The post requires Senate confirmation, a procedure that could become easier when Republicans take the majority in the chamber in January.
Responding to Trump’s Nov. 14 announcement, Kennedy wrote on X that, “Together we will clean up corruption, stop the revolving door between industry and government, and return our health agencies to their rich tradition of gold-standard, evidence-based science. I will provide Americans with transparency and access to all the data so they can make informed choices for themselves and their families.”
When Kennedy ended his independent presidential bid on Aug. 23 and endorsed Trump, he briefly outlined his plan should he be selected for a health-related post in the Trump administration.
“America can get healthy again. To do that we need to do three things. First, root out the corruption in our health agencies. Second, change the incentives of the health care system. And third, inspire Americans to get healthy again,” Kennedy said in a speech in Arizona.
Created in 1979, HHS manages 13 separate agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Kennedy has talked about a number of other ideas to implement, some that would require presidential or congressional action, and some that can be authorized by emergency powers.
“I’m going to urge President Trump on day one to do the same thing they did in COVID, which is to declare a national emergency, but not for infectious disease, but for chronic disease,” Kennedy said at a town hall in Michigan on Sept. 26.
Here are five plans Kennedy has said he would like bring to reality:
Staff Changes
Kennedy believes little will change until giant or private corporations stop controlling the FDA, the CDC, and the Department of Agriculture.“Their function is no longer to improve and protect the health of Americans,” he said at roundtable organized by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) on Sept 23. “Their function is to advance the mercantile and commercial interests of the pharmaceutical industry that has transformed them and the food industry that has transformed them into sock puppets.”
A Food and Drug Administration sign is seen through a bus stop at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Silver Spring, Md., on Aug. 2, 2018. Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Kennedy has vowed to dismiss the officials who lead those agencies and appoint replacements who will “turn them back into healing and public health agencies,” according to an interview with NBC News last year.
“FDA’s war on public health is about to end,” he said on Oct. 25, adding his support for raw milk, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and natural remedies such as sunshine.
On Nov. 6, Kennedy said that the FDA should be trimmed.
“There are entire departments, like the nutrition department at the FDA ... that have to go—that are not doing their job. They’re not protecting our kids,” Kennedy told MSNBC.
Kennedy also said he wants to fire 600 employees at the NIH, which oversees vaccine research, and replace them with 600 new employees.
“We need to act fast, and we want to have those people in place on Jan. 20, so that on Jan. 21, 600 people are going to walk into offices at NIH and 600 people are going to leave,” Kennedy said last week at the Genius Network Annual Event in Scottsdale, Ariz.
He told The Epoch Times in September that he would revamp the NIH to focus on the causes of autism, autoimmune diseases, and neurodevelopment diseases instead of developing drugs and serving as an incubator for pharmaceutical products.
Chemicals and Ultra-Processed Foods
A staunch advocate for regulating chemicals in food, Kennedy recently suggested that Americans should return to using tallow fat instead of seed oils. He has chastised food manufacturers for using ingredients such as artificial dyes.Kennedy has also pointed out how the U.S. version of the Froot Loops cereal contains more artificial colors and additives than versions sold in other countries.
During his Aug. 23 address, Kennedy noted that two-thirds of Americans suffer chronic health issues today. Fifty years ago, the number for children was less than one percent, he said.
People walk past food stands in New York City on Jan. 5, 2021. Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
“In America, 74 percent of adults are now overweight or obese, including 50 percent of our children. One hundred and twenty years ago, when someone was obese, they were sent to the circus. In Japan, the childhood obesity rate is 3 percent,” he added.
Kennedy also described the dramatic increase in adult and juvenile diabetes, the “explosion of neurological diseases that I never saw as a kid,” and fatty liver disease and cancer cases are on the rise.
“So what’s causing all this suffering? I’ll name two culprits. First and the worst is ultra-processed foods. ... The second culprit is toxic chemicals in our food, our medicine, and our environment,” he said.
He said these ultra-processed foods have chemicals that didn’t exist a century ago, and that they are partly responsible for the rise in disease. Though many of these chemicals are banned in Europe, he noted, they are ubiquitous in American foods.
“We are literally poisoning our children systematically for profit,” he said at the Sept. 23 roundtable. “Pesticides, food additives, pharmaceutical drugs, and toxic waste permeate every cell in our bodies.”
Kennedy has vowed to address the issue of chemicals in ultra-processed foods.
He told Fox News he would “get processed food out of school lunch immediately,” and said federal food assistance such as food stamps should not go toward junk food.
Corporations and Agencies
“Eighty percent of NIH grants go to people who have conflicts of interest,” Kennedy said on Aug. 23.“Seventy-five percent of the FDA funding doesn’t come from taxpayers. It comes from pharma. And pharma executives and consultants and lobbyists cycle in and out of these agencies,” Kennedy said.
“With President Trump’s backing, I am going to change that,” he said. “We will make sure that the decisions of consumers, doctors, and patients are informed by unbiased science.”
Prescription drugs are displayed at NYC Discount Pharmacy in New York City on July 23, 2024. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Kennedy called for a “review” of advertising rules for pharmaceutical companies and has also urged Trump to ban pharmaceutical advertising on TV. He also believes in eliminating liability protections for drug companies.
He has also voiced support of reforming the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, which authorizes the FDA to collect fees for processing applications for approving new drugs.
“We need to end the corruption. Fifty percent of FDA’s budget comes not from the taxpayer, but from the pharmaceutical industry,” Kennedy said on Sept. 26.
Vaccines
Cast as an “anti-vaxxer” by critics, Kennedy has consistently said that he isn’t against vaccines, but he believes in vaccine safety and informed consent.During an interview with The Epoch Times last year, he explained his stance.
“I’ve never been anti-vaccine. People should have choice, and that choice should be informed by the best information possible,“ he said, ”I’m going to ensure that there are science-based safety studies available and people can make their own assessments about whether a vaccine is good for them.”
At a forum hosted by media host Tucker Carlson in October, Kennedy said he wants to “restore the transparency” around vaccines, not ban them.
“[Trump] doesn’t want me to take vaccines away from people. If you want to take a vaccine, you ought to be able to take it. We believe in free choice in this country. You ought to know the risks and benefits of everything you take,” Kennedy said.
A COVID-19 vaccination and testing site is set up outside of Yankee Stadium in New York City on April 8, 2022. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Fluoride
On Nov. 2, Kennedy wrote in a post on X that one of Trump’s first acts in office would be to advise U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water.Kennedy’s announcement was made as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is under a federal court order to take action over potential health concerns, including that fluoride might lower children’s IQ “at dosages that are far too close to fluoride levels in the drinking water of the United States,” stemming in large part from a report published by the National Institutes of Health.
The CDC stated in May that water fluoridation is one of the greatest “public health achievements of the 20th century.”
At a Sept. 30 town hall in Philadelphia, Kennedy called fluoride “a poison.”
“The simple answer is, I don’t like it,” he said.
