Exclusives

RFK Jr. One Step Closer to HHS Secretary Confirmation

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. clears Senate Finance Committee, as nomination advances to full Senate vote.

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By: Sean Moloughney

Editor, Nutraceuticals World

Photo: mehaniq41 | AdobeStock

The Senate Finance Committee voted on party lines (14-13) Tuesday (Feb. 4) to advance the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to a full Senate vote.

Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), a physician who had reservations about Kennedy’s positions on vaccines, was seen as the deciding yes vote.

“If Mr. Kennedy is confirmed,” Cassidy said, “I will use my authority as chairman of the Senate committee with oversight of HHS to rebuff any attempt to remove the public’s access to life-saving vaccines without iron-clad causational scientific evidence that can be accepted and defended before the mainstream scientific community, and before Congress.

Kennedy testified during his nomination hearing on Jan. 29 about the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) mission, and the dismal state of health in America, saying the U.S. “has worse health than any other developed nation,” yet it spends double or triple that of other countries — about $4.8 trillion, or a fifth of GDP.  

“American’s overall health is in grievous condition,” Kennedy said in his opening statement on Jan. 29. “Over 70% of adults and a third of adults are overweight or obese. Diabetes is 10 times more prevalent than it was in the 1960s. Cancer among young people is rising 1-2% a year. Auto-immune diseases, neurodevelopment disorders, Alzheimer’s, asthma, ADHD, depression, addiction, and a host of other physical and mental health conditions, are all on the rise, some of them exponentially.”

How can Government ‘Make America Healthy Again’?

Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and author who has been critical of vaccines, said several times during his nomination hearings that he is not “anti-vaccine” but “pro-safety.”

“There is no single culprit in chronic disease, much as I have criticized certain industries and agencies,” he said, later adding: “I am pro-safety. I believe vaccines play a critical role in healthcare.”

He noted that he wants to work with farmers and food producers “to remove burdensome regulations and unleash American ingenuity. MAHA simply can’t succeed without a full partnership of American farmers.”

If confirmed, Kennedy said he would ensure tax dollars support healthy foods, scrutinize chemical additives in the food supply, remove financial conflicts of interest from agencies, create an honest and unbiased gold standard of science at HHS, reverse the chronic disease epidemic, and “put the nation back on the road to good health.”

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