Robert F Kennedy Jr is in Charge of Your Health Now. What Does That Mean for the Chronically Ill?
Last year, the name Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. was unknown. A handful of people who regularly loiter on Twitter may have known him as the guy with the gravel-filled voice. But other than that, few paid him much attention.
Now, with no formal training in medicine, he might be one of the most influential leaders of American health policy in recent memory. This is because the 45th and 47th president of the United States -- Donald Trump -- has been adamant about handing JFK’s nephew the keys to the Department of Health & Human Services.
“I’m going to let him go wild on health,” Trump promised Sunday at his rally at Madison Square Garden. “I’m going to get him go wild on the food. I’m going to let him go wild on the medicines.”
Considering Kennedy’s decades-long support for tough environmental policies this seems strange. He spent his entire life waging war and war against corporations damaging the environment -- something one would think Trump would oppose.
Among the chronically ill he is controversial. Overwhelmingly controversial. On one hand, his pro-research stance makes many members of our community swoon over him. On the surface, why wouldn’t we? We finally have someone who says, “The key priority right now for American healthcare is eliminating chronic disease, and that’s what it will be under my administration”.
But Kennedy plans to push even harder. When asked about corruption in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) he took a bold stance that few others are willing to, saying, “I want to ensure that no member of the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee can make money from food or pharmaceutical companies”.
“We need to find out why our children are so sick... The pharmaceutical industry has captured our public health agencies”
Robert continued, “The NIH has perpetuated a cycle of developing new drugs, incubating new drugs, and then splitting the royalties with pharma”
This shift away from the current regulatory regime -- in which the pharmaceutical companies reign as medieval kings -- will change American health policy forever. Joe Grogan, a former Domestic Policy Council Director is in favor. When asked, he said, “Who can argue that we spend a lot of money on health care and we aren’t getting our money’s worth? We have… chronic disease crisis”.
“We aren’t healthy, and we need to fundamentally rethink where our money is going”.
Would anyone with a chronic illness disagree? Most of America is happy to remain blind to the sickening state of our health system unless it relates to more money flying out of their wallets. More research and less corruption means more cures and less nonsense. This could prevent the blocking of treatments that can save thousands, if not millions, of lives.
Many environmental health advocates agree with Kennedy’s focus on reducing exposure to harmful chemicals. This one policy could have a massive and long-term positive impact on public health and autoimmune disease management. Despite popular opinion to the contrary, most cases of autoimmunity are not caused by genetic factors. According to the NIH, “Studies have shown that genetic predisposition accounts for approximately thirty percent of all autoimmune diseases…70 percent, are due to environmental factors, including toxic chemicals”.
So, that creates a big question in the minds of anyone reading this: does Trump’s new HHS Director have any serious downsides after being right about so many things?
Yes, there are serious downsides. For one, Robert’s dogmatic opposition to vaccines has raised quite a few eyebrows -- especially his claim that they can cause autism. Kennedy founded a nonprofit called the Children’s Health Defense. It’s mission? Promoting anti-vaccine material such as the recent documentary Vaxed III: Authorized to Kill. The website argues, in part, that “...observational studies show unvaccinated populations consistently have fewer chronic health conditions than vaccinated peers”.
This has been soundly rejected by experts across the globe. Former Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams said that “Kennedy could spread misinformation and take us back to the dark ages in regards to vaccine-preventable diseases”. Dr. Michael Osterholm, the Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy took it even further, saying, “I can’t imagine anyone who would be more damaging to vaccines and the use of vaccines than RFK”
With many previously extinct illnesses like measles making a comeback due to parents refusing to vaccinate their kids, this could pose a serious risk to the health of not only Americans in general but also those who are autoimmune or immunocompromised. Why? Because a good number of us can't take vaccines for health reasons. An unvaccinated population -- one lacking herd immunity -- can be risky for us.
However, Robert has recently deemphasized his vaccine stance, taking a leave of absence from the CHD and saying nothing about vaccines in his proposed plans for what he would do at the HHS. But many experts aren't buying it. Dr. Jason Schwartz, a public health professor at Yale, believes he is just saying that now to make it easier for him to be confirmed by the Senate next year -- after which he will pivot back to his true stance.
"It’s a rebranding attempt... but it shouldn’t be taken seriously. His anti-vaccine advocacy undermines the very public health goals he claims to support”
In the end, RFK Jr.’s healthcare vision directly confronts chronic disease by prioritizing environmental health reforms, targeting pollution and chemical exposure as primary causes of autoimmune conditions.
He plans to redirect research in a unique effort to aim for solutions that prevent illness at its source. For us, this approach is something we have been fighting for for years: a preventive healthcare model that stops the problem from even occurring in the first place.
But his controversial vaccine stance poses real risks. While Kennedy champions patients with chronic illnesses, his skepticism about vaccines threatens to weaken critical public health safeguards. His policy vision requires a careful balance, where environmental health advancements and anti-corruption maneuvers do not come at the expense of other health goals.
His association with many controversial political figures has raised suspicion regarding his motives. And there are questions about how much influence he would actually have on the agency. The last thing we need is a puppet in charge. With his anti-corporate stances, one must ask how many of his policies his higher-ups will actually allow.
Despite these concerns, the author of this article believes Kennedy’s healthcare approach offers a bold -- and desperately needed -- shift in the medical world’s ancienne regime, a razor-sharp break from the status quo. His commitment to curbing pharmaceutical influence and improving environmental health could benefit communities that mainstream healthcare often overlooks.
RFK Jr. has the potential to achieve lasting impact—advancing public health and prioritizing the needs of underserved populations at the expense of the viciously greedy corporations draining every ounce of profit from the teet of America’s disabled citizens.
Whether he chooses to live up to that potential is known only to himself.
