Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will soon hold substantial influence over health and food safety in the second Trump administration and he is facing criticism for explaining to an MSNBC reporter how he intends to "clear out" certain departments at federal agencies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) due to "corruption."
Kennedy—a noted anti-vaxxer and conspiracy theorist—said the following when asked if "clearing out corruption" means "clearing out top level federal service workers":
"In some categories, some cases, there are entire departments like the nutrition department at the FDA that have to go. They're not doing their job. 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’s got two or three?" ..
"To eliminate the agencies, as long as that requires congressional approval, I wouldn't be doing that. I'll get the corruption out of the agencies, that's what I've been doing for 40 years."
"I've sued all those agencies. I have a Ph.D. in corporate corruption and once they're not corrupt, once we're getting good signs, they're [kids] going to get a lot of good choices, going to get a lot healthier."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
President-elect Donald Trump recently stated that Kennedy will play a “big role” in health care under the new administration. Trump previously mentioned that he would let Kennedy “go wild” on health, food, and drug regulation.
Kennedy has been meeting privately with Trump transition officials to shape the agenda for a new administration, potentially taking a role as a White House czar to sidestep Senate confirmation. Kennedy and his team have also been drafting 30-, 60-, and 90-day plans for post-inauguration priorities, per one source familiar with the process.
His statements alarmed many.
Some believe Kennedy's influence could bring significant risks to public health, patients, and the pharmaceutical industry.
Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine specialist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and vocal critic of Kennedy, warned that Kennedy’s leadership would mean that "things would not be grounded in scientific truth, just grounded in whatever he or his acolytes believe. ... It would be chaos.”
Offit predicted that such “chaos” could lead to a drop in vaccination rates, a rise in preventable diseases, and a growing distrust in agencies like the CDC and FDA.
This could worsen existing U.S. public health issues, such as low childhood vaccination rates for preventable diseases and troubling health statistics like high maternal and infant mortality and the lowest life expectancy among high-income nations, as reported by the Commonwealth Fund in 2023.
Kennedy, who lacks medical or scientific training, has argued that drug companies and regulatory agencies harm Americans’ health. He has even proposed that certain vaccines should be removed from the market—a suggestion Trump did not dismiss. As a former environmental lawyer, Kennedy’s influence could also create uncertainty within the pharmaceutical industry, which relies on federal health agencies for product approvals and sometimes funding for research.
While major changes to the drug approval process would likely be challenging, experts fear Kennedy’s role could give him a platform to politicize select treatments he opposes and promote others without proven safety and efficacy.
