The News
Vaccine skeptic and former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been nominated as Donald Trump’s health and human services secretary.
“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” President-elect Donald Trump wrote on social media. “Mr. Kennedy will restore these Agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again!”
The former environmental lawyer has said he would remove fluoride from drinking water and roll back mandatory childhood vaccines if he were in office as part of a broader, radical overhaul of the US’ approach to medicine and health.
Early reports of Kennedy’s nomination were reflected in pharmaceutical markets, with the stock price of vaccine-makers Moderna and Pfizer both falling 5.6% and 2.6% at market close on Thursday.