Here’s how Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has promised to remake the nation’s top health agencies
Associated PressWASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist and environmentalist, for years gained a loyal and fierce following with his biting condemnations of how the nation’s public health agencies do business. A look at Kennedy’s comments about some of the agencies that fall within the HHS arena, and how he has said he plans to shake them up: Food and Drug Administration — “FDA’s war on public health is about to end,” he wrote on X in late October. His attacks have grown more sweeping, with Kennedy suggesting he will clear out “entire departments” at FDA, including the agency’s food and nutrition center. “In the current system, researchers don’t have enough incentive to study generic drugs and root-cause therapies that look at things like diet.” Kennedy wants to prevent NIH from funding researchers with financial conflicts of interest, citing a 2019 ProPublica investigation that found more than 8,000 federally funded health researchers reported significant conflicts such as taking equity stakes in biotech companies or licensing patents to drugmakers. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — “If a doctor’s patient has diabetes or obesity, the doctor ought to be able to say, I’m going to recommend gym membership, and I’m going to recommend good food and Medicaid ought to be able to finance those things the same as they would Ozempic,” Kennedy said during a Sept. 30 town hall in Philadelphia.