Trump supporter Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants access to federal health data so he can show vaccines are unsafe and lead to them being pulled from the market in a second Trump administration, a co-chair of Donald Trump’s transition team said.
Howard Lutnick echoed a number of scandalous anti-vaccine talking points made by Kennedy in an interview with CNN on Wednesday, including lies about the vaccine schedule and the unproven theory that vaccines cause autism. Trump has repeatedly talked about how Kennedy, who suspended his presidential bid and endorsed him in August, will have a big role if the former president returns to the White House.
While Lutnick said Kennedy would not be chosen as Secretary of Health and Human Services, he was not specific about what role Kennedy might have. Lutnick made the comments on the same day Kennedy told NewsNation that Trump had asked him to “reorganize” agencies including the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and some agencies under the Agriculture Department.
Lutnick’s comments raised immediate concerns among public health experts that giving influence to one of the world’s most prominent anti-vaccine activists could lead to what one said were “serious health consequences” for Americans, especially children. These elections come just days before the November 5 elections, and at a time when Trump, a Republican, and Kamala Harris, a Democrat, are competing to convince voters who made a late decision in their favor.
Lutnick, CEO of financial services company Cantor Fitzgerald, told CNN that Kennedy wanted access to the data “so he can say these things are not secure” and that would stop sales.
“He says, ‘If you give me the data, all I want is the data and I’ll take the data and show it’s not safe. And then, if you take away product liability, companies will pull these vaccines right off the market. That’s his point,'” Lutnick said.
It was not clear what data Lutnick was referring to since extensive data and research on vaccine safety is publicly available.
The World Health Organization has estimated that global immunization efforts have saved at least 154 million lives in the past 50 years.
In recent days, Trump said he would let Kennedy “freak out” on health, food and medicine. Kennedy has repeatedly said he intends to exert influence on a wide range of policies if Trump wins, and said Trump promised him control of health agencies and told him he wanted him to reorganize them.
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Asked about Kennedy’s comments and his role in the Trump administration, Jason Miller, a senior campaign adviser, said the only thing Trump and his campaign are focused on is winning on November 5.
“Everything after that is after that, and President Trump has made it clear that Bobby Kennedy will play an important role,” Miller wrote.
Joshua Sharfstein, vice dean for the practice of public health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said it would be “extremely dangerous” to put Kennedy in a position of power where he could make decisions or be able to change regulatory policy.
“Removing vaccines from the market will lead to serious health consequences for America,” said Sharfstein, a former deputy commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration. “We go about our daily lives in the United States without worrying about many preventable diseases like measles because of the protection that vaccines provide. But if there is a systematic effort to use the tools of the federal government to undermine the vaccination process, children will not be safe. Full stop.”
Even if Kennedy were given a lesser role where he provides input and feedback but has no control over policy, that could still be detrimental, according to people who have served in public health roles in government.
“Advisors like Scott Atlas have demonstrated the significant influence they can wield without congressional oversight, raising concerns of misinformation and harm,” Trump’s surgeon general, Dr. Jerome Adams, wrote in an email, referring to Trump’s former COVID-19 adviser. A radiologist with no background in infectious diseases, he advocated the widely discredited herd immunity strategy.
Adams said he believes Kennedy is unlikely to be tapped to lead a major health agency because he has no medical experience, would likely have a hard time passing a background check for a top-secret clearance and would likely lack support in the health field. Congress – Even though Trump circumvented the background check system during his first administration and filled his cabinet with acting officials who did not have congressional approval.
Kennedy’s anti-vaccine organization has a lawsuit pending against news organizations including The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy is on leave from the group but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.
Republican lawmakers have long enjoyed — and supported — from drug companies, even vowing to dismantle a law signed by Democratic President Joe Biden that allows the government to negotiate prescription drug prices for Medicare enrollees. Republicans say the law will hurt companies and stifle innovation in the industry. But skepticism about vaccines, which is growing across the country, has run deeper among conservatives.
In addition to people’s health and well-being, the possibility that Kennedy’s influence would lead to scandalous ideas such as linking the vaccine to autism wasting time, energy, and money frustrated public health advocates.
“Trump helped bring the vaccine to market, and he took the vaccine. “I don’t know why this person would give this mouthpiece,” said Amy Pisani, CEO of Vaccine Your Family, noting that Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed” helped bring the Covid-19 vaccine to market, even though… Kennedy attacked him relentlessly.
Vaccine Your Family is a nonpartisan group co-founded by former First Lady Rosalynn Carter and former Arkansas First Lady Betty Bumpers, and has worked on vaccine programs with Republican and Democratic presidential administrations over the past 30 years.
“I don’t want to go back 30 years to fight the anti-vaccine movement again,” Pisani said. “To go back in time and waste millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars on this witch hunt again is indefensible.”
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