President-elect Trump’s resolution to nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a divisive skeptic of vaccines and purveyor of misinformation, to steer the sprawling Division of Well being and Human Companies has raised alarm amongst teachers.
If the U.S. Senate confirms Kennedy, he’ll oversee quite a few federal businesses, together with the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies, the Meals and Drug Administration and the Nationwide Institutes of Well being—the most important supply of federal analysis funding for universities, which obtained greater than $30 billion from the HHS in 2022.
“Over the sting. Down the rabbit gap. Utterly insane,” Jeffrey Flier, a professor and former dean of Harvard Medical College, posted on X in response to Kennedy’s nomination. “Wouldn’t have believed this doable till proper now. Utterly impartial of politics, this should be seen as unacceptable in 2024.”
Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown College College of Public Well being, posted on X that as a result of the HHS Secretary “shapes well being coverage in profound methods,” Kennedy is “a very unhealthy selection for the well being of the American folks.
“Our healthcare system is way from good,” wrote Jha, who additionally served as President Biden’s White Home COVID-19 response coordinator. “However it has spurred a lot progress that has benefited the American folks. This appointment, if confirmed, places all of that in danger.”
Among the many many businesses Kennedy will oversee, he might first flip his consideration to NIH, given his public feedback on his plans to downsize the company his first day in workplace.
At an occasion in Arizona simply days earlier than Trump picked him to steer the division, Kennedy mentioned that, on Jan. 21, 600 folks “are going to stroll into workplaces at NIH and 600 persons are going to depart,” NPR reported. (Practically 20,000 folks work at NIH.)
Apart from the layoffs, Kennedy has mentioned he needs to shift NIH’s focus away from infectious ailments, similar to COVID-19, towards power ailments like weight problems. Final November, in response to NBC Information, Kennedy advised an anti-vaccine group, “I’m gonna say to NIH scientists ‘God bless you all. Thanks for public service. We’re going to provide infectious illness a break for about eight years.’”
NBC Information additionally reported that Kennedy, who has unfold the discredited declare that vaccines trigger autism, mentioned he needed to pressure medical journals to publish retracted research.
“It’s only a jumble of grievances, a few of which may have broad ideological help from a extra populist agenda,” together with issues that aren’t “well-grounded in analysis like his opposition to vaccines,” mentioned David Guston, a professor and founding director of the College for the Way forward for Innovation in Society at Arizona State College. “It provides a chance for doubtlessly unusual coalitions to happen round a wide range of reforms, some that could possibly be research-based [and] others that might not be.”
Even when the Senate confirms Kennedy, he and different division heads “solely have a lot latitude in making change,” Guston mentioned, noting that what actually issues is how they impart with the general public.
“A extra doubtlessly damaging state of affairs is the rhetoric and focus RFK may present for a extra sturdy anti-vaccine motion to emerge even amongst extra accepted childhood vaccines,” he mentioned. “That’s going to be problematic vis-a-vis the general public as a result of the general public is following issues not by way of the peer-reviewed literature, however by way of the way in which they’re represented on X or different social media.”
Inside Larger Ed was unable to succeed in Kennedy for touch upon Friday.
After Trump introduced him as his decide to steer the HHS, Kennedy mentioned on X: “We’ve a generational alternative to convey collectively the best minds in science, drugs, business and authorities to place an finish to the power illness epidemic. I stay up for working with the greater than 80,000 workers at HHS to free the businesses from the smothering cloud of company seize to allow them to pursue their mission to make Individuals as soon as once more the healthiest folks on Earth.”
Kennedy additionally wrote that he would work to “return our well being businesses to their wealthy custom of gold-standard, evidence-based science,” promising to offer Individuals with “transparency and entry to all the info to allow them to make knowledgeable selections for themselves and their households.”
Trump echoed Kennedy’s sentiments on Fact Social, his personal social media community, saying, “Mr. Kennedy will restore these Companies to the traditions of Gold Customary Scientific Analysis, and beacons of Transparency, to finish the Power Illness epidemic, and to Make America Nice and Wholesome Once more!”
The president-elect has beforehand mentioned he would let Kennedy go “wild on well being.”
Jim Olds, a neuroscience and public coverage professor at George Mason College who headed the Organic Sciences Directorate on the U.S. Nationwide Science Basis from 2014-18 and beforehand labored in NIH’s intramural analysis program, advised Inside Larger Ed that Kennedy’s public skepticism of water fluoridation and vaccines has him involved.
“I’m hopeful that if RFK Jr. is confirmed,” Olds mentioned, “his uncommon views on vaccines gained’t be the first driver of what the [HHS] primarily does.”
Regardless that Kennedy’s public criticism of the division has been aimed toward NIH, Medicare and Medicaid Companies make up the vast majority of the HHS price range. It is also unlikely that he’ll be capable to affect NIH funding since closing choices should cross by way of Congressional appropriations committees which, throughout Trump’s first time period, largely ignored the president’s calls to drastically reduce analysis funding.
And simply as the tutorial neighborhood’s deepest fears in regards to the first Trump administration’s calls to cut back science funding didn’t come to cross, Olds mentioned he “feels very assured” in NIH’s management. Between that and the highly effective patient-interest foyer teams that again NIH, he predicted that the company probably gained’t expertise the extent of disaster some are predicting in Kennedy’s appointment.
He doesn’t, nevertheless, rule out the potential of Republicans making reforms to the company. Earlier this 12 months Republican lawmakers referred to as for a restructuring of NIH in response to claims that it allegedly allowed harmful experiments throughout the pandemic.
With Republicans accountable for Congress and the White Home, Olds mentioned such proposals might “have legs.”
“I wouldn’t be stunned if we see some modifications,” he mentioned. “However change has by no means harm the NIH. It’s been round a very long time and undergone steady evolution.”
