5 Plans RFK Jr. Has for Public Health

In his bid to grow his “make America healthy again” movement, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has highlighted the chronic disease epidemic in the United States as well as what he calls corporate corruption of government agencies.

On Nov. 14, he took one step closer to tackling those issues when he was chosen by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The post requires Senate confirmation, a procedure that could become easier when Republicans take the majority in the chamber in January.

When Kennedy ended his independent presidential bid on Aug. 23 and endorsed Trump, he briefly outlined his plan should he be selected for a health-related post in the Trump administration.

“America can get healthy again. To do that we need to do three things. First, root out the corruption in our health agencies. Second, change the incentives of the health care system. And third, inspire Americans to get healthy again,” Kennedy said in a speech in Arizona. 

Premium Picks

Created in 1979, HHS manages 13 separate agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Kennedy has talked about a number of other ideas to implement, some that would require presidential or congressional action, and some that can be authorized by emergency powers.

Here are five plans Kennedy has said he would like bring to reality:

Staff Changes

Kennedy believes little will change until giant or private corporations stop controlling the FDA, the CDC, and the Department of Agriculture.

Kennedy has vowed to dismiss the officials who lead those agencies and appoint replacements who will “turn them back into healing and public health agencies,” according to an interview with NBC News last year.

“If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.”

On Nov. 6, Kennedy said that the FDA should be trimmed.

“There are entire departments, like the nutrition department at the FDA … that have to go—that are not doing their job. They’re not protecting our kids,” Kennedy told MSNBC.

Kennedy also said he wants to fire 600 employees at the NIH, which oversees vaccine research, and replace them with 600 new employees.

“We need to act fast, and we want to have those people in place on Jan. 20, so that on Jan. 21, 600 people are going to walk into offices at NIH and 600 people are going to leave,” Kennedy said last week at the Genius Network Annual Event in Scottsdale, Ariz. 

Kennedy has also pointed out how the U.S. version of the Froot Loops cereal contains more artificial colors and additives than versions sold in other countries.

“In America, 74 percent of adults are now overweight or obese, including 50 percent of our children. One hundred and twenty years ago, when someone was obese, they were sent to the circus. In Japan, the childhood obesity rate is 3 percent,” he added.

Kennedy also described the dramatic increase in adult and juvenile diabetes, the “explosion of neurological diseases that I never saw as a kid,” and fatty liver disease and cancer cases are on the rise.

 “So what’s causing all this suffering? I’ll name two culprits. First and the worst is ultra-processed foods. … The second culprit is toxic chemicals in our food, our medicine, and our environment,” he said.

He said these ultra-processed foods have chemicals that didn’t exist a century ago, and that they are partly responsible for the rise in disease. Though many of these chemicals are banned in Europe, he noted, they are ubiquitous in American foods.

“We are literally poisoning our children systematically for profit,” he said at the Sept. 23 roundtable. “Pesticides, food additives, pharmaceutical drugs, and toxic waste permeate every cell in our bodies.”

Kennedy has vowed to address the issue of chemicals in ultra-processed foods.

He told Fox News he would “get processed food out of school lunch immediately,” and said federal food assistance such as food stamps should not go toward junk food.

Corporate Capture of Agencies

“Eighty percent of NIH grants go to people who have conflicts of interest,” Kennedy said on Aug. 23.

“These agencies, the FDA, the USDA, the CDC, all of them are controlled by giant for-profit corporations. Seventy-five percent of the FDA funding doesn’t come from taxpayers. It comes from pharma. And pharma executives and consultants and lobbyists cycle in and out of these agencies,” Kennedy said.

“With President Trump’s backing, I am going to change that. We are going to staff these agencies with honest scientists and doctors free from industry funding. We will make sure that the decisions of consumers, doctors, and patients are informed by unbiased science,” he said.

Kennedy called for a “review” of advertising rules for pharmaceutical companies and has also urged Trump to ban pharmaceutical advertising on TV. He also believes in eliminating liability protections for drug companies.

During an interview with The Epoch Times last year, he explained his stance.

“I’ve never been anti-vaccine. People should have choice, and that choice should be informed by the best information possible,“ he said, ”I’m going to ensure that there are science-based safety studies available and people can make their own assessments about whether a vaccine is good for them.”

At a forum hosted by media host Tucker Carlson in October, Kennedy said he wants to “restore the transparency” around vaccines, not ban them.

Fluoride

On Nov. 2, Kennedy wrote in a post on X that one of Trump’s first acts in office would be to advise U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water.

At a Sept. 30 town hall in Philadelphia, Kennedy called fluoride “a poison.”

“The simple answer is, I don’t like it,” he said.