As HHS Head, RFK Jr. Has Potential to be Trump’s Most Successful Agent for Change
Kennedy has an in-depth knowledge of the labyrinth of connections between Big Pharma and government bureaucrats.
As Professor Jacobson and Kemberlee Kaye noted in their most recent podcast, President-elect Donald Trump has rapidly named many nominees to significant positions in his new administration.
One aspect of this speed-signaling that I view as positive is that when Trump won the 2016 election, it took him some time to name a single candidate. Then, his first choice was Jeff Sessions for Attorney General, who was tapped to help Trump navigate policies successfully through the bureaucratic swaps.
As a reminder: Sessions resigned after meekly allowing Robert Mueller to begin a disgraceful, hoax-based Russian collusion investigation after recusing himself from the matter.
Clearly, Trump is using a different template this time. He is done building bridges and now intends to take a bulldozer through the Swamp.
At first glance, he is selecting experienced people targeted or otherwise negatively impacted by the agency Trump wants them to head. And this observation brings be to my analysis of Trump’s selection of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as the head of Health and Human Services, which includes the agencies I often cover: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
I would like to use the Wayback Machine and cite the review I did of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s book: The Real Dr. Fauci.
I usually like to quote a specific passage of the book, but I found myself highlighting so many worthwhile sections and paragraphs, that I would like to condense perhaps the most important take-away from The Real Anthony Fauci: The template for the response to COVID-19 can be found by reviewing how Fauci took over billions of government dollars and dominated the sister agencies associated with NIAID (e.g., Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Health and Human Services) with the advent of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) epidemic.
On page 172, Kennedy consolidates Fauci’s activities during the 1980’s to summarize the Big Pharma/Vaccine-centric approach that evolved as the NIAID empire grew. Some of the highlights on a chilling and very comprehensive list on Fauci’s AIDS-response that should be quite familiar to us all at this point:
- pumping up pandemic fears to lay the groundwork for larger budgets and greater powers.
- periodically stoking waning fear levels by warning of mutant super-strains and future surges
- suggesting substantial changes to how people live, ostensibly to save lives
- ignoring and dismissing off-the-shelf therapeutic remedies
- promising ultimate salvation with vaccines
Kennedy has an in-depth knowledge of the labyrinth of connections between Big Pharma and government bureaucrats. He is in the position to be the most effective agent for change in the Trump administration.
Upon reflection, one of the most significant issues I had with Trump was how “two weeks to slow the spread” morphed into a multi-year pandemic lockdown extravaganza. This occurred because Fauci and his fellow COVID advisor, Dr. Deborah Birx, used the bureaucratic state to enforce poor policy and countermand Trump’s reopen orders.
I view the appointment of Kennedy as Trump’s way of apologizing to the nation for what occurred in 2020. Whatever your feelings about Kennedy’s positions on vaccines, you can be sure he will never allow anyone like Fauci or Birx to impact the nation at that scale again.
The HHS appointment may be Trump’s gift to Kennedy, for stepping aside and directing the Make American Healthy Again (MAHA) supporters to vote for the GOP ticket instead. This move was one of the most pivotal moments in the victorious presidential campaign, which was struggling in the wake of Harris’ installment.
But this appointment may also turn out to be a gift for the American people. Kennedy promises that much of his effort will go into addressing the significant epidemic of chronic diseases in this country, which is having a profound impact on public health, healthcare costs, and overall life expectancy.
Chronic disease accounts for 5 of the top 10 leading causes of death in the US. Approximately 90% of the annual $4.1 trillion healthcare expenditure is attributed to medical care for such illnesses. Determining the factors contributing to this problem, then informing the public would greatly help Americans as well as the economy.
For this reason, Kennedy’s support is bipartisan. Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D) stated that Kennedy “helped us defeat vaccine mandates in Colorado in 2019 and will help make America healthy again by shaking up HHS and FDA.”
Admittedly, many have issues with Kennedy’s opinions on specific topics (i.e., linking vaccines to autism). However, to be fair, we have seen how much science data and discussion that counters the preferred narratives has been defunded, deleted, or shadow-banned.
Finally, Biden’s head of HHS is Xavier Becerra. Becerra’s qualifications to run HHS were cosponsoring the Affordable Care Act as a California congressman and leasing multistate lawsuits to defend it as the state Attorney General.
I would argue Kennedy is more qualified for the appointment than Becerra was.
One last data point to conclude this analysis of Trump’s pick for HHS:
RFK gets picked for HHS.
out: trans fats
in: red meat. pic.twitter.com/lGy3KSglv1
— el gato malo (@boriquagato) November 14, 2024
For all these reasons, I am fine with Kennedy heading this agency and I am bracing myself for the inevitable trotting out of “experts” and fear-mongering from our propaganda media that ensues whenever a real agent of change is installed.
If Kennedy does nothing more than cut the binds between Big Pharma, Big Government, and Big Media, he will be known as one of the most effective administrators in American history.
