Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the FDA Food And Drug Administration headquarters.
President elect Donald Trump says he plans to give Robert F. Kennedy Jr. a “big role” in health care in the new administration and let him “go wild” on health, food and medicine. Although Trump hasn’t confirmed what that role would be or what precisely “going wild” means, Kennedy could potentially be elected to any number of leadership positions in the administration, including as the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Kennedy — an environmental lawyer with no scientific degrees — has made multiple false or misleading claims about vaccines and once relied on a fringe far-right supporter base. But he is rapidly inching closer toward influencing the federal response to infectious disease, vaccines and public health — which many scientists say would be detrimental to the nation.
“If RFK has a significant influence on the next administration, that could further erode people’s willingness to get up to date with recommended vaccines,” Dr. Jerome Adams, who served as Surgeon General during Trump’s first administration, said at a public health conference in Minneapolis last week, as reported by The New York Times. “I am worried about the impact that could have on our nation’s health, on our nation’s economy, on our global security.”
In the last weeks before Trump won the 2024 election, he made an alliance with Kennedy in a final campaign push under the slogan and super PAC, “Make America Healthy Again.” MAHA is largely centered around the so-called medical freedom movement, which operates on a platform that values personal liberties above the medical establishment and opposes government public health and regulatory agencies.
In an interview with NPR on Wednesday, Kennedy said Trump had already assigned him three tasks: to reduce the “corruption and conflicts” in regulatory agencies like the FDA, return those agencies to the “evidence-based science and medicine that they were once famous for,” and to end chronic disease with measurable impacts within two years.
“FDA’s war on public health is about to end,” Kennedy posted on X, formerly Twitter, in October. “If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.”“There are entire departments, like the nutrition department at the FDA that have to go,” he said in an NBC interview. “They are not doing their job.”
Kennedy also said he wants to reform the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, which regulates the funding the FDA receives from pharmaceutical companies when they apply for new drugs to be approved. This has long been a point of contention, but removing this funding would likely hobble the agency. These fees account for nearly half of the FDA’s budget used to pay its employees and sustain the process of approving and evaluating the medicines the country relies on.
Some of the policy changes Kennedy has proposed would need to be passed through other branches of government before enacted. For example, any withdrawals of vaccines would likely be challenged by the Supreme Court. Any decision to shrink agencies like the FDA would have to go through Congress, and changes in mifepristone regulations could also face legal challenges.
There are doubts whether or not the Trump Administration, even influenced by RFK Jr. would be able to accomplish this. Nonetheless there is a great deal of damage that a Trump administration can and will have on public health and safety.”
FDA’s war on public health is about to end. If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.
