. In response, Sen. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat from New Hampshire, submitted a stack of safety data to the record.
- Climate change: Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, said he and Trump have "agreed to disagree" on climate change. "I believe climate change is existential. My job is to make Americans healthy again," he said.
Kennedy's responses indicated he wasn't familiar with some of his new job duties
A common line of inquiry in the confirmation hearings was whether Kennedy had the experience to oversee the entire US health system.
During the hearings, Kennedy mixed up Medicaid and Medicare and did not know that states partially fund Medicaid. He struggled to explain how Medicare worked when Hassan questioned him, and he mistakenly said that HHS does not have a law enforcement arm — it does.
Meanwhile, Kennedy floated big ideas, such as suggesting that the government should provide concierge medical care to every American.
Kennedy also refused to say that healthcare is a human right. "In healthcare, if you smoke cigarettes for 20 years and you get cancer, you are now taking from the pool," he said.
