{"id":4460,"date":"2024-11-19T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewitnessexet.wpengine.com\/?p=4460"},"modified":"2024-11-19T14:12:09","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T14:12:09","slug":"concerns-raised-over-robert-f-kennedys-nomination-as-health-secretary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/?p=4460","title":{"rendered":"Concerns Raised Over Robert F. Kennedy’s Nomination as Health Secretary"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On the 14th<\/sup>\u00a0November, President-elect Donald Trump announced his nomination for health secretary: Robert F. Kennedy Junior. This was not unexpected given the implications that Trump made even before his victory that he wanted RFK Jr. in his administration even before his presidential victory. RFK Jr. was himself in the race for the presidency\u00a0until August of this year<\/a>, when he dropped out and announced his endorsement of Donald Trump. In some states, however, he remained on the ballot, and received just shy of\u00a0600,000 votes<\/a>nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s proposed administration has been controversial, with appointments for the Secretary of Defence, and Attorney General receiving mixed reviews,\u00a0even from fellow Republicans<\/a>, and these concerns extended to RFK Jr\u2019s nomination as Health Secretary. Kennedy\u2019s nomination has also kickstarted a\u00a0sharp decline in health stocks<\/a>\u00a0(including drug and vaccine makers), while stocks in Pepsi and Coca-Cola have declined as well. This decline is in part due to RFK Jr.\u2019s plans to come after \u2018Big Pharma and Big Food<\/a>\u2019 as well as the FDA, whom he views as a corrupt organisation.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decline is also undoubtedly linked to Kennedy\u2019s views on vaccination. RFK Jr. is the chair of Children\u2019s Health Defence, a group that is notoriously anti-vaccine, and a large contributor to the vast misinformation surrounding vaccines. RFK Jr. has spread much of this, particularly referring to the conspiracy theory that\u00a0vaccines cause autism<\/a>, a theory that has been debunked by organisations such as the CDC and the WHO, and whose academics have retracted the supporting evidence they found in 1998. He has also said that it was \u2018criminal medical malpractice<\/a>\u2019 to give Covid-19 vaccines to children, and his charity has posited that the increase in deaths amongst young people was due to the\u00a0nationwide push of the vaccine<\/a>. Kennedy also spread a number of other conspiracy theories regarding public health, including that\u00a0WiFi causes cancer<\/a>\u00a0and that Covid-19 was engineered to target black and caucasian people.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A number of organisations and individual physicians have\u00a0expressed concern<\/a>\u00a0over the nomination. One physician voiced concerns based specifically on\u00a0RFK Jr.\u2019s role in the Samoa measles outbreak<\/a>. IN 2018, two infants in Samoa died after receiving an MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine that was prepared incorrectly. As a result, the vaccine program was placed on hold, bringing with it a wave of misinformation, in large part from Kennedy and his charity. When the program was reinstated, there was a significant drop in vaccination against measles. The following year a sick traveller brought measles to the island, resulting in 5,700 sick people and 83 dead, the majority of whom were young children. RFK Jr. denied any wrongdoing.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite his record on vaccinations, RFK Jr. has denied being anti-vax and has stated that he won\u2019t\u00a0\u2018block or ban vaccinations\u2019<\/a>\u00a0should he be confirmed by the Senate. He has, however, also said that \u2018people ought to have a choice<\/a>\u2019 over whether to be vaccinated. At present, individual states set the vaccination requirements for children, however\u00a0it is mandatory across all states\u00a0for children over 5 to be vaccinated before they enrol in a public school. Kennedy\u2019s statement about choice regarding vaccinations suggests that mandatory vaccinations could come to an end.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it remains to be seen whether RFK Jr. will be confirmed by the US Senate, the concerns raised certainly cast some doubt as to whether he would be a suitable fit to run the Department of Health.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Image: ‘Independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr entered the race in 2023<\/a>‘, AP \/\/ CC BY 4.0<\/a><\/p>\n

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On the 14th\u00a0November, President-elect Donald Trump announced his nomination for health secretary: Robert F. Kennedy Junior. This was not unexpected given the implications <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":4461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,30,414],"tags":[448,436,218],"class_list":["post-4460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-politics","category-us-politics","tag-rfk-jr","tag-trump","tag-us-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}