The Senate is predicted to vote Thursday on the affirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a outstanding lawyer and vocal vaccine critic, because the nation’s well being secretary, controlling $1.7 trillion in spending for vaccines, meals security and medical health insurance applications for roughly half the nation.
Regardless of a number of Republicans expressing deep skepticism about his views on vaccines, Kennedy is predicted to win affirmation, absent any last-minute adjustments.
Kennedy, 71, whose well-known identify and household tragedies have put him within the nationwide highlight since he was a baby, has earned a formidable following along with his populist – and generally excessive – views on meals, chemical substances and vaccines.
His viewers solely grew in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Kennedy devoted a lot of his time to a nonprofit that sued vaccine makers and harnessed social media campaigns to erode belief in vaccines in addition to the federal government businesses that promote them.
With the backing of Republican President Donald Trump, Kennedy believes he’s “uniquely positioned” to revive belief in these public well being businesses, which embrace the Meals and Drug Administration, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, and the Nationwide Institutes for Well being.
Republican senators have largely embraced Kennedy’s imaginative and prescient, reciting his newly hatched slogan to “Make America Wholesome Once more” in speeches.
Final week, North Carolina GOP Sen. Thom Tillis mentioned he hopes Kennedy “goes wild” on reigning in well being care prices and enhancing People’ well being. However one holdout – GOP Sen. Invoice Cassidy, a Louisiana physician – required assurances that Kennedy wouldn’t make adjustments to present vaccine suggestions earlier than agreeing to again him.
Democrats have remained skeptical, unsuccessfully prodding Kennedy throughout hearings to disclaim an extended discredited concept that vaccines trigger autism. And a few have raised alarms about Kennedy financially benefiting from altering vaccine tips or weakening federal lawsuit protections in opposition to vaccine makers.
Kennedy made greater than $850,000 final 12 months from an association referring purchasers to a regulation agency that has sued the makers of Gardasil, a human papillomavirus vaccine that protects in opposition to cervical most cancers. Whereas serving as well being secretary, he has promised to reroute charges collected from the association to his son.
Kennedy is predicted to take over the company within the midst of a large federal authorities shakeup, led by billionaire Elon Musk, that has shut off – even when quickly – billions of taxpayer {dollars} in public well being funding and left hundreds of federal staff not sure about their jobs.
On Friday, the NIH introduced it might cap billions of {dollars} in medical analysis given to universities and most cancers getting used to develop remedies for illnesses like most cancers and Alzheimer’s.
Kennedy, too, has known as for a staffing overhaul on the NIH, FDA and CDC. Final 12 months, he vowed to fireside 600 workers on the NIH, the nation’s largest funder of biomedical analysis.
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