President-elect Trump announced a flurry of nominations late Friday, selecting the leader of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on Wednesday, wrapping up his search for top public health roles in the incoming administration..
During his campaign, Mr. Trump promised to reform health care in the United States and named him to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). ), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the NIH, and he is preparing to do just that in his role as Surgeon General.
President Trump spoke to prominent vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. days after his victory, after promising to make Kennedy “fuss a big deal about health” at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden just before the election. His selection as the head of HHS immediately caused a stir.
Unlike Kennedy, all of the president-elect's subsequent picks for top medical posts were doctors. But like Kennedy, they held controversial views on health care, including Kennedy's plan to undermine the agency and the 13 public health and human services agencies it oversees to “make America healthy again.” Seems to be reacting to the plan.
President Trump's choice is not set in stone and must be approved by the Senate. However, they appear to be on track to be approved without much backlash.
Let's take a look at the health care policies the Trump administration has chosen so far.
HHS Secretary: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy is an environmental lawyer and prominent vaccine skeptic. He has no formal medical training.
His selection has raised concerns among public health experts due to his history of promoting controversial medical views that run counter to established scientific knowledge.
He founded the anti-vaccination group Children's Health Defense, which he led until his resignation in 2023. He began campaigning for president that year, but ultimately “paused” his campaign to endorse Trump earlier this year.
President Kennedy has falsely linked vaccines to a number of health conditions, including claiming that the mercury-containing vaccine preservative thimerosal causes neurological disorders in children, particularly autism.
Most current pediatric vaccines do not contain thimerosal, and the CDC said there are no studies linking the small amounts of preservatives used in vaccines to autism.
Kennedy also disputed the causal relationship between HIV and AIDS, despite years of scientific evidence proving the link. Instead, Kennedy theorized that the disease was caused by environmental toxins. “Gay Lifestyle” and alkyl nitrite inhalants, commonly known as “poppers.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, President Kennedy opposed COVID-19 vaccines and even promoted a conspiracy theory that vaccines were developed to control people via microchips. He was banned from social media platform Instagram in 2021 for repeatedly spreading misinformation about vaccines.
Kennedy's other controversial claims include one condemning the use of antidepressants. school shooting incident And they argue that fluoride should be removed from drinking water.
In announcing his selection of Kennedy for Secretary of State, President Trump posted on social media, “Excited to announce the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).'' I'm there,” he posted. “For too long, Americans have been overwhelmed by the food complex and drug companies that have perpetrated deceit, misinformation, and disinformation about public health.”
“Mr. Kennedy will restore these institutions to a tradition of gold-standard scientific research and a beacon of transparency, end the epidemic of chronic disease, and make America great and healthy again!” the president-elect added.
Kennedy has not released a public plan for how he would run HHS, but he has signaled that he could make some changes to the agency if approved.
President Kennedy is deeply skeptical of pharmaceutical companies and the government agencies that oversee them, calling federal health regulators “sock puppets” controlled by industry special interests. He also said he wants to eliminate entire divisions within the FDA, including the nutrition division.
He also expressed a desire for national health agencies to shift their focus from infectious diseases to chronic diseases and called for an end to the decades-old practice of adding fluoride to water to prevent tooth decay. .
CMS Administrator: Dr. Mehmet Oz
Oz is a cardiac surgeon who earned his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and his master's degree from the Wharton School of Business. same time. He then completed his residency in cardiothoracic surgery. columbia university.
He rose to fame on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” where he offered nutritional advice and healthy lifestyle tips, and since 2009 has hosted his own spin-off series called “The Dr. Oz Show.” I served as During his time as a television personality, Oz endorsed many controversial products and treatments, and critics said his show provided a platform for extreme claims that were not supported by evidence. He came under fire in 2020 for promoting the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19.
Oz has been heavily criticized by the scientific community, including many fellow doctors. In 2015, a group of 10 doctors called on him: removed from his faculty appointment His “disdain for science” and “evidence-based medicine” earned him a doctorate from Columbia University.
Colombia is very quiet Cut ties with Oz in 2022.
In 2021, Oz ran as a Republican for a vacant Senate seat in Pennsylvania, but ultimately lost to Democratic Sen. John Fetterman.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Oz have known each other for years, and the surgeon said he first met the president-elect in 2004 or 2005 when he asked if he could use his golf course for an event. Mr. Trump supported Mr. Oz in the Senate race and later appointed him the next president. During his first term in the White House, he served on the President's Sports, Fitness and Nutrition Council.