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Comments
He can’t go into the weeds and must stay focused
It will be a great moment when we have truth so Americans can make educated decisions about their health and their childrens health
“I view the appointment of Kennedy as Trump’s way of apologizing to the nation for what occurred in 2020.”
I tend to agree. Trump will never say “I’m sorry”, but I’d rather have this solid act of repentance than mere words with no action.
If – if – JFK Jr is approved by the senate, the first order of business should be to ban every single poison potion commercial on TV we’re bombarded with every 5 seconds. Cigarettes and liquor were banned decades ago. Big Pharma poison is far, far worse. Ban em all.
“but I’d rather have this solid act of repentance than mere words with no action.”
*****
That message will be delivered loud and clear if Jay Bhattacharya is named to head the NIH.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Bhattacharya
You and I are exactly aligned on this thought.
Ozempic should be #1 with Metformin #2.
I spent a year on Metformin. I’d rather have diabetes.
Jay Bhattacharya, co-author of The Great Barrington Declaration, wrote the following in Unherd:
https://unherd.com/newsroom/rfk-jr-will-disrupt-the-us-medical-establishment/
“Kennedy is not a scientist, but his good-faith calls for better research and more debate are echoed by many Americans. If he remains true to this promise, scientists will be able to work to address the challenges of evidence in ways that previous administrations have not. The status quo is not working for the public interest or patients. If the medical establishment becomes obsessed with resistance, it will marginalise itself and lose what little trust the public currently places in it.
The American public voted for disruptors like RFK Jr in 2024, and academic medicine now has an opportunity to atone for its Covid-era blunders. If it engages constructively, it can participate in crafting and implementing reforms that would, indeed, make America healthy again.“
From my perspective, Dr. Bhattacharya was on the money with his criticisms of how NIH and the CDC dealt with Covid. If he is supportive of RFK, Jr heading HHS, that’s good enough for me.
Love the pic on the plane eating McDonalds. MAHA starts TOMORROW! But the message is, everything in moderation. Whose fault is it that the best stuff is also the worst stuff?
This aligns with my feelings about Trump’s HHS appointment as well. Pre-Covid I tended to think of RFK Jr as a bit of a nut. But I was ignorant of how corrupt our so-called health institutions are. And while the autism-vaccine link has been officially debunked, I now wonder about this too, we have a child “on the spectrum”, and something changed in his brain when he was around a year old. Vaccine-related? Who knows? We will never know, but in my mind everything about medical “science” is suspect, at least as far back as Fauci’s arrival on the scene.
Just keep in mind who it was that “debunked” the autism claim
“Pre-Covid I tended to think of RFK Jr as a bit of a nut.”
He’s still very much a bit of a nut. But that’s OK.
Some 50 years ago, I heard that a co-worker of mine had been reviewed as follows:
“J. is like a valuable power tool. When there is a big job to be done, you can take him in hand and turn out some beautiful and impressive work in record time. However, if you leave him alone in a room with the motor running, he can chew up the furniture.”
By naming RFKJ to a position concerned strictly with health, Trump has hopefully limited the damage he can do. I for one don’t want him in a position where he has any authority over vehicles, or guns, or the environment, or other things liberals get liberal about.
This is cynical, but I applaud Trump’s creative use of a expendable patsy to engage one flank of our enemies in a much-needed firefight.
THIS is how it’s done, Democrats, not with some snot-nosed FPS gamer.
Also, as far as I know, there have been NO studies on the effects of all the childhood vaccines (starting in the delivery room) on each other in such a compressed timeline. So I don’t know that anything has been debunked.
Get rid of seed oils and all the crap they put in our food. And quit adulterating damn near everything with “bioengineered food ingredients” – it’s scary how that camel slipped into the food tent in the space of mere months.
Also, get rid of all vaxx requirements, from newborns (how the hell are newborns in “need” of Hep B shots if the mother tests negative?) to adults. You want to get shots up the wazoo, have at it. But don’t force your medical decisions on me & my family.
This will be a war. Nobody spreads the cash around Congress like Big Pharma to both parties. The public will need to get behind this to match the tv commercials put out by big drug to scare people.
Very first thing before additives, seed oils and other crap is to ban all patent payments from big pharma to the people in government that are supposed to regulate them.
Good first step to ban payments to govt regulators from outside sources. Then adopt EU food additive regulations as the temp baseline as we move forward.
This and Gaetz are the only bad picks Trump did.
Yes the government lied during the pandemic.
No it does not mean that the endless peer reviewed research by legitimate scientists on vaccines are fake, and that vaccines cause autism something no proof has ever been produced for and that has been debunked only a few hundred trillion times by honest people researching it.
Unfortunately when the mainstream discredits itself people with horrible and unscientific ideas gain credibility.
