Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vowed to launch “a new era of radical transparency” as he addressed his staff as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) for the first time on Feb. 18.
“I’m not going to come in here and impose my belief over any of yours. Instead, we’re going to work together to launch a new era of radical transparency,” Kennedy said.
“Only through radical transparency can we provide Americans with genuine informed consent, which is bedrock and the foundation stone of democracy.”
Kennedy’s “main mission” at HHS, he said, is “to reverse the chronic disease epidemic.”
Transparency is how that objective will be accomplished.
“Transparency allows diverse parties to establish common ground of mutually trusted information,” Kennedy said.
He remarked that many government agencies have “fallen captive to the profit-making industries” and have “stagnated in bureaucratic secrecy.”
Kennedy ran for president as a Democrat and then an independent before ending his White House bid last August.
Upon endorsing candidate former President Donald Trump, he established the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement and vowed to end the nation’s chronic disease epidemic, which was a key part of his own presidential campaign platform.
The former Democrat was nominated to become HHS secretary by Trump before undergoing a rigorous confirmation process that ended on Feb. 13, when the U.S. Senate voted in Kennedy’s favor, 52–48, mostly along party lines.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was the lone Republican not to support Kennedy.
“I have prayed each morning for the past two decades for God to put me in a position to solve the childhood chronic disease epidemic. And now, thanks to you Mr. President, we will make this promise a reality,” Kennedy said as he was sworn in on Feb. 13 in the Oval Office.
HHS manages 13 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 promised significant changes throughout the department.
He has repeatedly said little will change until the influence of giant or private corporations on the FDA, the CDC, and the Department of Agriculture is addressed.
“I understand that it is the system and not the people in it; that is the main problem,” Kennedy said.
Reshaping the agencies under HHS “will recover their reputations as unimpeachable sources of scientific information to guide policy-making medical professionals, the public, and the whole world,” he noted.
“We will remove conflicts of interest on the committees and research partners when possible, or balance them with other stakeholders. We will shut the revolving door to re-establish public trust,” he said.
“We will make our data and our policy process so transparent that people won’t even have to file a FOIA request.”
Kennedy also said he plans to “investigate” if anti-depression medications and childhood vaccinations are among the multiple “possible factors” of the nation’s chronic disease epidemic.
“Nothing is going to be off limits,” Kennedy pledged.
“We will convene representatives of all viewpoints to study the causes for the drastic rise in chronic disease,” Kennedy said. “Some of the possible factors we will investigate were formally taboo or insufficiently scrutinized.”
During his address, Kennedy referenced his recent “highly polarized confirmation process.”
Kennedy told his staff members that media narratives about him—many of which label him as an “anti-vaxxer” and a “conspiracy theorist” without airing his full comments—have “made it hard to get a sense of who I am and what I believe and what I represent.”
“A lot of times when I read these articles characterizing me, I think to myself, I wouldn’t want to work for that guy, either,” he added.
Kennedy asked HHS employees to “start a relationship by letting go of any preconceptions that you may have about me. And let’s start from square one.”
Throughout his career, Kennedy continued, he has asked difficult questions and reached unpopular conclusions.
“I’m going to keep asking those kinds of questions. What I promise to you now is to hold my preconceived answers lightly,” he said.
During the confirmation process, Democrats expressed concern that Kennedy would be a “rubber stamp” for the agenda of the Trump administration.
On Feb. 18, Kennedy pledged that his leadership would represent open-mindedness.
“I promise to be willing to be wrong. I promise to listen to all the stakeholders, all the parties to the conversation, including the ones, especially the ones, with whom I’ve disagreed in the past,” Kennedy said.
“I promise to keep an open mind to every possibility and every contingency. I hope you will all join me in this commitment because the health of our people is a lot more important than being right or being vindicated.”
