(C) Common Dreams
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What Are RFK Jr.’s Plans As HHS Secretary for Trump? [1]
['Chas Danner', 'Staff Editor At Intelligencer']
Date: 2024-11-25 10:45:00-05:00
Neither Kennedy nor Trump has the power to ban FDA-approved vaccines outright, neither has said they would, and it’s likely that any effort to do so would face significant legal challenges, and that the Supreme Court would be skeptical of any politically motivated efforts to overturn a science-based FDA vaccine approval. RFK Jr. has repeatedly said that he isn’t planning to ban vaccines — repeating the day after the election that “I’m not going to take away anybody’s vaccines” — but there are many other ways the former anti-vaxx movement leader can, as HHS secretary, cast doubt on them and reduce their use.
Furthermore, there are anti-vaccine activists assisting Kennedy as informal advisers in his transition efforts, according to Politico. Trump’s new pick for FDA commissioner, Martin Makary, is a Kennedy ally and Fox News contributor who opposed COVID-vaccine mandates (though he didn’t oppose the COVID vaccines). He is also a longtime critic of the FDA. Trump’s pick for CDC director, former Florida congressman Dave Weldon, is, like Kennedy, a veteran of the anti-vaxx movement who has promoted the debunked theory linking childhood vaccines to autism. In Congress, Weldon tried and failed to transfer vaccine safety oversight from the CDC to an new independent agency. The Washington Post reports that both Weldon and Makary were recommended by Kennedy’s advisors.
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[1] Url:
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/rfk-jr-plans-trump-hhs-secretary-vaccines-public-health.html
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