President Donald Trump’s nomination for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, has cleared a key hurdle. Opponents had declared RFK Jr. unfit for the public health role due to his anti-vaccine stances.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s candidacy for Secretary of Health and Human Services in US President Donald Trump’s new administration received a boost on Tuesday when the US Senate Committee on Finance voted to advance his nomination to the full Senate for a confirmation vote.
Trump’s nomination of Kennedy for the key public health role has been considered controversial due to the latter’s role in the anti-vaccine movement.
National health groups, Democrats, the Wall Street Journal and New York Post editorial boards and even family members had all voiced opposition to his nomination.
But the committee on Tuesday voted 14-13 to advance Kennedy “favorably” to a final vote.
While all the Democrats on the committee voted against Kennedy, all the Republicans voted in favor, including Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician who admitted last week that, as a medical doctor who also chairs the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, he was “struggling” with the decision.
If confirmed in the full Senate, which could happen as early as this week, Kennedy will oversee more than $3 trillion in healthcare spending, including the agency in charge of the Medicare and Medicaid health programs that provide health insurance for over 140 million Americans.
Despite spreading doubts about the efficacy and safety of vaccines which are proven to have helped curb disease and prevent deaths for decades, Kennedy disputes the anti-vaccine characterization and has said he would not prevent Americans from getting inoculations.
More to follow …
Edited by: Louis Oelofse
DW News
