RFK Jr., Health Nut?
In the public mind, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is most closely associated with the anti-vax movement. That's completely understandable. During RFK Jr.'s short-lived and quixotic independent presidential run, he rarely brought up his anti-vax stance, but his long history of spreading misinformation about vaccine efficacy and safety naturally led to questions from reporters about whether he has moderated his views. He hasn't. Thus, and again understandably, now that Donald Trump has announced RFK Jr. as his choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), attention has focused on how he might use the powers of the office to undermine vaccination efforts. While RFK Jr. has disclaimed any interest in preventing people from receiving existing vaccines, there is good reason to believe that he would slow development of new ones (including desperately needed new ones for the increasingly alarming strain of bird flu that has made its way to mammals, including humans) a