London scientists have expressed alarm after Donald Trump picked vaccine sceptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr to be his new Health Secretary.
Several leading academics said the appointment of RFK Jr to the most senior position in American public health would be a “disaster” and imperil vaccination efforts.
RFK Jr has vowed to “make America healthy again” by tackling the country’s obesity crisis, removing fluoride from public drinking water and curtailing the influence of regulators, who he claims are too close to the food and drug industries.
The president-elect has said he will let RFK Jr tackle the “industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation”.
But the move has alarmed public health officials and academics due to concern over RFK Jr’s anti-vaccine activism and embrace of numerous debunked conspiracy theories.
In July, RFK Jr said in a podcast interview that “there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective” and told Fox News that he still believes in the debunked idea that vaccines can cause autism.
Vaccines have been proven safe and effective in laboratory testing and in real-world use in hundreds of millions of people over decades.
Beate Kampmann, Professor of Paediatric Infection and Immunity at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), said that the announcement was “a slap in the face of evidence-based health policies, including those that have underpinned the use of safe and effective vaccines” in the US.
“Measles vaccination has averted more than 60 million deaths worldwide in the last 25 years, including in the USA. Progress will be rapidly lost in societies where vaccine hesitancy is promoted - as I fear will be the case in the US if Kennedy is appointed,” he said.
RFK Jr has denied that he will ban vaccines and would lack the power to do so as Health Secretary, but has vowed to “provide Americans with transparency and access to all the data so they can make informed choices for themselves and their families”.
In the past, he has also claimed that 5G high-speed wireless network services are being used to “harvest our data and control our behavior”, according to CBS.
Dr David Elliman, Consultant Paediatrician, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, said the nomination was “very worrying” but praised RFK Jr’s ambition to reduce obesity and tackle chronic conditions.
“Vaccination has probably saved more lives and is better researched than most, if not all, aspects of healthcare. JFK Jr could set this back and be responsible for the death and disability of myriads of people, particularly children.”
But he added: “Directing his energies to the 'industrial food complex' would be no bad thing, as would ensuring more transparency from pharmaceutical companies.”
In the role, RFK Jr would have authority over the nation's agencies responsible for public health as well as government-funded health insurance plans for more than 140 million people.
He has also been vocal about the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), accusing agency staff of doing the bidding of Big Pharma and Big Food.
"FDA's war on public health is about to end," he wrote on X 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."
Sir Simon Wessely FRS, Regius Professor of Psychiatry, King’s College London, said of the nomination: “That sound that you just heard was my jaw dropping, hitting the floor and rolling out of the door.
“As someone who graduated from a Texas High School I have great admiration and affection for Americans. They deserve better, much better, than this”.
