A co-chair of Donald Trump’s transition team says Trump supporter Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants access to federal health data so he can demonstrate vaccines are unsafe and lead to their withdrawal of the market in a second Trump administration.
Howard Lutnick echoed a number of anti-vaccine talking points debunked by Kennedy in a CNN interview Wednesday, including lies about the vaccination schedule and the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism. Trump has often talked about how Kennedy, who suspended his own presidential bid and endorsed him in August, will have an important role to play if the former president returns to the White House.
Although Lutnick said Kennedy would not be chosen as secretary of Health and Human Services, he did not specify what Kennedy’s role might be. Lutnick made the comments the same day Kennedy told NewsNation that Trump had asked him to “reorganize” agencies including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and certain agencies under the Department of Agriculture.
Lutnick’s comments immediately raised concerns among public health experts that giving influence to one of the world’s most prominent anti-vaccine activists could lead to what has been described as ” serious health consequences” for Americans, especially children. They come just days before the Nov. 5 election and as Trump, Republican and Democrat Kamala Harris compete to win over late voters to their side.
Lutnick, CEO of financial services company Cantor Fitzgerald, told CNN that Kennedy wanted access to the data “so he can say these things aren’t safe” and that would stop sales.
“He says, if you give me the data, all I want is the data and I’m going to take it and show that it’s not safe. And then if you remove product liability, companies will pull these vaccines off the market. So that’s his perspective,” Lutnick said.
It’s unclear exactly what data Lutnick was referring to, as extensive data and research on vaccine safety is publicly available.
The World Health Organization estimates that global vaccination efforts have saved at least 154 million lives over the past 50 years.
In recent days, Trump said he would let Kennedy “run wild” on health care, food and drugs. Kennedy has repeatedly said he plans to exert his influence on a wide range of policies if Trump wins and said Trump promised him control of health agencies and told him he wanted them reorganizes.
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Asked about Kennedy’s comments and his role in the Trump administration, Jason Miller, a senior campaign adviser, said the only thing Trump and his campaign are focused on is winning on November 5.
“Everything that follows is after that, and President Trump has made it clear that Bobby Kennedy will play an important role,” Miller wrote.
It would be “extremely dangerous” to put Kennedy in a position of power where he could make decisions or have the ability to change regulatory policy, said Joshua Sharfstein, associate dean for the practice of public health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
“Removing vaccines from the market would have serious consequences for America’s health,” said Sharfstein, a former deputy commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “In the United States, we go about our daily lives without worrying about many preventable diseases like measles, thanks to the protection offered by vaccines. But if there were to be a systematic effort to use the federal government’s tools to undermine vaccination, children would not be safe. Complete stop.”
Even if Kennedy is given a lesser role, in which he provides input and commentary but has no control over policy, it could still be detrimental, according to people who have held public health positions in the within the government.
“Advisors like Scott Atlas have demonstrated the significant influence they can exert without congressional oversight, sparking fears of misinformation and harm,” Trump Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams wrote in an email. email, referring to Trump’s former COVID-19 pandemic adviser. a radiologist with no experience in infectious diseases, who advocated for the widely discredited herd immunity strategy.
Adams said he thought it was unlikely Kennedy could be appointed to lead a major health agency because he has no medical expertise, so it would likely be difficult for him to pass a vetting background checks for a top-secret clearance and would likely lack support in Congress — although Trump circumvented the background check system during his first administration and staffed his cabinet with acting officials who did not have received Congressional approval.
Kennedy’s anti-vaccine organization has filed a lawsuit against news organizations including the Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking steps to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and vaccines against COVID-19. Kennedy is on leave from the group but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.
Republican lawmakers have long benefited from — and reciprocated — the support of pharmaceutical companies, even pledging to dismantle a law signed by Democratic President Joe Biden that allows the government to negotiate the price of prescription drugs for enrollees in Medicare. Republicans argued the law would hurt businesses and stifle innovation in the industry. But vaccine skepticism, which has been growing across the country, has run deeper among conservatives.
In addition to people’s health and well-being, the possibility that Kennedy’s influence could result in debunking ideas like a vaccine-autism link would be re-exhumed and waste time, money and money. energy and money, has discouraged public health advocates.
“Trump helped bring the vaccine to market and he took it. …I don’t know why he’s giving this person that spokesperson,” said Amy Pisani, CEO of Vaccinate Your Family, noting that Trump’s Operation Warp Speed helped bring the COVID vaccine to market. 19, although Kennedy attacked him relentlessly.
Vaccinate Your Family is a nonpartisan group co-founded by former first lady Rosalynn Carter and former Arkansas first lady Betty Bumpers that has worked on vaccination programs with Republican and Democratic presidential administrations for the past 30 years .
“I don’t want to go back 30 years to fight the anti-vaccine movement again,” Pisani said. “To go back in time and once again waste millions and millions of taxpayer dollars on this witch hunt is simply untenable. »