Any significant influence of RFK Jr. in Trump’s orbit would represent a recklessness never seen before in American health care history.
Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump welcomes Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on stage at the Turning Point Action campaign rally at the Gas South Arena.
(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Much of what “public health” does for Americans is taken for granted. Before the Covid pandemic, most people probably didn’t think about it at all. However, the fact that in most places in the United States we can count on the water we drink to be safe, the food we buy to be free of E. coli or listeria, and that we don’t have to Dealing with the terrible childhood diseases that swept through our communities just a few decades ago is a testament to the tireless work of many unsung, often unsung heroes. This invisible safety net has been years in the making, always underfunded and understaffed, always underfunded, but it’s all we have.
And now the wrecking ball is coming. When Trump’s first term was a disaster for public health — and his response to Covid, from blocking agencies from deploying testing and masking recommendations at an early stage to embracing the idea that we should for people to get infected the virus is the prime example here – at least there were institutionalists in key positions: Scott Gottlieb at the FDA, Alex Azar at the HHS, even the odious Robert Redfield at the CDC and Francis Collins hanging on at the NIH. Each of these individuals had at least some experience in federal agencies or related health care experience.
Trump’s public health policy avatar 2.0 will be very different. Regardless of whether the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to a cabinet position, an agency to run, a desk in the West Wing or the old executive office building, or even to remain an unofficial adviser to the president-elect, he represents a nothing, a conspiratorial future destined to make us sick. Any significant influence of RFK Jr. in Trump’s orbit represents a recklessness in public health the likes of which we have never seen in any federal administration in the history of this country.
So far we’ve heard Kennedy’s take on everything from fluoride in drinking water to childhood vaccinesto threats to recreate NIH and FDA in the image of his own quackery. Let’s be clear: Kennedy’s views are not an “alternative” to orthodoxy and designed to shake up the system – they are tested false. They are stupidity.
Take his claims about fluoride as an example. RFK Jr wrote on X in early November: “Fluoride is an industrial waste linked to arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders and thyroid disease.” Um… no. In large doses over long periods of time, as with many other substances (even water and oxygen!)—exposure to fluoride can be a problem, but not at the low concentrations we see in drinking water. Lest we forget, fluoride has been the bane of the far right since the 1950s, when fluoridation was supposed to be part of a communist conspiracy take over America.
And since conspiracy theories know no bounds, we can also look to a natural experiment in Calgary, Canada, for further evidence. Calgary City Council banned fluoridation in 2011 and is now set to reinstate it next year. why? Because after the end of fluorinationcavities in children’s teeth have become more and more frequent, often requiring treatment under general anesthesia and/or intravenous antibiotics to fight infections associated with cavities. As one researcher from the University of Calgary saidthe decision to ban fluoridation had a clear result: it became a source of “potentially life-threatening, avoidable disease, pain, suffering, misery and expense…especially (for) very young children and their families.”
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As for vaccination, Kennedy’s views are long-standing and well-known. He suggested that “there is no safe and effective vaccine” and he still holds to the long-debunked idea that vaccines cause autism. Most recently, during the Covid pandemic, he created a multi-million dollar net worth the anti-vaccine juggernaut to discourage people from getting vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2.
There is no person more important to the anti-vaccination movement than RFK Jr., and his impact has been deadly. Convincing people to abandon routine childhood vaccinations, he endangered life thousands of children, fueled fear in families with autistic children and, in at least one case, was partially responsible for a devastating measles outbreak. In 2019, 83 people, mostly children, died from this preventable disease in Samoa. While Kennedy denies that his words and actions were responsible for the outbreak, he did supported anti-vaccination efforts in the islands, wrote to the country’s prime minister about the dangers of vaccines and visited Samoa to meet with anti-vaxxers and later praised them for their work. Derek Lowe, a columnist for a leading science journal in the United States, Science, said: “Kennedy’s views on science and medicine are not only wrong, they are actively harmful and destructive. He used them to make a lot of money and lied about them to interviewers and reporters when he saw fit.”
Legal experts have suggested that Trump and Kennedy may not have the authority to do many of the things Kennedy proposed, and that public health in the US is largely a matter of state and local control outside of federal jurisdiction. But Trump and Kennedy can do a lot of damage without changing a single law, through appointments, executive actions, rulemaking, and the like. Schedule F it’s an executive order that would allow Trump to change the status of government employees to political appointees by order, fire them, and then replace them with incompetent apparatchiks. How will it work? Well, if a new president wanted to fire the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, previously held by Anthony Fauci, the position’s civil service status would make it difficult. But through the bureaucratic magic of Appendix F, the directorship could be reclassified as a political appointment, the director fired, and a loyalist with no qualifications filled. Now consider the ramifications of reclassifications, layoffs, and new hires up and down the public health service: it’s a recipe for chaos and destruction if cronies of Trump and Kennedy could be put in place agency after agency, stripping away decades of experience and knowledge in an instant.
In addition to these dangers, from the White House bully’s podium, Trump and Kennedy could also, for example, block fluoridation and vaccination and push GOP governors into the worst of their terrible ideas. Ron DeSantis would be happy to agree and already has a head start on dismantling health care in his state. It requires no federal action other than a willingness to spread misinformation and lies.
RFK Jr. is the poster boy for the new Trump administration, a rich man who has never had to worry about anything in his life, putting the lives of ordinary Americans in danger because he thinks he knows better than scientists. In fact, the person who thought it was a good idea to stage a dead bear cub and bicycle ride in Central Park has long shown a lack of common sense on all fronts. But he is part of a coquistocracy-in-waiting that will be run by plutocrats and bigots. Our health care system in America is fragile and should not be a game. After he finishes his games, all the royal horses and all the royal men may not be able to rebuild our health infrastructure. The damage can be long-lasting and deep.
But we are not powerless. Much of public health care happens at the local level—and we can protect this valuable national resource by speaking up and speaking out at city or town council meetings, by calling and writing to our state representatives, our mayors, and our governors. It will be necessary work. Like my Yale colleague Timothy Snyder said: “Protect institutions… Institutions do not protect themselves. So choose an institution that you care about and take its side.” It could be your local health department or Planned Parenthood clinic, a mental health clinic or needle exchange program, or LGBTQ+ or immigrant services in your area.
It’s all part of what makes public health a daily thing in our communities. Remove RFK Jr. and Donald Trump from power; focus and stubbornly take it away from them. Defeat their campaign to destroy health care in America. Small acts like these will add up and make a difference. If these people are the disease, let’s be the medicine.
We cannot retreat
We now face a second Trump presidency.
There is nothing to lose. We must use our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger to oppose the dangerous policies that Donald Trump is unleashing on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as principled and honest journalists and authors.
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Katrina Vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, Nation
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