President-elect Donald Trump announced Thursday that he is nominating Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).

In a speech before his appointment, Trump suggested he would let Kennedy “go wild on health” in the United States. If the Senate confirms Kennedy as the head of HHS, he would have oversight over 13 key health divisions, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS).

The nomination sent shockwaves through the public health community. Many experts raised alarm about Kennedy’s history of promoting pseudoscientific health claims and anti-vaccine rhetoric.

“This is an extraordinarily bad choice for the health of the American people,”wroteAshish Jha, MD, MPH, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.

Kennedy has advocated for undoing food and pharmaceutical regulations and restructuring public health agencies in an effort to make the U.S. “the healthiest nation on Earth.”

“FDA’s war on public health is about to end,” Kennedy wrote in a post on X, the site formerly called Twitter, after the announcement of his nomination.

Kennedy is expected to push for sweeping changes to the U.S. public health landscape, challenging regulatory policies and endorsing controversial treatments that diverge from mainstream medical practices. Here are some of his policy stances.

Vaccines

Routine childhood vaccinations prevented an estimated 508 million cases of illness and more than 1 million deaths in children born between 1994 and 2023, according to the CDC.

Kennedy has long been a vocal vaccine skeptic. He founded the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense (CHD), one of the largest sources of anti-vaccine misinformation.

For years, Kennedy peddled stories that vaccines cause autism, a claim that has been repeatedly disproved.He alsospread disinformationabout the measles vaccine in Samoa, causing the vaccination rate to drop from about 70% to about 30% and leading to an outbreak that killed dozens of children.

In 2022, CHDco-published a bookfalsely claiming that the COVID-19 vaccine caused a spike of sudden deaths among healthy people.

Kennedy has since tried to soften his anti-vaccine rhetoric. On the day after the election, he said in aninterview with NBC News: “I’ve never been anti-vaccine. I’m going to make sure the scientific safety studies and efficacies are out there, and people can make individual assessments about whether that product is going to be good for them.”

Food

Kennedy has been an outspoken advocate for regulating the food industry, which he claims is “mass poisoning an entire generation of kids.”

Kennedy has said he will strip ultra-processed foods from school lunches and crack down on additive ingredients like food dyes, high fructose corn syrup, and glyphosate.

Some of his views align with top nutrition and public health experts, who have called for reducing ultra-processed foods, which make up more than half of Americans’ caloric intake. Many healthcare professionals agree that the high levels of saturated fat, sodium, added sugars, and unnecessary chemicals found in ultra-processed foods contribute to poor health and high obesity rates.

Still, some public health watchdogs raised concerns that demonizing public health agencies in charge of regulating food and nutrition could hinder efforts to improve diet quality.

Kennedy said he would fire nutritionists in the FDA and promote products such asraw milk, which can cause life-threatening illness. He’s argued against consuming seed oils despitelittle evidencethat those oils are toxic. He also wants to ban people from using SNAP benefits, sometimes called food stamps, to buy soda or processed foods.

“Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is not remotely qualified for the role and should be nowhere near the science-based agencies that safeguard our nutrition, food safety, and health,”said Peter Lurie, MD, MPH, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit food and health advocacy organization, and former Associate Commissioner for Public Health Strategy and Analysis at the FDA. “Nominating an anti-vaxxer like Kennedy to HHS is like putting a Flat Earther at the head of NASA.”

The Trump administration will also oversee the development of the next edition of theDietary Guidelines for Americans, the nation’s official nutrition recommendations, which are updated every five years.

Fluoridated Water

Kennedy said on X that on January 20, the day that the new administration takes office, the White House will “advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water.”

He called fluoride an “industrial waste” that’s linked to various health conditions, including “arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, [and] neurodevelopmental disorders.”

Fluoride is a mineral that occurs naturally in drinking water at low levels. Since 1945, U.S. water systems have added extra fluoride to drinking water because the mineral helps strengthen teeth against tooth decay. The CDC considers water fluoridation to be one of the top 10 great public health achievements of the 20thcentury, and the American Dental Association says it is “the most significant strategy employed to reduce disparities in tooth decay.”

In September, afederal judge orderedthe Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take additional measures to regulate the addition of fluoride in water. The ruling didn’t specify which actions the EPA should take, and the agency is reviewing the ruling.

Is It Time to Rethink Fluoride in Drinking Water?

