Senate Confirms 'Profoundly Unqualified' RFK Jr. to Lead Nation's Health Agencies

The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to confirm vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to lead the nation's health policy, a move that one advocate said puts "our entire healthcare system and countless patient lives in jeopardy."

"This is a shameful day for the U.S. Senate, an institution that likes to laud itself for its careful deliberation and seriousness of purpose," said Robert Weissman, co-president of government watchdog Public Citizen. "No senator should have voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Every single senator knows he's not just profoundly unqualified to head the nation's health agency but a threat to public health in the nation."

Every Democratic senator voted against Kennedy's confirmation to lead President Donald Trump's Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), while Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was the only Republican to oppose Kennedy. McConnell survived polio as a child and said Kennedy's "record of trafficking in dangerous conspiracy theories" about vaccines influenced his decision.

The confirmation followed Senate hearings in which Kennedy had nothing negative to say about the country's for-profit health insurance system, which has made insurers increasingly wealthy as patients' healthcare treatments are denied and delayed.

He insisted that Americans "would prefer to be on private insurance" and displayed a lack of knowledge about Medicaid and Medicare, appearing to confuse the two. He also denied being anti-vaccine while refusing to reject the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism, a failure that Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who is a physician, claimed to be troubled by—but Cassidy went ahead with his vote for Kennedy nonetheless.

"Senators who rubber stamp this dangerous nomination in fear of an angry tweet from President Trump cannot later feign concern and surprise when Kennedy's actions end up harming everyday Americans. They, too, will own the consequences."

"Any vote to confirm Kennedy to lead HHS is a vote to put our public health at risk, and senators know it," said Tony Carrk, executive director of government watchdog Accountable.US. "The war Kennedy is itching to wage against vaccines and scientific research will undoubtedly cost lives and could lead to the resurgence of diseases once thought dormant."

"Among the last people who should be overseeing our public health is Kennedy, with his non-existent health policy credentials, embrace of ludicrous conspiracies, and judgment so lacking that he potentially committed felony voter fraud despite courts warning him not to," Carrk added, referring to Accountable's accusation that Kennedy cast a ballot last year from an address that wasn't his. "Senators who rubber stamp this dangerous nomination in fear of an angry tweet from President Trump cannot later feign concern and surprise when Kennedy's actions end up harming everyday Americans. They, too, will own the consequences."

During his confirmation hearings, Kennedy angered officials in Samoa, where he spread anti-vaccine conspiracy theories just before 83 people died of measles in a 2019 outbreak. Samoa's director-general of health, Alec Ekeroma, accused Kennedy of "a total fabrication" when he told senators many of the people who died didn't have measles.

Before the Senate voted on Thursday, Ekeroma said Kennedy's confirmation to lead U.S. health agencies, which control funding for international health and vaccine initiatives as well as domestic policy, would be "a danger to us, a danger to everyone."

Weissman credited many Democratic senators for their "truly heroic efforts... to rally opposition against this dangerous nominee," and warned that "it will fall on the American people to confront his lies and policies and to defend basic public health principles and institutions."

"We should expect Robert F. Kennedy to continue spreading his conspiracies, anti-vaccine propaganda, and anti-science crusade," said Weissman. "We should expect him to deliver on his promises to sabotage our public health institutions. And we should expect him to enable and facilitate the effort to slash health care coverage for lower-income people, privatize Medicare, and undermine the subsidies and consumer protections on the Affordable Care Act exchanges."

Advocacy group Patients for Affordable Drugs noted that despite Kennedy's claim that he has "often disturbed the status quo by asking uncomfortable questions," he provided little information in his confirmation hearings about how he would challenge Big Pharma by lowering drug prices and defending the Medicare negotiations introduced by former President Joe Biden.

"Secretary Kennedy has a critical opportunity—and responsibility—to build on existing measures to rein in Big Pharma's price-gouging and lower drug costs for patients," said Merith Basey, the group's executive director. "We are ready to work with him to ensure Medicare drug price negotiations continue, out-of-pocket costs are reduced, and competition in the marketplace is increased through reforms to end abusive pharmaceutical monopolies that harm patients."

"But make no mistake," added Basey. "Patients fought hard to secure the 2022 prescription drug law, and we will fiercely oppose any efforts to weaken it."