Robert F Kennedy (RFK) Jr has been nominated to lead the United States' top health agency, triggering alarm among health experts.
On Thursday, President-elect Donald Trump announced Kennedy as his pick for US secretary of health and human services, saying he would "Make America Great and Healthy Again!"
RFK Jr — the nephew of former US president John F Kennedy — dropped out of the presidential election in late August
If his nomination is confirmed by the Senate, he'll oversee a range of health organisations with roughly 80,000 employees and a multi-trillion-dollar budget.
Health experts have reacted with alarm given RFK Jr's previous
Ashwin Vasan, former New York City health commissioner, said RFK Jr's appointment would potentially have "devastating consequences for the health of Americans".
"There are aspects of our health that only work when we're doing things together ... While there are always things to improve, what I'm hearing and what everyone's said publicly, he's interested in tearing down that infrastructure."
Here are just some of the reasons Trump's nomination of RFK Jr has scared health experts.
Vaccines and autism
As chair of the Children's Health Defense group, known for its anti-vaccination misinformation, Kennedy has aired controversial and unfounded ideas about vaccines.
A 2021 report by the British-American Centre for Countering Digital Hate listed Kennedy among the top 12 spreaders of online anti-vaccine content
In 2015, Kennedy linked autism to vaccines.
"They get the shot, that night they have a fever of 103 [degrees], they go to sleep, and three months later their brain is gone. This is a Holocaust, what this is doing to our country," he said.
Later, he apologised for his "use of the word to describe the autism epidemic" but didn't backtrack on his claims.
In a 2023 interview with Fox News, RFK Jr said that he "believe[s] autism comes from vaccines".
While signs of autism often emerge around the time children receive the MMR vaccine, many researchers deny any link between the two.
A research paper published in ScienceDirect journal in 2014 found that "vaccinations are not associated with the development of autism or autism spectrum disorder". A 2004 report by the Institute of Medicine contained similar findings.
In a post on X in October, RFK Jr said that he "is not going to take anyone's vaccines away from them".
"I just want to be sure every American knows the safety profile, the risk profile, and the efficacy of each vaccine. That's it," he said.
Fluoride and IQ loss
Kennedy has also promised that the Trump White House will advise all US water systems to remove fluoride from public water.
"Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease," he said in a post on X.
Fluoridation was first put in the US water system since 1945. Today, it's in the water consumed by two-thirds of Americans.
Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral that helps strengthen teeth and prevent cavities, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has named fluoridation one of the "ten great public health achievements" of the 20th century.
A 2024 literature review published in ScienceDirect found 12 of 14 studies showed no clear link between fluoride and primary bone cancers.
According to the US National Toxicology Program, there is "insufficient data to determine if the low fluoride level of 0.7 mg/L currently recommended for US community water supplies has a negative effect on children's IQ".
A 2023 meta-analysis published in ScienceDirect found an "overall indication of dose-dependent adverse effects of fluoride on children's cognitive neurodevelopment" but said there were "uncertainties about both the causal nature of such relation and the exact thresholds of exposure involved".
Emotional and behavioural development, memory and self-control were the same in children who drank fluoridated water and those who did not,
In Australia, fluoride was first added to drinking water in Tasmania in 1953 and is now in the tap water consumed by 90 per cent of Australians
New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada are just some of the other countries that infuse their water supply with fluoride.
Raw milk
RFK Jr has also advocated for the health benefits of drinking raw milk.
"Since I was here last year, I only drank raw milk," he said at the 2022 Children’s Health Defense Conference.
In an October post on X, he accused the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of suppressing raw milk.
"FDA’s war on public health is about to end," he said.
Research published by the American Journal of Public Health in 2011 found raw milk consumption was related to numerous food-borne disease outbreaks reported in the US between 1973 and 1992.
According to the CDC, from 1998 through 2018, in the US "there were 202 outbreaks linked to drinking raw milk. These outbreaks caused 2,645 illnesses and 228 hospitalisations".
The sale of unpasteurised milk has been banned in Australia since the 1940s. Only regulated raw goat milk is available in some states.
Antidepressants and mass shootings
In an interview with Turkish state-owned TRT World, RFK Jr called for research to investigate a possible connection between mass shootings and antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs.
Recently, he blamed the popular antidepressant Prozac for mass shootings in the US.
"Prior to the introduction of Prozac, we had almost none of these events," he said in a discussion space on X.
Researchers have found no evidence connecting antidepressants to school shootings.
Research published in 2019 by the National Library of Medicine in the US, analysing information available on educational shootings from 2000 to 2017, showed that "most school shooters were not previously treated with psychotropic medications — and even when they were, no direct or causal association was found".
- Additional reporting by Reuters.
