Newly confirmed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says many Americans confront both a “health crisis” and a “spiritual” one, crises that leave them disconnected from others and fuel alcoholism, suicide and drug addiction.
Mr. Kennedy plans to address both sides of the problem.
“I think we have to address all of those things at the same time. We can’t just say we’re going to make you physically healthy,” he said late Thursday on Fox News.
The Senate confirmed Mr. Kennedy, on a 52-48 vote Thursday, with Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell and all Democrats voting against him, citing his lack of management experience and history of expressing anti-vaccine views.
Outlining his plans, Mr. Kennedy said Americans will remain free to eat what they want, but he will demand “radical transparency” around what goes into products.
“We have 10,000 additives in our food. The Europeans have 400. Many of the additives that we have are just illegal in Europe, and we need to move more and more toward the European standards,” he said on “The Ingraham Angle.”
He pledged to investigate marijuana products with high levels of THC and said he would insist on “good science” on vaccines but not take any of them away.
Mr. Kennedy is a scion of a famous Democratic political family who built his career as an environmental lawyer, activist and chairman of the anti-vaccine Children’s Health Defense, making him an unlikely pick for health secretary in a Republican administration.
Mr. Kennedy said it was time for a disruptor at the Cabinet department he now heads.
“I’m not going to let the food industry and the pharmaceutical industry run health policy anymore,” he said. “… We’re going to turn health policy over to people who are actually concerned with public health.”
President Trump is working with tech billionaire Elon Musk to thin the ranks of the federal workforce, and health agencies could be on the chopping block.
Mr. Kennedy has suggested he would remove hundreds of employees who are too cozy with corporate players and that whole segments of the Food and Drug Administration will be eliminated.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.