Donald Trump, the President-elect of the United States, has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a former presidential candidate, as the Secretary of Health and Human Services for the second Trump administration set to begin in January next year.
On the 14th (local time), Trump announced on the social networking service X (formerly Twitter), "I am pleased to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the Secretary of Health and Human Services of the United States." He added, "For too long, Americans have been trampled by the industrial food complex and pharmaceutical companies involved in fraud, misinformation, and disinformation about public health." Trump emphasized, "Kennedy will end the epidemic of chronic disease and make America great and healthy again."
Kennedy Jr., the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, ran as an independent candidate in this presidential election but declared his support for President Trump midway and suspended his campaign. He belongs to the politically prominent Kennedy family of the U.S. Democratic Party, being the nephew of John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963, and the son of Robert F. Kennedy, a former senator who was assassinated in 1968.
He is well known as a vaccine conspiracy theorist. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, he claimed that vaccine use causes autism and other conditions and has a history of lobbying against vaccines in the political arena.
Because of this, it is expected that controversy will arise during the Senate confirmation hearings regarding his suitability as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
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