Restructuring Public Health Agencies

The HHS oversees federal health agencies, including CMS, FDA, CDC, and NIH. As secretary of the HHS, Kennedy would have some control over the staffing and structure of those organizations.

Echoing Trump’s sentiments, Kennedy said he would fire many career civil servants from those agencies andsingled out NIHas a target.

“On January 21, 600 people are going to walk into offices at NIH, and 600 people are going to leave,” Kennedy said at a conference in Arizona last week.

The backbone of these agencies is comprised of the people who have worked there for decades, saidJennifer Kates, MPA, MPS, PhDsenior vice president and director of the Global Health and HIV Policy at KFF.

During the first Trump administration, there were207 attackson science, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. Those included censorship, falsified records, and intimidation of scientists.

Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group,called the nomination“the latest revenge-prank nomination to emerge from the patio of Mar-a-Lago.”

“President-elect Trump has selected someone guaranteed to seriously erode the credibility of the federal government with the medical and public health communities,” Cook said.

What This Means For YouKennedy hasn’t yet been confirmed as HHS Secretary. The Senate will approve or reject Cabinet nominees in the coming months. In the meantime, talk to a trusted healthcare provider about any concerns you may have about your health and where to find trustworthy resources for health information.

What This Means For You

Kennedy hasn’t yet been confirmed as HHS Secretary. The Senate will approve or reject Cabinet nominees in the coming months. In the meantime, talk to a trusted healthcare provider about any concerns you may have about your health and where to find trustworthy resources for health information.

5 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Zhou F, Jatlaoui TC, Leidner AJ, et al.Health and economic benefits of routine childhood immunizations in the era of the vaccines for children program—United States, 1994–2023.MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2024;73(31);682–685. doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm7331a2Davidson M.Vaccination as a cause of autism—myths and controversies.Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2017;19(4):403-407. doi:10.31887/DCNS.2017.19.4/mdavidsonLane M, Gamage E, Du S, et al.Ultra-processed food exposure and adverse health outcomes: umbrella review of epidemiological meta-analyses.BMJ.2024;384:e077310. doi:10.1136/bmj-2023-077310Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Ten great public health achievements—United States, 1900–1999.American Dental Association.Fluoridation facts.

5 Sources

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Zhou F, Jatlaoui TC, Leidner AJ, et al.Health and economic benefits of routine childhood immunizations in the era of the vaccines for children program—United States, 1994–2023.MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2024;73(31);682–685. doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm7331a2Davidson M.Vaccination as a cause of autism—myths and controversies.Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2017;19(4):403-407. doi:10.31887/DCNS.2017.19.4/mdavidsonLane M, Gamage E, Du S, et al.Ultra-processed food exposure and adverse health outcomes: umbrella review of epidemiological meta-analyses.BMJ.2024;384:e077310. doi:10.1136/bmj-2023-077310Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Ten great public health achievements—United States, 1900–1999.American Dental Association.Fluoridation facts.

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Zhou F, Jatlaoui TC, Leidner AJ, et al.Health and economic benefits of routine childhood immunizations in the era of the vaccines for children program—United States, 1994–2023.MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2024;73(31);682–685. doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm7331a2Davidson M.Vaccination as a cause of autism—myths and controversies.Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2017;19(4):403-407. doi:10.31887/DCNS.2017.19.4/mdavidsonLane M, Gamage E, Du S, et al.Ultra-processed food exposure and adverse health outcomes: umbrella review of epidemiological meta-analyses.BMJ.2024;384:e077310. doi:10.1136/bmj-2023-077310Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Ten great public health achievements—United States, 1900–1999.American Dental Association.Fluoridation facts.

Zhou F, Jatlaoui TC, Leidner AJ, et al.Health and economic benefits of routine childhood immunizations in the era of the vaccines for children program—United States, 1994–2023.MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2024;73(31);682–685. doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm7331a2

Davidson M.Vaccination as a cause of autism—myths and controversies.Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2017;19(4):403-407. doi:10.31887/DCNS.2017.19.4/mdavidson

Lane M, Gamage E, Du S, et al.Ultra-processed food exposure and adverse health outcomes: umbrella review of epidemiological meta-analyses.BMJ.2024;384:e077310. doi:10.1136/bmj-2023-077310

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Ten great public health achievements—United States, 1900–1999.

American Dental Association.Fluoridation facts.

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