Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will arrive on Capitol Hill on Monday to begin a series of private meetings with more than two dozen senators and their staffs in their bid to become the nation’s next health secretary.
Senators on Kennedy’s list include Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the GOP’s pick to be the next Senate majority leader, and John Barrasso, a physician, the incoming Senate majority whip.
Kennedy’s chances of getting Senate confirmation are unclear. Past comments questioning vaccine science and the food industry could win and lose votes on both sides of the aisle, depending on how he talks about the incoming administration’s plans.
Here are three questions about his nomination:
Would he try to limit access to certain vaccines like the polio shot or encourage schools to drop vaccine mandates?
Kennedy said he is not against all vaccines. She says she was fully vaccinated, except for the COVID-19 shot, and has vaccinated her children.
Kennedy has also falsely claimed that childhood vaccines cause autism, even though research has debunked that link and numerous other high-quality studies have found no evidence that vaccines are linked to autism.
In addition, Kennedy has questioned the safety of the polio vaccine and enlisted the help of longtime adviser and anti-vaccine advocate Aaron Siri. veterinary job candidates for entry administration.
Siri asked the Food and Drug Administration to revoke approval of the polio vaccine in 2022 on behalf of an anti-vaccine group.
Katie Miller, a spokeswoman for the transition, said Kennedy and Siri have never spoken about Siri’s requests.
“Mr. Kennedy believes that the polio vaccine should be available to the public and thoroughly and properly studied,” he said.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The Health and Human Services Secretary nominee will leave the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on December 12, 2024, in New York.
David Dee Delgado/AFP via Getty Images
Dr. Richard Besser, former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and an ABC News contributor, said senators should ask Kennedy if she would consider using her new position to make local school districts not require vaccinations.
While state — not federal — laws set vaccination requirements for local schools, they are based on recommendations from the CDC and FDA, which Kennedy would oversee as health secretary if confirmed. Currently, all 50 states and Washington, DC, have laws requiring vaccinations in schools, although many offer exemptions.
“What are you going to do to make parents feel comfortable sending their children to school protected from measles, whooping cough and other vaccine-preventable diseases if vaccines are no longer necessary?” Besser said senators should ask Kennedy.
In questioning the polio vaccine, Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving Senate leader in history and a polio survivor, said last week that anyone seeking Senate confirmation “would do well to distance themselves from the appearance of association with such efforts.” “
Will Kennedy use “confirmation bias” to review government data?
Confirmation bias is when people often seek out information that supports their deeply held beliefs, rather than being open to accepting new information that might challenge their ideas.
As for the polio vaccine, Kennedy said he’s willing to admit he’s wrong, but he hasn’t seen any convincing information yet.
“If you show me a scientific study that shows I’m wrong … I’ll put that on my Twitter and say I was wrong,” he said on a podcast with Lex Fridman last year. .
Several senators are likely to ask Kennedy if he would be willing to change his mind about vaccines based on the data, or if he already believes the data is wrong or manipulated.
Critics say Kennedy is deliberately ignoring information that is already out there. In a letter obtained by The New York Times, more than 75 Nobel laureates asked senators to block his nomination, citing his “relative lack of credentials or experience” in matters of medicine, science and public health.
“Given his history, putting Mr. Kennedy in charge (of the Department of Health and Human Services) would jeopardize public health and undermine America’s global leadership in health sciences, both public and commercial.” it was written by the award winners.
How would he try to change what Americans eat?
Kennedy finds the most political consensus when he talks about America’s obesity crisis and blames it on the high levels of sugar, sodium and fat in ultra-processed foods. He has been a longtime environmental advocate and has also taken aim at the use of additives promoted by food companies, earning him the thanks of some Democrats.
“We prioritize corporations feeding us unhealthy produce over family farmers growing fresh, healthy food, and we allow too many dangerous chemicals to flood our food system.” Sen. Cory Booker said last month After Kennedy’s nomination was announced.
“We all need to come together to build a system that works for everyone,” he added.
But a big question many senators will be asking is how Kennedy plans to turn around America’s eating habits in a way that doesn’t hurt US farmers or heavily regulate the agribusinesses that are political backers of President-elect Donald Trump. During the first Trump administration, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue rolled back Obama-era rules that sought to limit sodium and sugar in school lunches for children who received federal subsidies.
FDA Administrator Robert Califf, who will step down when Trump takes office in January, recently testified before a Senate committee that we still don’t know much about food science and safety. When the FDA moves forward with regulation, the rule is often challenged in court, he said.
“What seems simple, given the current state of court cases, is that First Amendment rights, corporations have the same rights as individuals — every little thing we do, unless specifically ordered by Congress — is not just that we lose in court, but we lose years,” he said. he had
ABC’s Olivia Rubin contributed to this report.
