‘An anti-vax ZEALOT’: Trump’s Health Secretary pick is determined to share lies about HPV vaccines

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is determined to make America sick again.

Tapped by Donald Trump to lead the Health and Human Services Department, Robert F. Kennedy will soon control the world’s largest healthcare organization. With a budget of over $1.7 trillion, the organization is responsible for providing healthcare for nearly half of the United State’s population. As the Chair of the HHS, he will hold significant sway over everything from the Center for Disease control to the Food and Drug Organization, and he intends to use that power to reshape those agencies to serve his severely misinformed ends.

Called “an anti-vax zealot” by users on the internet, Robert F. Kennedy is one of the foremost purveyors of vaccine disinformation in the nation. He has extended his erroneous skepticism to the Covid-19 vaccine as well as the polio vaccine, and is currently taking aim at the vaccine for one of the most subtle and dangerous diseases currently in circulation: HPV.

Responding to a post from RFK Jr. that claimed the Gardasil HPV vaccine “appears to be increasing the risk of cervical cancer,” Epidemiologist Raywat Deonandan lambasted Kennedy, calling his statement an “outright lie.” According to Deonandan, the HPV vaccine is associated with an “unprecedented decline” rates of cervical cancer, a claim supported by the Center for Disease Control.

While Kennedy has stated that he doesn’t intend to “take away anybody’s vaccines,” experts fear that his vaccine skepticism is damaging enough to the American public. In a letter addressed to the U.S. Senate, 77 Nobel Laureates urged legislators not to confirm Kennedy’s nomination, writing that he “would put the public’s health in jeopardy.”

Increased risk of cancer from the HPV vaccine is far from the only bogus medical claim that RFK Jr. has spread. Kennedy has repeated a throughly debunked notion that vaccines cause autism. He also believes that fluoride in America’s tapwater is turning children gay. He also has stated that the polio vaccine killed more people than polio itself.

Though Kennedy doesn’t plan to take away anyone’s vaccines, one look at X will show the damage that his claims do in real time. The comments section of Raywat Deonandan’s X response to RFK Jr. are flooded with vaccine skeptics, many of whom believe that RFK Jr. is privy to secret information that the “medical establishment” doesn’t want Americans to know.

It’s easy to see why Donald Trump picked Kennedy to serve as his secretary of Health and Human Services. The president-elect’s campaign thrives on the notion of conspiracy, the idea that the powers that be are keeping things from the American people, and the Donald Trump is the only person capable of saving America and rooting out a cabal of corrupt elites. Donald Trump himself stoked the fire of conspiracy with his frequent claims that the 2020 election was stolen, and has even attempted to sow seeds of doubt around the 2024 election despite winning it. If January 6th was any indication, these lies have terrible real world consequences. Trump’s Republican allies have spread medical skepticism in the same breath as stolen election claims, as Marjorie Taylor Greene has recently suggested that the Covid-19 vaccine caused an “all time high” in cancer rates while also spreading lies surrounding voter fraud and the insurrection.

Trump and his allies deal in lies, and despite RFK Jr’s (potentially) good intentions, he is in service of a regime devoted to eroding the trust in every American institution save for the Trump administration itself.