Vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is sworn in as Trump’s health chief after a close Senate vote

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. testifies during a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing for his pending confirmation on Capitol Hill, Jan. 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr., File)

WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in Thursday as U.S. President Donald Trump’s health secretary after a close Senate vote, putting the prominent vaccine skeptic in control of US$1.7 trillion in federal spending, vaccine recommendations and food safety as well as health insurance programs for roughly half the country.

Nearly all Republicans fell in line behind Trump despite hesitancy over Kennedy’s views on vaccines, voting 52-48 to elevate the scion of one of America’s most storied political -- and Democratic -- families to secretary of the Health and Human Services Department. Democrats unanimously opposed Kennedy.

Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, who had polio as a child, was the only “no” vote among Republicans, mirroring his stands against Trump’s picks for the Pentagon chief and director of national intelligence.

“I’m a survivor of childhood polio. In my lifetime, I’ve watched vaccines save millions of lives from devastating diseases across America and around the world,” McConnell said in a statement afterward. “I will not condone the re-litigation of proven cures, and neither will millions of Americans who credit their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles.”

Hours after he was sworn in, Kennedy said during his first interview as HHS Secretary with Fox News' Laura Ingraham that he would launch a stronger program to more closely monitor vaccine side effects.

The GOP has largely embraced Kennedy’s vision for the nation’s health agencies and his directive for the nation’s public health agencies to focus on chronic diseases such as obesity.

“We’ve got to get into the business of making America healthy again,” said Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, adding that Kennedy will bring a “fresh perspective” to the office.

Kennedy -- joined by his wife, other family members and several members of Congress -- was sworn in Thursday afternoon in the Oval Office by Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, hours after confirmation. He said he’d first been there in 1961, and told stories of seeing his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, there as a child.

Trump announced that Kennedy will form a new commission focused on studying chronic diseases, and Kennedy said Trump has been a blessing in his life and will be for the country, calling him a “pivotal historical figure.”

Kennedy, 71, whose name and family tragedies have put him in the national spotlight since he was a child, has earned a formidable following with his populist and sometimes extreme views on food, chemicals and vaccines.

His audience only grew during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Kennedy devoted much of his time to a nonprofit that sued vaccine makers and harnessed social media campaigns to erode trust in vaccines as well as the government agencies that promote them.

With Trump’s backing, Kennedy insisted he was “uniquely positioned” to revive trust in those public health agencies, which include the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes for Health.

Last week, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said he hoped Kennedy “goes wild” in reining in health care costs and improving Americans' health. But before agreeing to support Kennedy, potential holdout Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., a doctor who leads the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, required assurances that Kennedy would not make changes to existing vaccine recommendations.

During Senate hearings, Democrats tried to prod Kennedy to deny a long-discredited theory that vaccines cause autism. Some lawmakers also raised alarms about Kennedy financially benefiting from changing vaccine guidelines or weakening federal lawsuit protections against vaccine makers.

Kennedy made more than US$850,000 last year from an arrangement referring clients to a law firm that has sued the makers of Gardasil, a human papillomavirus vaccine that protects against cervical cancer. If confirmed as health secretary, he promised to reroute fees collected from the arrangement to his son.

Kennedy will take over the agency in the midst of a massive federal government shakeup, led by billionaire Elon Musk, that has shut off -- even if temporarily -- billions of taxpayer dollars in public health funding and left thousands of federal workers unsure about their jobs.

On Friday, the NIH announced it would cap billions of dollars in medical research given to universities and cancer being used to develop treatments for diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s.

Kennedy, too, has called for a staffing overhaul at the NIH, FDA and CDC. Last year, he promised to fire 600 employees at the NIH, the nation’s largest funder of biomedical research.

He plans to remove people at HHS and its subagencies, including NIH, who “made really bad decisions” on nutrition guidelines and Alzheimer’s treatment, Kennedy said Thursday night during his Fox News appearance.

“I have a list in my head,” Kennedy said of potential firings at the agency.

Amanda Seitz, The Associated Press