RFK Jr. wants food health data for its anti-vaccine clams, Trump transition co-chairman says

PROVIDENCE, RI — A co-chairman of Donald Trump’s transition team said Trump supporter Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants access to federal health data so it can try to show vaccines are unsafe and lead to their withdrawal from the market in a second Trump administration.

Lutnick’s comments raise concerns among public health experts that giving influence to one of the world’s most prominent anti-vaccine activists could lead to what they say are “serious health consequences” for Americans, especially children. The comments came days before the Nov. 5 election and as Trump, a Republican, and Democrat Kamala Harris battle to sway late-turnout voters.

Howard Lutnick repeated a number of Kennedy’s debunked talking points in a CNN interview, including falsehoods about the vaccination program and the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism. Trump often talked about how Kennedy, who suspended his own presidential bid and endorsed him in Augustwill have an important role to play if the former president returns to the White House.

While Lutnick said Kennedy would not be chosen as secretary of health and human services, he did not specify what Kennedy’s role might be. Lutnick made the comments Wednesday, the same day Kennedy told NewsNation that Trump had asked him to “reorganize” agencies, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and some agencies in within the Department of Agriculture.

Lutnick, CEO of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, CNN said that Kennedy wants access to the data “so he can say these things are unsafe” and that will stop sales.

“He says if you give me the data, all I want is the data and I’m going to take the data and show that it’s not safe. And then if you withdraw product liability, the companies will immediately pull these vaccines off the market. So that’s his idea,” Lutnick said.

It was unclear what data Lutnick was referring to, from extensive data and research vaccine safety it is available to the public.

The World Health Organization has estimated that global immunization efforts have saved at least 154 million lives in the last 50 years.

In recent days, Trump said he would let Kennedy “run wild” on health, food and medicine. Kennedy has repeatedly said he plans to exert influence over a wide range of policies if Trump wins, and said Trump promised him control of health agencies and told him he wanted him to reorganize them.

Asked about Kennedy’s comments and his role in a Trump administration, Jason Miller, a senior campaign adviser, said the only thing Trump and his campaign are focused on is winning on Nov. 5.

“Everything after that is after that, and President Trump has made it clear that Bobby Kennedy will play a big role,” Miller wrote.

It would be “extremely dangerous” to put Kennedy in a position of power where he could make decisions or have the ability to change regulatory policy, said Joshua Sharfstein, associate dean for the public health practice at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“Removing vaccines from the market would have serious consequences for America’s health,” said Sharfstein, a former deputy commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration. “We go about our daily lives in the United States without worrying about many preventable diseases, such as measles, because of the protection that vaccines provide. But if there were a systematic effort to use the tools of the federal government to undermine vaccination, children will not be safe. Point.”

Even if Kennedy is given a smaller role in which he provides input and commentary but has no control over policy, it could still be harmful, according to people who have held public health roles in government.

“Advisors like Scott Atlas have demonstrated the significant influence they can wield without congressional oversight, raising fears of misinformation and harm,” wrote Trump’s own surgeon general, Dr. Jerome Adams, in an email, referring to Trump’s former adviser on the COVID-19 pandemic. a radiologist with no experience in infectious diseases who advocated the widely discredited herd immunity strategy.

Adams said he believed it was unlikely that Kennedy could be appointed to lead a major health agency because he lacks medical expertise, would likely find it difficult to pass a background check for top secret clearance, and would likely would have no support in Congress — even though Trump circumvented the background check system during his first administration and stocked his cabinet with sitting officials who had not received congressional approval.

Kennedy’s anti-vaccine organization has a lawsuit pending against news organizations, including the Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking steps to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy is on leave from the group but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.

Republican lawmakers have long enjoyed — and reciprocated — support from pharmaceutical companies, even vowing to repeal a law signed by President Biden that allows the government to negotiate the price of prescription drugs for Medicare enrollees . Republicans argued the law would hurt business and stifle innovation in the industry. But vaccine skepticism, growing across the country, has run deeper among conservatives.

In addition to people’s health and well-being, the possibility that Kennedy’s influence could result in debunked ideas like a vaccine-autism link and waste of time, energy, and money disheartened public health advocates.

“Trump helped bring the vaccine to market and took the vaccine. … I don’t know why he’s giving this person this spokesperson,” said Amy Pisani, CEO of Vaccinate Your Family, noting that Trump’s Operation Warp Speed ​​helped bring the COVID-19 vaccine to market. although Kennedy attacked him relentlessly.

Vaccinate Your Family is a nonpartisan group co-founded by former First Lady Rosalynn Carter and former Arkansas First Lady Betty Bumpers that has worked on vaccination programs with both Republican and Democratic presidential administrations over the past 30 years. years.

“I don’t want to go back 30 years to fight the anti-vaccine movement again,” Pisani said. “To go back in time and again waste millions and millions of taxpayer dollars on this witch hunt is simply intolerable.”

Smith writes for the Associated Press. Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz in Washington contributed to this report.