Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: A public-health wrecking ball

RFK Jr. has 'dramatically reshaped the U.S. health apparatus'

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

During his confirmation hearings, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "presented himself as a supporter of vaccines," said Apoorva Mandavilli in The New York Times, but his actions as health secretary tell a starkly different story. He and his agencies have taken "far-reaching, sometimes subtle steps to undermine confidence in vaccine efficacy and safety." Last week, the health secretary announced a "massive" study that he says will determine by September the cause of the "autism epidemic" — led by a top proponent of the repeatedly debunked theory that vaccines cause autism. Under RFK Jr.'s conspiracy-minded, anti-scientific leadership, health agencies have halted research into vaccine hesitancy, cut billions in state funding for childhood immunization, and terminated an ad campaign promoting flu shots. Top FDA vaccine regulator Peter Marks quit last month under pressure, saying it was clear Kennedy was not after truth but "subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies."

Even amid a Texas measles outbreak that has sickened more than 500 people and killed two children, Kennedy has failed to offer "a firm, unambiguous endorsement of vaccination," said Jonathan Cohn in The Bulwark. He "begrudgingly" told an interviewer last week that "the federal government's position" is that "people should get the measles vaccine." But he quickly undercut his tepid endorsement by falsely saying that vaccines aren't safety-tested. Last week, Kennedy had the astounding "chutzpah" to attend the funeral of an unvaccinated 8-year-old Texas girl who died of measles, said Robin Abcarian in the Los Angeles Times. Her death is the "direct result of years of vaccine skepticism and hostility" sown by Kennedy and his anti-science allies.

The erosion of trust in vaccines just scratches the surface of the damage Kennedy is doing, said Adam Cancryn in Politico. In two months, he has "dramatically reshaped the U.S. health apparatus," firing 10,000 government health officials and scientists, erasing a vast trove of "collective expertise and institutional knowledge," and leaving his department in "an unprecedented state of upheaval." The public health infrastructure he's dismantling "is the greatest invention of the Industrial Age," said Troy Farah in Salon. We now take for granted its success in reducing childhood mortality, eradicating horrific diseases like smallpox and polio, and giving us longer, healthier lives. If we let Kennedy's "reckless stupidity" reverse a century of progress, the impact will be felt for generations.