If confirmed, Oz will lead the $1.5 trillion agency that sets payment rates for doctors, hospitals and insurance companies, as well as Medicare, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program and the Affordable Care Act. (a program that provides insurance to more than 150 million people).
Like Kennedy, he has no experience running a large bureaucracy.
“There may be no doctor more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to make America healthy again,” President Trump said in a statement announcing the nomination.
“Dr. Oz will be a leader in encouraging disease prevention so that every dollar we spend on health care in this great country will give us the best results in the world,” President Trump said. “He will also reduce waste and fraud within our nation's most expensive government agency, which accounts for a third of our health care costs and a quarter of our entire national budget.”
CDC Director: Dave Weldon
Weldon is a military veteran and physician who received his medical degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He later moved to Florida to practice medicine and represented the state's 15th Congressional District for seven terms starting in 1995.
Like Kennedy, Weldon believes thimerosal is causing a surge in childhood autism cases, and he said the same thing when he was a member of Congress. He also supported a bill to ban substances in vaccines and another bill aimed at shifting oversight of vaccine safety from the CDC to an independent agency within HHS.
Weldon will be the first CDC director nominee to require Senate confirmation under provisions passed in the recent omnibus budget.
“Dave will proudly restore CDC to its original purpose and work to end chronic disease epidemics,” Trump said in a post announcing Weldon's selection.
“The American public has lost trust in the CDC and federal health authorities, which have engaged in censorship, data manipulation, and misinformation.Given the current chronic health crisis in our country, the CDC has increased its focus on disease prevention. We need to further strengthen and correct past mistakes.”
FDA Commissioner: Marty McCurry
McCurry, who President Trump nominated to head the FDA, is a surgical oncologist at Johns Hopkins University and an author who gained national attention for opposing vaccine mandates during the coronavirus pandemic.
During that time, he also wrote opinion pieces questioning the value of other public health measures, such as lockdowns and requiring children to wear masks. In February 2021, he wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the government had underestimated the rate of natural immunity from previous coronavirus infections. He predicted herd immunity would occur by April, but that ultimately did not happen.
Earlier this year, Mr. McCulley, along with Mr. Kennedy. Congressional Roundtable On health and nutrition, he objected to federal health agencies' lack of focus on chronic diseases. He also said the U.S. government is “the biggest perpetrator of misinformation about the food pyramid.”
If approved, McCurry would lead the agency that oversees the security and safety of medical devices, cosmetics, food and drugs.
“Dr. McCurry, who has dedicated his career to high-quality, low-cost health care, will restore FDA to the gold standard in scientific research and cut through FDA red tape to ensure Americans have access to health care. “I am confident they will receive the care and treatment they deserve,” Trump wrote in his election announcement.
Surgeon General: Janet Neshewat
Mr. Neshewat is a physician and the New York City medical director of urgent care chain CityMD. Her sister, Julia Nesheiwat, served as Homeland Security Adviser in the first Trump administration and is in a relationship with Congressman Mike Walz (R-Florida), whom Trump nominated to be National Security Advisor. I'm married.
Janet Nesheiwat, like other Trump presidential candidates, has ties to Fox News and has worked as a medical contributor for the cable news channel since the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
She wrote a book called “Beyond the Stethoscope: A Medical Miracle'' about her experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. her website calls the book a “vibrant Christian story” that includes stories of “miraculous recoveries, ER experiences, and global medical missions” that reveal “the power of prayer and an unwavering dedication to healing ministry.” It is described as “a memoir.''
Mr. Neshewat appears to have diametrically opposed views on vaccines than Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Weldon. She previously said the COVID-19 vaccine “gift from god” says the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is highly effective.
“I am proud to announce that Dr. Janet Nesheiwat will become the nation's physician as the United States Surgeon General. Dr. Nesheiwat is dual-certified with an unwavering dedication to saving and treating the lives of thousands of Americans. She’s a doctor,” President Trump said when announcing her selection.
NIH Director: Jay Bhattacharyya
Earlier this week, President Trump nominated Jay Bhattacharyya, a Stanford University-trained physician and economist, to head the NIH.
Like others President Trump has appointed to his incoming administration, Bhattacharya has criticized the federal government's response to the coronavirus pandemic. he co-authored open letter In 2020, he called for an end to the coronavirus lockdown and a renewed focus on vulnerable people. Mr. Bhattacharyya has also criticized former President Anthony Fauci, calling for limits on the powers of some of the NIH's 27 institutes and centers.
“Together, Jay and RFK Jr. will restore NIH to the gold standard in medical research, examining the root causes of and solutions to America's greatest health problems, including the chronic disease and disease crisis,” President Trump wrote. . Posting the winning announcement.
