Warning From a Minneapolis Meeting

The New York Times reported:

 

When 12,000 public health professionals gathered in Minneapolis last week for the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association, Dr. Jerome Adams, who served as surgeon general in the first administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump, issued a pointed warning about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“If R.F.K. has a significant influence on the next administration, that could further erode people’s willingness to get up to date with recommended vaccines,” Dr. Adams said. “I am worried about the impact that could have on our nation’s health, on our nation’s economy, on our global security.”

Now, Mr. Kennedy, a vocal skeptic of vaccines, is in a position to have significant influence, and over a broad range of policy. Mr. Trump’s sweeping electoral victory, with Mr. Kennedy at his side, is — in the eyes of their supporters — not only a mandate but also a repudiation of the public health establishment that has long kept Mr. Kennedy at bay.

Mr. Kennedy’s worldview is embodied in two of his most frequent refrains: “There is nothing more profitable for much of the health care system than a sick child” and “Public health agencies have become sock puppets for the industries they are supposed to regulate.”

Now that Republicans will control the Senate, Mr. Kennedy could theoretically win confirmation for any one of a number of top health jobs: secretary of Health and Human Services, commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“There is a real mandate victory here, with many millions of people who are first-time Trump voters,” said Calley Means, a health care entrepreneur who has been an adviser to Mr. Kennedy and who was instrumental in connecting him to Mr. Trump. “It is a true mandate to take on broken health care institutions, and to deliver the change.”