1 year ago
22
The Senate connected Thursday confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. arsenic President Donald Trump's wellness secretary, putting the salient vaccine skeptic successful power of $1.7 trillion successful national spending, vaccine recommendations and nutrient information arsenic good arsenic wellness security programs for astir fractional the country.
Republicans fell successful enactment down Trump contempt hesitancy implicit Kennedy views connected vaccines, voting 52-48 to elevate the scion of 1 of America's astir storied governmental - and Democratic - families to caput of the Health and Human Services Department. Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, who had polio arsenic a child, was the lone "no" ballot among Republicans, mirroring his stands against Trump's picks for the Pentagon main and manager of nationalist intelligence. All Democrats opposed Kennedy.
The GOP has mostly embraced Kennedy's imaginativeness to "Make America Healthy Again" by directing the nationalist wellness agencies to absorption connected chronic diseases specified arsenic obesity.
Kennedy, 71, whose sanction and household tragedies person enactment him successful the nationalist spotlight since helium was a child, has earned a formidable pursuing with his populist and sometimes utmost views connected food, chemicals and vaccines.
His assemblage lone grew during the COVID-19 pandemic, erstwhile Kennedy devoted overmuch of his clip to a nonprofit that sued vaccine makers and harnessed societal media campaigns to erode spot successful vaccines arsenic good arsenic the authorities agencies that beforehand them.
With Trump's backing, Kennedy insisted helium was "uniquely positioned" to revive spot successful those nationalist wellness agencies, which see the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes for Health.
Last week, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said helium hoped Kennedy "goes wild" successful reining successful wellness attraction costs and improving Americans' health. But earlier agreeing to enactment Kennedy, imaginable holdout Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., a doc who leads the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, required assurances that Kennedy would not marque changes to existing vaccine recommendations.
During Senate hearings, Democrats tried to prod Kennedy to contradict a long-discredited mentation that vaccines origin autism. Some lawmakers besides raised alarms astir Kennedy financially benefiting from changing vaccine guidelines oregon weakening national suit protections against vaccine makers.
Kennedy made much than $850,000 past twelvemonth from an statement referring clients to a instrumentality steadfast that has sued the makers of Gardasil, a quality papillomavirus vaccine that protects against cervical cancer. If confirmed arsenic wellness secretary, helium promised to reroute fees collected from the statement to his son.
Kennedy volition instrumentality implicit the bureau successful the midst of a monolithic national authorities shakeup, led by billionaire Elon Musk, that has unopen disconnected - adjacent if temporarily - billions of payer dollars successful nationalist wellness backing and near thousands of national workers unsure astir their jobs.
On Friday, the NIH announced it would headdress billions of dollars successful aesculapian probe fixed to universities and crab being utilized to make treatments for diseases specified arsenic crab and Alzheimer's.
Kennedy, too, has called for a staffing overhaul astatine the NIH, FDA and CDC. Last year, helium promised to occurrence 600 employees astatine the NIH, the nation's largest funder of biomedical research.
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