How a conspiracy theorist and HIV dissident became the new US health secretary

The Senate has approved the appointment of Robert Kennedy Jr., an opponent of vaccination and a supporter of conspiracy theories about the dangers of Wi-Fi and 5G, as US Secretary of HEALTH and Human Services . Read more about him and his views in the RBC article Robert  Kennedy Jr. How Kennedy Jr. was appointed

On February 13, the US Senate voted to confirm Robert Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health. His candidacy turned out to be one of the most controversial in the Donald Trump administration — the only competitors to the nephew of the 35th US President John F. Kennedy were the contender for the post of Attorney General Matt Gaetz, suspected of buying sex from a minor (Pam Bondi eventually took the post), and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was accused of ALCOHOL abuse, extramarital affairs, and extravagance.

The hearings on Kennedy Jr.'s nomination were held in two committees - Finance and Health, Education, and Labor, although only the former was supposed to vote. The senators focused on the politician's numerous unscientific statements and conspiracy theories, especially those related to health care. Democrat Ron Wyden, a member of the Finance Committee, cited the following statistics to his colleagues: in the last four years alone, Kennedy Jr. has spoken negatively about vaccinations 114 times, and in 36 cases he made a direct connection between childhood vaccinations and autism. "The appointment of Robert Kennedy as Secretary of Health and Human Services would be a grave threat to the health of the American people," he warned.

Doubts have plagued Trump’s fellow party members, including Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician who has admitted to having serious concerns about the nominee and grilled Kennedy Jr. about his views on vaccinations. At a Jan. 30 hearing, the senator, who serves on both committees, told the story of an 18-year-old patient who needed a liver transplant and who might have avoided the difficult procedure if she had been vaccinated against hepatitis B.

“I am concerned that you have undermined confidence in vaccines in the past with unfounded or misleading arguments. Can I trust that that is in the past? Will new information change your mind, or will you only look for facts that fit your preconceived notions?” Cassidy asked Kennedy. Kennedy responded that he would admit he was wrong if he was given the scientific evidence to back it up. The nominee also continued to press his other controversial proposal: that African Americans should have a different vaccination schedule than whites.

The former gastroenterologist's vote was supposed to be decisive, and the senator faced intense pressure from both sides, with failure to support Trump's nominee potentially costing him his seat, CNN reported. On February 4, the Finance Committee ultimately backed Kennedy Jr.'s nomination by a vote of 14-13. Only Republicans voted in favor, including Cassidy, who expressed hope for "a great working relationship to help us make America healthy again." The senator explained that the new administration had assured him that Kennedy would not destroy the nation's vaccination system or change government policy regarding it.

On February 13, Kennedy's appointment as health secretary was approved by a vote of 52 to 48. His nomination was rejected by all Democratic and independent senators, as well as Mitch McConnell, who led the Republican caucus in the upper house of Congress for nearly 20 years but left the post in November 2024 .

In the 2024 presidential election, Robert Kennedy Jr. initially ran as an independent candidate, but in late August he announced his decision to suspend his campaign in states where the most intense battles between the Democratic and Republican candidates were expected. Immediately after this announcement, he spoke at a Donald Trump rally and urged his base to vote for the Republican. In gratitude, Trump nominated Kennedy Jr. for the post of Secretary of Health, saying that he would help the country cope with the "epidemic of chronic diseases" and fight the negative influence of pharmaceutical companies and the chemical industry.

What scandalous statements is the new Minister of Health known for?

Kennedy Jr. not only claimed that vaccines cause autism in children, but also claimed that drug companies deliberately add dangerous toxins to vaccines to make them more effective. “Nobody can tell you what the side effects of any vaccine are. So anyone who says they’re safe and effective is lying because they can’t tell you that based on scientific evidence,” he said in 2019.

Kennedy is known not only as an anti-vaxxer, but also as an HIV denialist. Despite overwhelming scientific evidence, he has claimed that the virus is not the sole cause of AIDS and that the disease can allegedly be developed as a result of drug use. He has also claimed that Lyme disease is a biological weapon of military origin, and that atrazine, used to kill weeds, can allegedly “chemically castrate and forcibly feminize” frogs and, possibly, humans. “I think we underestimate the connection between chemical exposure and a lot of the problems we see in children, and particularly in boys, including sexual dysphoria,” Kennedy said in an interview in 2023. The new health secretary also claimed that Wi-Fi and 5G could cause cancer, and that the antidepressant Prozac could be driving school shootings in the US.

He was also extremely skeptical about the danger of the covid-19 pandemic , claiming that the American authorities had exaggerated the problem in order to force vaccines on the population. According to him, white and dark-skinned people were most susceptible to the disease, while Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese had stronger immunity. The politician also claimed that the United States had allegedly invested millions of dollars in developing microbes that “attack” people of a certain nationality, and that for this purpose, laboratories in Ukraine had allegedly collected DNA samples from Russian and Chinese citizens .

The politician does not have a medical education. In 1976, he received a bachelor's degree in American history and literature from Harvard, and in 1981, he graduated from the University of Virginia Law School. In 1982, he got a job as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan, but quit the following year after failing the bar exam and being arrested for heroin possession.

Kennedy Jr. became addicted to drugs after his father was murdered: back in 1970, when he was 16, he was caught with marijuana. Both then and in 1983, he got off with probation, although the second time the COURT also sentenced him to community service, which he performed for the non-profit organization Riverkeeper, which was engaged in cleaning the Hudson River. It was then that Kennedy Jr. became seriously interested in ecology. In 1985, he finally passed the bar exam, and in 1987 received a master's degree in environmental law, continuing to work at Riverkeeper. In 1999, he opened his own NGO, Waterkeeper Alliance.

In recent years, however, Kennedy Jr. has become known primarily as a proponent of conspiracy theories, including those involving his own family. In particular, he insisted that Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan was not involved in the murder of his father, and also claimed that the CIA was behind his uncle’s death. Such statements and Kennedy Jr.’s difficult character alienated other members of the influential clan: many of them did not support either his presidential campaign or his decision to support Trump.

His extravagant antics over the years are also well known. In 2012, Kennedy Jr.'s daughter Kathleen told reporters that in 1994, her father used a chainsaw to cut off the HEAD of a beached whale, attached it to the roof of the family minivan, and drove it home to Mount Kisco, New York, for five hours. And in 2014, Kennedy dumped a bear cub he had found and an old bicycle in New York's Central Park to make it look like the animal had been killed by a cyclist.

Despite all these scandalous episodes, as well as health problems (memory, cardiovascular system, etc.), Kennedy Jr. became the leader of the popular Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, which advocates for proper nutrition and enjoys the support of American mothers.