Trump’s proposed secretary of health strives to reassure senators on vaccines

Mr Robert F. Kennedy Jr, President Donald Trump’s nominee to

head the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

, will tell a Senate Committee on Jan 29 that he was not anti-vaccine, he was “pro-safety”. 

“All of my kids are vaccinated, and I believe vaccines have a critical role in healthcare,” Mr Kennedy said in a prepared statement obtained by Bloomberg before a hearing with members of the Senate Finance Committee.

Mr Kennedy, a

prominent vaccine critic

during the Covid-19 pandemic and former Democratic presidential candidate who had supported abortion, has worked to convince Senators that he no longer thinks that way. 

Earlier this week, acting HHS secretary Dorothy Fink announced the department would return to policies that ensure no federal funds are used to pay for or promote abortions.

The nomination of Mr Kennedy is

expected to be contentious,

with both Democrats and some Republicans taking issue with some of his more controversial views. On Jan 30, he will face additional questions before the Senate Health, Education, Labour and Pensions Committee. 

If confirmed by the Senate for the top health role in Mr Trump’s administration, he could change some of the nation’s public health practices.

He would have influence over the Food and Drug Administration, which decides whether to approve cutting-edge treatments, and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which makes recommendations for vaccine use. The HHS has prevalent reach into the lives and health of all Americans, accounting for about a quarter of the federal budget.

Mr Kennedy ran for the Democratic nomination against President Joe Biden. After he withdrew from the race and endorsed Mr Trump, he rebranded his campaign website as Make America Healthy Again, a play on Trump’s Make America Great Again campaign slogan, and brought many

critics of chemicals in US food supplies

into Mr Trump’s fold. BLOOMBERG