We need to discuss RFK Jr, the current Secretary of Health and Human Services. RFK Jr. is terrible at his job, and it shows in everything he has done so far since he was nominated by Trump and confirmed by the Senate. He is unqualified since he did not receive any “formal” medical training. RFK Jr. also compared the CDC to Nazi death camps, then lied, saying he never said that.
RFK Jr is a fascinating person in a significant position of power and authority. His words have sway, and it’s concerning that he’s anti-vaccine. He has said many times that he believes vaccines are ineffective, don’t work, and are harmful. Because of people listening to him because of his powerful position, vaccine hesitancy has become much more prevalent, adding to many more cases of whooping cough and measles. And it definitely doesn’t help that he has expressed racist ideas; for instance, in a 2021 interview, he said, “We should not be giving black people the same vaccine schedule that’s given to whites because their immune system is better than ours.” This statement can’t be trusted since he lied about many things and said things like the CDC and Nazi death camps being similar. This shows that he’s a liar, and it’s turning into a pattern; he also lies about vaccines causing autism, even though it was disproven in April of 2015 by JAMA. This could mean two different things: either he’s a liar and extremely stubborn, or he does not know that vaccines don’t cause autism, and if it’s the latter, then there are more serious problems that need to be addressed. RFK Jr. has no clue what he’s talking about, and honestly, I don’t think either is a desirable trait of someone with the title of “Secretary of Health.”
RFK Jr. has made racist statements. It should be obvious that being racist is not a good thing, especially in such a vital and diverse role. For example, when talking about COVID-19, RFK Jr said, “COVID-19… is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese” (RFK Jr.) This does not and will not help anything, especially in the medical world. In case you don’t know, in 1932, a study was done called the “Tuskegee Syphilis Study.” I’m not going to go too in-depth with this study, but it was an extremely racially motivated study, causing many African Americans to distrust American medicine. So it doesn’t help when, even now, almost 93 years later, the Secretary of Health is being racist. This will only end up causing even more African Americans to distrust the already distrusted American medicine. These are not traits RFK Jr, in his position, should have. RFK Jr. also said that African Americans have different immune systems than white people; in a 2021 interview, “We should not be giving black people the same vaccine schedule that’s given to whites because their immune system is better than ours.” This is extremely concerning and racist because RFK Jr. is suggesting that African Americans are “biologically” different from white people, due to the extremely long history of the medical community reinforcing racist stereotypes in the past. Even now, a study done in 2024 by the Pew Research Center shows that 55% of black adults think that the medical community is still conducting experiments on black people. This could cause an even greater divide between the African American community and the medical community.
In 2023, RFK Jr. falsely claimed in a video that COVID-19 was a “bioweapon” created by China to target “Caucasians and Black people.” RFK Jr. also stated that COVID-19 was also made to spare “Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.” He truly thought that they were immune due to the virus’s “genetic makeup.” This is not only the most brain-dead, completely outrageous thing I have heard in a long while, but also blatantly racist, especially when he also compared the CDC to Nazi death camps. Who does that? RFK Jr. does this and continues to do this. RFK Jr. continues to say vaccines cause autism and even fired the director of the CDC, Susan Monarez, for not agreeing to listen to his insane agenda. She was fired for 2 main reasons: first, she refused to pre-approve recommendations from the CDC vaccine advisory committee without reviewing the proper scientific evidence first. Secondly, she refused to fire career CDC officials who were responsible for the vaccine policy. The reason she said no was that there was no cause; they had done nothing wrong, and there was no proof of wrongdoing.
In conclusion, RFK Jr. is not the right person for the job he was given, and this was stated by every single Democratic senator and 1 Republican senator, Mitch McConnell. The reason he won was that the Republican Party holds a majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives. This only proves that the republican party will vote for whoever Trump dictates or any republican just because they are Republicans, because there is no chance that all the Republican senators actually thought RFK Jr. would do an amazing job and be a great Secretary of Health. They only voted for him to curry favor with Trump, and because Trump is a Republican, they want to help a fellow republican.
