RFK Jr. rails against institutions stealing "health of our children" in first speech as health secretary
Washington DC - Newly confirmed Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday accused US institutions of "stealing the health of our children" and suggested they should meet the same fate as USAID, which President Donald Trump's administration is working to dismantle.
On his first day in office, RFK Jr. – who has spent decades sowing distrust in vaccines and questioning basic scientific facts – credited divine intervention for his rise to power and immediately fueled concerns that critical health agencies could soon come under attack.
At his White House swearing-in ceremony, following a 52-48 Senate confirmation vote largely along party lines, Kennedy grew emotional recalling his first visit to the Oval Office in 1962.
He also lavished praise on Trump, saying 20 years of prayers to solve chronic childhood diseases were answered when "God sent me President Trump," whom he called a "man on a white horse."
Kennedy argued that while USAID was founded with good intentions by his uncle, the late President John F. Kennedy, it had since become a "sinister propagator of totalitarianism."
He backed Trump's recent actions at the humanitarian agency, adding, "we want to do the same thing with the institutions that are stealing the health of our children."
Before the 2024 election, Kennedy vowed to blow up the "corrupt" Food and Drug Administration and called for cuts to the National Institutes of Health, accusing it of overemphasizing infectious diseases at the expense of chronic disease research.
Kennedy's appointment "a disaster waiting to happen"
Though he attempted to downplay his anti-vaccine views during his confirmation hearings, claiming he was simply advocating for "common sense" policies, RFK Jr. continued to spread falsehoods in an interview with Fox News, saying: "We lack comprehensive safety studies on nearly all vaccines."
He also touted his "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) agenda, emphasizing the need to tackle chronic disease by holding the food industry accountable.
"A lot of what I'm going to do is about radical transparency," he said on Fox, suggesting plans for more detailed labeling policies.
Kennedy launched an independent presidential bid in 2024, making headlines with bizarre revelations, including claims of recovering from a parasitic brain worm and once decapitating a dead whale.
Last year, 77 Nobel Prize winners signed an open letter opposing his nomination, while some of his harshest critics came from within his own family.
His cousin Caroline Kennedy, a former diplomat, accused him of being a "predator" who led younger relatives toward drug addiction.
"This is a disaster waiting to happen – and it will happen," Paul Offit, a leading vaccine expert at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told AFP.
Democratic Senator Patty Murray warned that Kennedy could use his new power to undermine vaccines, including firing the advisory committee that sets insurance-covered immunizations.
Cover photo: REUTERS