WASHINGTON — Former President Trump and his campaign surrogates ignited a fresh round of alarm in recent days over how they might undermine public health in the future and how Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in particular, might “go wild on medicines.”
Now, a Kennedy family member, who is also a longtime health care lawyer and disability rights advocate, is joining the chorus of concern.
“I am deeply concerned about President Trump’s flagrant disregard for public health and safety,” Ted Kennedy Jr., a lawyer at Epstein Becker Green, and a cousin of RFK Jr., told STAT. “We can’t put anyone in charge of health care who doesn’t understand how doctors and scientists develop best practices and keep us safe, and has no medical background and no knowledge about how health care is organized, delivered, and paid for.”
RFK Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic, has boasted that Trump has promised him “control of the public health agencies.” The former Democrat and independent presidential candidate said he would help shape priorities for agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration.
On Thursday night, Trump broadened that mandate further: “He’s going to work on health, and women’s health, and all the different reasons — because we’re not really a wealthy or healthy country,” he told rallygoers.
Ted Kennedy Jr. is the son of the late Ted Kennedy, who served in the Senate for 47 years and championed consumer protections, public health, mental health parity, and universal health care during his tenure. Kennedy Jr. has served in the Connecticut State Senate and as chair of the American Association of People with Disabilities.
He penned an editorial this week endorsing Vice President Harris for the presidency and warning that, “Under President Trump, the rights of people with disabilities faced unprecedented threats.”
Members of RFK Jr.’s family — some of whom spoke out against his earlier presidential campaign and denounced his endorsement of Trump — have said less about his “Make America Healthy Again” movement.
“He knows where I stand,” Kennedy Jr. told STAT about RFK Jr. “As a health care lawyer, as a cancer survivor, very involved in ensuring that medicines are evaluated safely and approved — he knows where I stand on issues of public health and vaccine safety. There’s been no need for a conversation.”
The Trump campaign, asked for comment, did not immediately respond.
RFK Jr.’s MAHA proposals include an overhaul of food and nutritional policy, investigations into environmental factors contributing to chronic illnesses, and a drive to “reorient federal health agencies toward chronic disease and rid them of Big Pharma’s influence,” according to his website.
While food policy reforms have attracted some bipartisan support, RFK Jr.’s past and recent stances on the pharmaceutical industry, vaccine safety, and public health institutions have stoked panic among Democrats, and even among some former Trump officials. Biopharmaceutical companies have been on guard, and public health officials have urged caution.
But others currently involved with the campaign have signaled that RFK Jr.’s momentum is only growing. Trump’s transition co-chair, Howard Lutnick, this week told CNN that RFK Jr. could oversee efforts to whittle down the number of vaccines on the recommended U.S. schedule, and would revisit discussions about liabilities for pharmaceutical companies that develop the shots. Lutnick, CEO of Wall Street firm Cantor, in his comments said his views had been shaped by a two-and-a-half hour conversation with RFK Jr. He parroted some of his talking points about vaccines being unproven, as well as a debunked theory about the rise of autism and vaccines.
On Friday, Lutnick posted on the social media site X that he trusts his doctors and vaccinated his children, but “not everybody trusts such advice or the FDA,” and “We would be doing everyone a service if the government respected Bobby Kennedy’s request to make the full data available.”
Ted Kennedy Jr. said he thinks that, if elected, Trump would have a “difficult time attracting serious health care policy makers and reputable physicians to serve in his administration.”
“The anti-vaccine rhetoric has been thoroughly debunked by the scientific community. That kind of rhetoric is dangerous for the public health and safety of Americans,” he said.