CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon, said there is “great concern” in the medical community about former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. taking a larger role in the Trump administration, but the medical community has He added: “It's not a monolith.”
“There's a lot of concern. Well, even in the last hour or so, I've gotten a lot of notes from people. I mean, I think it's fair to say that the medical community is not monolithic. There's a lot of concern here. There's a lot of different voices,' but they're pretty much aligned on these public health issues and concerns on some of RFK's parts,'' Gupta told CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer on Thursday.
Mr. Gupta's comments came as President-elect Trump on Thursday nominated Mr. Gupta, an anti-vaccine activist and environmental lawyer, to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The position would require Senate approval, but President Trump has floated the idea of bypassing the confirmation process by scheduling a recess.
President Kennedy has brought deep skepticism to drug companies and the federal agencies that oversee them, and has long argued that the 13 agencies overseen by HHS are in dire need of reform. But now he could soon lead the same agency as it pursues its goal of “making America healthy again.”
Mr. Gupta acknowledged in an interview that Mr. Kennedy's position on health care reform may be plausible.
“But on the other hand, you know, there's a grain of truth in what he says when he talks about some of the real challenges across the health care system,” said Mr. He added that we have spent trillions of dollars on health care. care.
According to , U.S. health spending in 2022 reached $4.5 trillion. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
President Trump's pledge last week to let Kennedy go “out of control” on health issues shocked public health experts, saying he was interfering with key government agencies and adding to vaccine hesitancy. They worry that Mr. Kennedy could funnel money directly to government agencies to support his preferred views.
Before the election, Trump said he would “make decisions” about banning certain vaccines if he returned to the White House and Kennedy joined his administration. in a recent interview With NBC's Dasha Burns, President Trump did not rule out banning vaccines.
