WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – New Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is promising to ‘Make America Healthy Again’, now that he’s officially confirmed.
On Thursday, RFK Jr. was officially sworn in as the leader of the Department of Health and Human Services. President Trump says he will be a gamechanger in that role.
“We’re not as healthy as countries, that spent just a fraction of what we spend. So, there’s something wrong. He’s going to figure it out,” Trump said.
The president also signed an executive order on Thursday directing Kennedy to lead a new commission tasked with “Making America Healthy Again.”
As Health Secretary, Kennedy will be in charge of a $1.7 trillion budget and in control of agencies that govern health insurance, food safety, and vaccine approval.
Sec. Kennedy says he has plans to tackle the high rates of chronic disease in the U.S. and to restore Americans’ trust in the healthcare system.
“We can’t be a strong nation if we have a weak citizenry. If people are sick,” Kennedy said. “Our plans are radical transparency and returning to gold standard science.”
All Democratic Senators and one Republican, Senator Mitch McConnell, opposed Kennedy’s confirmation.
Those who voted no voiced criticism about Kennedy mostly centered on his controversial claims and lack of healthcare experience.
Senator Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) called him unfit and unqualified
“No medical or scientific background. He’s never run a hospital or a health system or anything like that,” Ossoff said.
He also knocked Kennedy for pushing conspiracies, like the idea that vaccines are linked to autism or that COVID was ethnically targeted to spare Jewish people.
“Seems to have latched on to just about every piece of half-baked conspiracist pseudoscience he’s come across,” Ossoff said.
Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused his Republican colleagues of bowing to pressure from the president.
“Blindly obeying orders, knowing full well the dangerous impacts,” Schumer said.