I have listened to some of the things he has said. He does not seem to be completely anti-vax. But it comes across that way when the news reports. He IS anti-the pharm companies being “safe” from the harms the vaxes do (the autism controversy is just the biggest and most well-known of the “side-effects”); he IS anti-100 doses before the age of 5; he IS anti-secret trials of vaccines.
I will give him a go. And the vaccines are just one part of everything that he wants to bring to light.
The Pharma company execs lied. The regulators lied. The agencies responsible for making recommendations about public health lied. Then they colluded to use the power of gov’t to eliminate any dissenting opinions. Meanwhile they offered up mask mandates and 6ft distancing they knew at the time were made up BS. Then they told us that jab prevented acquiring Covid and transmission.
Nope. They gonna have to admit their lies and take what’s coming. Part of that is complete loss of public trust in these agencies, corporations, and individuals. No forgiveness until they confess, genuinely repent and accept whatever acts of contrition are imposed by the public. They made their bed by choosing to deliberately lie to the public in order to advance their policy preferences, part of which was restricting speech, ability to attend religious worship, funerals, weddings or the death bed of family members.
It looks to me like commenters are misrepresenting what Danny is saying. It doesn’t appear to me that he’s defending Pfizer or Moderna or any other company that produced ineffective and improperly tested medications that turned out to be worse than what they pretended to cure, nor the government agencies and bureaucrats who redefined the word “vaccine” to include medications that clearly were not. I don’t agree with him much either, but as with JR, it’s getting so his comments are being rejected out of hand for reasons of personal spite rather than honest disagreement.
Meanwhile, rejecting all vaccinations out of hand as a couple of commenters seem have done is beyond stupid. We’ve virtually eliminated several childhood diseases from this country through early immunization.
To be clear what I reject is ANYTHING that is put out the same folks who lied, censored or suppressed dissenting opinions, foisted knowingly false mitigation measures; distance/masks and let the Covid Karens run wild.
These folks individually, the companies they worked for and agencies they ran or represented can NOT be trusted. They built a well of public mistrust that must be overcome. How? Beyond the personal shunning by society, the revocation of all professional licensing and permanent bar to not just to directly govt employment but the loss of funding for any entity that is foolish enough to employ them?
That’s easy. Replicate all studies used in support of any/all public health policies or recommendations about public health policy. The public health community chose to turn themselves into lying hacks more interested in pushing an ideological agenda than providing honest information to the public.
Liars can’t be trusted. Neither can organizations which employ liars. Nor can any of the data these untrustworthy agencies have produced. All of it is now suspect until replicated, transparent studies are conducted and made public. Then verified by outside sources via another round of replication.
You mean, the scientific method. What a novel idea.
“We’ve virtually eliminated several childhood diseases from this country through early immunization.”
and I agree that there is a lot of value in vaccines against measles, mumps, whooping cough, etc. But, as someone else said, a heb B vax for a newborn from a mom who tested negative? Chicken pox – very very little danger to the kids, but a lot of inconvenience to the parents and employers, so add that in.
And then every booster and a huge pamphlet of possible side effects – given to you to read AS THEY are injecting your kid – and a kind of blasé neglect if you claim that there are side effects.
so – I am not against all vaccines, but I am against the numbers and the manner in which they are required and given.
Chicken pox can be fatal. I know someone who lost a daughter to chicken pox.
“but as with JR, it’s getting so his comments are being rejected out of hand for reasons of personal spite rather than honest disagreement.”
JR gets spackled with regularity here not because of “reasons of personal spite” but because he is a low-grade, low-rent troll who’s earned every downvote he’s ever gotten.
If he ever posted something worth disagreement, I’d be happy to respond to substance.
I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m certainly relieved that Uniparty Danny gave the all clear regarding the government lying during Covid. They learned their lesson, so we can get back to the incestuous relationship between the pharmaceutical companies and their alleged regulators. RFK, Jr. is the real problem here.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39054778#:~:text=Concern%20over%20the%20reliability%20of,to%20reproduce%20another%20scientist's%20experiments.
I’ll give this honor to Gaetz, if he gets confirmed.
The points made in the comments are all true, and it’s good that someone will target Big Pharma with the almost unlimited regulatory power of HHS Secretary. But remember the things about RFK Jr that are true, but are not being said here:
1. He is in favor of single-payer (socialized medicine) as strongly as he is against Big Pharma.
2. He is in favor of abortion on demand up to the moment of birth as strongly as he is against Big Pharma.
The HHS Secretary has almost unlimited regulatory power, which is bad news for Big Pharma. But it’s also very bad news for anyone who is against socialized medicine and/or partial-birth abortion.
It’s very fair to point out that RFK JR isn’t a stalwart conservative. However abortion is, post Dobbs, back in the hands of the State Legislatures. In very real ways we already have socialized medicine in the USA; Medicare, Medicaid, VA healthcare, Obamacare… even ‘private’ insurance is subsidized via tax exclusions all of which distort the true price of healthcare and hide the true costs of health insurance.