Americans should support Kennedy’s nomination. He is the best chance of reigning in corruption and corporate power while prioritizing public health over profit.
President-elect Donald Trump has picked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), joining a slew of unorthodox choices for his cabinet. While many have criticized this particular selection, Kennedy represents a unique shift away from the corporate capture that has pervaded the public health agencies. Despite legitimate concerns about his vaccine skepticism, Kennedy is the most progressive, anti-corporate nominee for the HHS secretary position that a Republican president would realistically put forth.
Historically, Republican HHS officials were entangled with the very corporate giants they regulated, giving industry significant power over our public health. Former HHS Secretary during President-elect Trump’s first term, Alex Azar, worked for pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly for a decade between his stint in HHS under President Bush and his tenure in the Trump administration. Trump’s Food & Drug Administration (FDA) chief, Scott Gottlieb, served on the board of pharmaceutical companies before entering the administration and joined Pfizer’s board of directors two months after resigning.
In contrast, Kennedy built his career suing corporate giants for harming the environment and public health. For example, his work supported making Monsanto pay $11 billion to agricultural workers and families for allegedly poisoning them and causing cancer from exposure to the pesticide Roundup. In 2017, he helped win a settlement making DuPont pay $670 million to Ohioans and West Virginians for contaminating their drinking water.
Kennedy’s stated agenda to fulfill the duty of HHS secretary—protecting and improving public health—centers around combating corporate greed and malpractice. For example, pharmaceutical companies charge Americans three times more than peer countries for prescription drugs. Kennedy has railed against price gouging, and he supports the ability for Medicare to negotiate drug prices like other nations who pay far less.
For his HHS bid, Kennedy’s « Make America Healthy Again » campaign aims to « end the chronic disease epidemic. » The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) itself estimates that around 60 percent of Americans have at least one chronic disease, 40 percent have two or more, and « chronic diseases are the leading cause of illness, disability, and death in America.
