Responding to RFK Jr Becoming HHS Secretary...
Did we all get transported to Bizarro World?
For most folks, Robert F Kennedy, Jr was just about one of the worst possible choices to be the next Health and Human Services Secretary.
Whether you think of RFK Jr as the fox in the hen house or the wolf guarding the sheep, it should be fairly clear that there is only one way that this turns out…
That’s especially true considering that we are also getting folks like David Weldon at CDC, Marty Makary at FDA, Mehmet Oz at CMS, and Jay Bhattacharya at NIH!
RFK Jr as HHS Secretary
So no, it almost certainly isn’t going to end up with Kennedy fixing all of the nation’s health problems by taking additives out of foods and whatever else he has planned, although I sincerely wish he could.
He has no idea what is causing our chronic health problems, well, except for his misguided ideas, and so will not be able to fix anything.
Which means that not only will we not have less chronic disease, because of Kennedy’s dangerous ideas about vaccines and vaccine preventable diseases, we will almost certainly have more acute disease. It’s all in the RFK Jr Playbook.
We will have more and more outbreaks, fewer people will be vaccinated and protected, and ‘we’ will respond to them poorly.
Tragically, that means people will suffer, with all of the folks who work at HHS getting hit first.
Responding to RFK Jr Becoming HHS Secretary...
So what do we do?
“…if you can fight, fight, help each other, be prepared for anything.”
Max Brooks, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
As we settle in to understand all of the coming changes, block those we can, and help people the best we can.
Mostly importantly:
stick together and don’t turn on each other. Sure, we all wish that we were hearing more from the AMA and AAP these days, but they know that it is going to be a long four years and that their members are active right now. They have some big fights ahead of them to protect Medicaid and Medicare and lot of other things. It is not surprising that they are keeping a low profile right now.
take a few deep breaths, stay calm, and don’t over react to every single thing you read about or learn that these folks are doing. For example, when the vaccine information sheets disappeared from the CDC site, folks should have remembered that they could still get them from Internet Archive Wayback Machine! Just as they can get all of the information that is being edited or removed.
in addition to our vaccine advocates, join those people and organizations who are really ready to keep everyone healthy, including the Committee to Protect Health Care, Protect Our Care, Doctors for America, and Public Citizen.
stay informed about how changes to immunization policy, and a freeze to health communications, hiring at NIH, and grant funding for lifesaving medical research, etc., will negatively impact our health and safety.
It may feel like it is the end of the world, especially if we see a return of any well controlled vaccine-preventable diseases.
It is certainly a big step backwards for health, medicine, and science.
But together we will endure and we will eventually end up stronger and healthier.
References:
Health Care Sabotage Tracker. Protect Our Care.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Senate Confirmation Hearings. IDSA News Release and Statements. https://www.idsociety.org/news--publications-new/articles/2025/robert-f.-kennedy-jr.-senate-finance-committee-nomination-hearing
Coalition Letter Opposing RFK Jr. Nomination as Secretary of HHS. https://civilrights.org/resource/coalition-letter-opposing-rfk-jr-nomination-as-secretary-of-hhs/#