Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine skeptic, was sworn in as Health and Human Services Secretary after a close Senate vote. Despite concerns over his views on vaccines, nearly all Republicans supported his confirmation. Democrats unanimously opposed him. Kennedy takes over the agency during a time of significant change in the federal government.
WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in Thursday as President Donald Trump ’s health secretary after a close Senate vote, putting the prominent vaccine skeptic in control of $1.7 trillion in federal spending, vaccine recommendations and food safety as well as health insurance programs for roughly half the country.
“I’m a survivor of childhood polio. In my lifetime, I’ve watched vaccines save millions of lives from devastating diseases across America and around the world," McConnell said in a statement afterward. “I will not condone the re-litigation of proven cures, and neither will millions of Americans who credit their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles.”
Kennedy — joined by his wife, other family members and several members of Congress — was sworn in Thursday afternoon in the Oval Office by Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, hours after confirmation. He said he'd first been there in 1961, and told stories of seeing his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, there as a child.
His audience only grew during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Kennedy devoted much of his time to a nonprofit that sued vaccine makers and harnessed social media campaigns to erode trust in vaccines as well as the government agencies that promote them. During Senate hearings, Democrats tried to prod Kennedy to deny a long-discredited theory that vaccines cause autism. Some lawmakers also raised alarms about Kennedy financially benefiting from changing vaccine guidelines or weakening federal lawsuit protections against vaccine makers.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. HEALTH SECRETARY VACCINES DONALD TRUMP SENATE CONFIRMATION
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