After Trump’s win, RFK Jr. says he won’t ‘take away anyone’s vaccines’

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who may play a key role on public health issues in another Trump administration, said Wednesday that he will not take away people’s vaccines.

“I’m not going to take anyone’s vaccines away,” Kennedy said in an interview with NBC News when asked if there are specific vaccines he would take off the market.

Kennedy dismissed the idea that he is “anti-vaccine” despite his repeated claims that vaccines are linked to autism — and his involvement with Children’s Health Defense, a leading anti-vaccine group — and reiterated that he would not take those from the Americans.

He will meet with senior Trump aides on Wednesday to discuss his role going forward. Kennedy said they had not yet decided what his job in the new administration would be, but he did not rule out secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and also floated the idea of ​​being a “White House health czar.”

“If vaccines work for someone, I’m not going to take them away. People should have a choice, and that choice should be informed by the best information,” he said. “So I want to make sure that scientific safety and effectiveness studies are out there and people can make individual judgments about whether that product is going to be good for them.”

Three days before the election, Trump had not ruled out banning certain vaccines. “Well, I’ll talk to him (Kennedy) and talk to other people and I’ll make a decision, but he’s a very talented guy and has strong opinions,” Trump told NBC News.

Jennifer Kates, director of the Global Health & HIV Policy Program at KFF, a health policy research group, said that even if Trump wanted to ban vaccines, it is unlikely he would have the power to do so, adding that states, not the federal government, has the authority to mandate or restrict vaccines.

However, Trump could potentially change the process for determining which vaccines are recommended for insurance coverage, including those on the routine childhood immunization schedule, Kates said. Insurance companies base their coverage on recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

“If RFK or others in a Trump administration question or reject this evidence, seek to change this system, or otherwise pressure states to make different decisions, it could create confusion and doubt, result in reduced claims, and end up drive down already-decreasing vaccination rates among children,” Kates said.

Asked about his warnings about the Covid vaccine being fast-tracked and approved during the pandemic, Kennedy said he said at the time that the shot would not prevent transmission.

“I knew in May 2020 that the vaccines would not protect against transmission because I actually read the monkey studies,” said Kennedy, who added that while he would not have “outright blocked it,” he would have been “honest” with the public about the vaccine to ensure it relied on the best science. “There was no effort to do that at the time.”

Kennedy said Trump has tasked him in another administration to clean up the corruption of federal agencies, to bring agencies back to “the gold standard science, the empirically based evidence” and to “end the chronic disease epidemic. He said, for example, he would address the ingredients in America’s food that “are illegal in Europe” and other countries and “are making our children sick.”

He said he would address the corruption by clearing out departments of federal workers he believes have not done their jobs — “entire departments” in some cases. Kennedy said the nutrition divisions at the Food and Drug Administration “have to go” because its workers “aren’t doing their jobs.”

“They’re not protecting our kids. Why do we have Fruit Loops in this country that have 18 or 19 ingredients and you go to Canada and it has two or three?” he said.

Kennedy also spoke about his concerns about fluoride in the nation’s water supply. Fluoridated water has been heralded by major public health groups, who point to studies that say it reduced tooth decay by at least 25%.

He said that while he would not force its removal, he would advise water districts “of their legal responsibility” to protect constituents. However, major medical associations support water fluoridation, saying it is safe and has benefits.

Asked what it was like to be Kennedy at a Republican victory party at the White House on Tuesday night, he said: “Unusual. I never thought I’d be here.” Kennedy said he chose to support Trump because the two men believed they were stronger together.

“He basically said to me, ‘Let’s unite our parties because the landscapes that we agree on are much bigger than the issues that we disagree on,'” Kennedy said.

Vaughn Hillyard reported from West Palm Beach, and Rebecca Shabad from New York.