RFK Jr. is too dangerous for government

One of Donald Trump’s signature first-term achievements was Operation Warp Speed, the $18 billion effort to accelerate development of the COVID-19 vaccine. He deserves lasting credit for supporting the major effort it involved, the millions of lives it helped save and the enormous economic benefits it produced. So why would he now appoint someone who would undo his own success?

In his election night victory speech, Trump suggested that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – a notorious anti-vaccine crusader and peddler of junk science – would have a prominent role in his administration. It would be a disastrous mistake that would kill and sicken countless Americans while also harming Trump’s political standing and tarnishing his first-term legacy.

Trump should remember that Kennedy spread lies about the COVID vaccine, falsely calling it the “deadliest vaccine ever made.” In any position of influence, Kennedy would jeopardize decades of hard-won advances in public health and put American lives needlessly at risk.

Kennedy, nephew of America’s 35th president, doesn’t have public-health expertise. He’s an environmental lawyer who did decades of good work fighting corporate polluters. In the early 2000s, however, he began to explore the dark corners of pseudoscience, including the baseless and debunked conspiracy theory that common childhood vaccines were linked to autism. His list of public-health grievances has grown to include the fluoridation of drinking water. But of all his crackpot ideas, his vaccine denialism is the most dangerous.

Vaccinations are one of the biggest public-health accomplishments of the 20th century, having saved millions of lives in the U.S. and around the world. One study found that infants comprised two-thirds of the 154 million lives saved from global vaccination efforts over the past half-century. Thanks to vaccines, afflictions such as polio are rare. Smallpox has been eradicated.

Kennedy would put all that progress at risk. Want to see a return of measles, mumps and rubella in schools across the country? Appoint Kennedy. Want to see more people die from COVID? Appoint Kennedy. Want to see spikes in diphtheria? Appoint Kennedy.

That most Americans can’t say what diseases like diphtheria and rubella do is a testament to the success of vaccines. Loss of public support for them – and for future vaccine developments – would have devastating consequences.

I grew up at a time when one of parents’ biggest fears was that their children might contract polio, which paralyzed and killed thousands of people before the vaccine was introduced in 1955. Back then, if anyone had told us that someone who opposes vaccines for deadly diseases might be considered for a top presidential appointment, we would have thought that person was delusional or deranged.

Parents who remain angry – rightfully so – about school closures and mask mandates are not looking for a return of polio and measles. Unfortunately, that’s just what Kennedy’s agenda would deliver.

Kennedy is attempting to claim that he’s not anti-vaccine, but his own words prove otherwise. “There is no vaccine that is safe and effective,” he said in July. He couldn’t be more wrong. There is no scientific basis for his attacks on vaccine safety, and the false doubts he sows have already inflicted terrible damage on families.

The anti-vax movement he has spearheaded has lowered uptake of vaccines and increased deaths from diseases that have vaccines. Measles, a highly contagious and potentially fatal virus, was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000. In 2024, more than 270 cases have been declared in 30 states.

It’s unclear what role Kennedy could have in a second Trump administration. Serving as secretary of Health and Human Services or commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration would require Senate confirmation. Senate Republicans, especially centrists wishing to play an influential role over the next four years, should quietly but forcefully deliver a clear message to the president-elect: Don’t send us Bobby.

Trump could still appoint him to an advisory role within the White House, but he ought to recognize how harmful that would be – not only to Americans’ health, but also to his own legacy.

Through his support for Operation Warp Speed, Trump helped oversee one of the great scientific breakthroughs of the 21st century. He should be celebrating that achievement, not undermining it. The best decision of his second term might be removing Kennedy from his list of administration hopefuls.

Michael R. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News; U.N. Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions; and chair of the Defense Innovation Board.