Robert F. Kennedy Jr. becomes Trump’s Minister of Health

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. becomes Minister of Health in the government of US President Donald Trump. The Senate confirmed the controversial personnel with a narrow majority. The nephew of the former US President John F. Kennedy had often scattered doubts about vaccinations in recent years, spread conspiracy theories and made a speech with shrill speeches. Therefore, there was a lot of criticism of his choice for the health department.

The confirmation in the Senate was preceded by a heated hearing in the responsible committee of the parliamentary chamber, in which the 71-year-old resisted, among other things, against the accusation of being a vaccination opponent. A democratic senator asked him to clearly confess that vaccinations were safe. Kennedy claimed that his own children were vaccinated and that he only advocated a stricter examination of medical security.

For years, however, critics have accused him of specifically spreading doubts about vaccines and in particular undermining the measles vaccination campaign. In the past, Kennedy, for example, represented the scientifically refuted thesis that vaccinations could trigger autism.

Shortly before his hearing, a warning from Kennedy’s cousin Caroline had attracted attention. In a letter to several senators, she wrote down his cousin building his followers by taking advantage of the despair of parents of sick children. She urged the senators “urgently to reject his nomination”.

Not only from the family, but also from science and research there were warnings of Trump’s desired candidate. Dozens of Nobel laureates publicly expressed their doubts about Kennedy’s suitability for the office and criticized lack of qualifications or experience in areas such as medicine, science and administration. They accused him of representing anti -science positions.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had been a democrat for decades, but increasingly moved away from the party. It is also criticized for the spread of conspiracy theories, such as through corona pandemic, and because of contacts to right-wing extremist politicians. In the presidential election, the man from the prominent Kennedy family initially started as an independent applicant, but then withdrew his hopeless candidacy and switched to the Trump camp.

Kennedy also drew attention to himself outside of politics with shrill anecdotes. He once admitted to put a dead bear in New York Central Park. His daughter had reported how he fell his head on a dead whale on vacation, then to drive him home for hours on the car roof. Kennedy also stated that he had a worm in the brain that temporarily triggered an anomaly in his head.