Robert F Kennedy Jr, President-elect Donald Trump‘s choice to lead the nation’s health agencies, asked the Food and Drug Administration to revoke the authorization of all Covid-19 vaccines in May 2021, according to a recent report of New York Times. At the time, it had been around six months of the vaccine rollout and the pandemic was still deadly, with thousands of Americans dying every week.
This action came merely six months after Trump had praised the COVID vaccines as miraculous. During Kennedy’s petition submission, 50% of American adults were being vaccinated, with educational institutions resuming operations and religious gatherings recommencing.
Kennedy filed the petition on behalf of his nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense, claiming that the risks of the vaccines outweighed the benefits and that alternative treatments were available. The petition received little notice and was denied by the agency within months.
Public health experts expressed shock at Kennedy’s request. John Moore, a professor of immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College, called it “an appalling error of judgment.” Gregg Gonsalves, an epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health, likened having Kennedy lead the federal health agencies to “putting a flat earther in charge of Nasa.”
Dr. Robert Califf, commissioner of the FDA, described Kennedy’s effort to halt the use of Covid vaccines as a “massive error.”
When asked about his opposition to Covid vaccines in November, Kennedy said he was concerned that the vaccines did not prevent transmission of the virus. “I wouldn’t have directly blocked it,” he said. “I would have made sure that we had the best science, and there was no effort to do that at that time.”
Robert Kennedy Jr has voiced scepticism regarding vaccine safety and effectiveness multiple times. His public profile includes outspoken resistance to Covid-19 control measures, whilst maintaining contentious positions about purported connections between vaccines and autism, a theory which has not been proven scientifically.
If Kennedy is confirmed as secretary of health and human services, the former presidential candidate and later Trump endorser will lead a department controlling vast financial resources and crucial healthcare oversight. The agency’s responsibilities encompass the regulation of America’s food supply, pharmaceutical products, vaccination programmes and therapeutic interventions.
