Donald Trump chooses Robert Kennedy Jr to lead the US Department of Health

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Donald Trump has nominated vaccine skeptic and former Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the latest in a series of controversial picks for top cabinet posts.

The appointment will put Kennedy, who has sowed doubt about Covid-19 vaccines and criticized the pharmaceutical industry, at the head of a department with a budget of $1.8 billion and broad influence on drug regulation and public health.

The move hit the stock market, as investors digested the prospect of a tougher political outlook in the world's largest pharmaceutical market. U.S.-listed vaccine makers including Moderna and BioNTech both closed down more than 5 percent on Thursday. European pharmaceutical groups fell on Friday, with GSK and Sanofi losing more than 3 percent.

Trump said in a statement Thursday that he was pleased to nominate Kennedy to the position. For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and pharmaceutical companies that engaged in deception, misinformation and misinformation when it comes to public health, the president-elect said.

Donald Trump welcomes Kennedy on stage at a campaign rally in Glendale, Arizona, in August Olivier Touron/AFP/Getty Images

Trump has rocked Washington in recent days with controversial cabinet nominations, raising questions about how many nominees will make it through the Senate approval process. On Wednesday, he named loyalists Matt Gaetz as attorney general and Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.

Trump said that as head of HHS, with oversight of agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Protection, Kennedy would restore those agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard scientific research and the beacons of transparency, to end the Chronic Disease Epidemic and make America great and healthy again!

In the final weeks of his presidential campaign, Trump said he would let [Kennedy] go wild on health, go wild on food… go wild on drugs. Drugmakers had expressed concern that Kennedy would be given a formal role in the administration.

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Thanking Trump for his nomination, Kennedy wrote on Americans once again the healthiest people in the world. Earth.

The Consumer Brands Association, whose members include Nestl and PepsiCo, noted that HHS agencies operate under a science-based, risk-based mandate and that it is critical that the framework remains under the new administration.

Kennedy, the son of the late Attorney General Robert Kennedy, beat out a number of other candidates for the job, including former Housing Secretary and neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, according to a person close to him. discussions.

The nomination rewards Kennedy for abandoning his own presidential campaign and supporting Trump instead, helping to secure votes for the former president, the person said.

Kennedy's appointment as the nation's top health official is likely to set off alarms among public health experts and pharmaceutical companies. He has described the Covid-19 vaccine as the deadliest vaccine ever made and said last year that the virus was being targeted on an ethnic basis to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.

A young Kennedy carried by his father Bettmann Archive

Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said after the announcement that Kennedy's outlandish views on basic scientific facts were troubling and should worry all parents who expect schools and other public spaces are safe for their children.

Bill Cassidy, the top Republican on the Senate Health Committee, praised the choice and said Kennedy stood up for issues like healthy foods and the need for greater transparency in our public health infrastructure.

Kennedy said he would redirect government resources to fight chronic diseases instead of spending money on prescription drugs, and also floated the idea of ​​removing fluoride from the water system and eliminating it. take on food companies about food additives.

In an interview with NBC News last week, Kennedy insisted that if vaccines work for someone, I'm not going to take them away. People should have a choice. But he added that he would eliminate entire departments of the FDA.

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Kennedy's nomination paves the way for the appointment of some of his allies at other health agencies, such as the FDA, the CDC and the National Institutes of Health. Healthcare influencers and entrepreneurial siblings Calley and Casey Means, who advise Kennedy, as well as Stanford professor Jay Bhattacharya, who has opposed the large-scale rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, are jockeying for positions , according to a person familiar with the discussions.

Health officials from the former Trump administration, including Joe Grogan, Eric Hargan and Paul Mango, are also vying for the positions.

Trump also announced Thursday that he would nominate North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum as Interior secretary, giving the billionaire businessman a powerful role in the new administration's efforts to stimulate national energy production.

Additional reporting by Gregory Meyer

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