Of all of Trump’s choices for his Cabinet, the most dangerous by far is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy has a long and well-established record as a vaccine opponent. The media usually refer to him as a vaccine “skeptic,” but he is far more than a skeptic. He has claimed that vaccines cause autism and that vaccines cause the very diseases they are supposed to prevent.

He opposes fluoridating the water, despite established evidence that fluoridated water dramatically improves dental health.

He has been quick to reject science, although he is neither a doctor nor a scientist.

He promised the senators that he would not oppose vaccines, but promises mean nothing as compared to decades of anti-vaccine advocacy.

Did he have a conversion experience? Did he wake up on the morning of his Senate hearings and decide that he had been wrong for 30 years?

After the lies about abortion told to the Senate by Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Barrett, you would think the Senators would refuse to be fooled again. Not so.

If Kennedy resumes his hatred of vaccines, if he cancels clinical trials and research, people will die.

He was the worst possible choice for secretary of Health and Human Services.

Eating healthy foods is great.

Taking on the political power of Big Pharma is great.

Denying access to vaccines is madness.

“It will be a disaster for public health,” said Dr. Paul Offit, an infectious disease physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “He has fixed, immutable, science-resistant beliefs. This country will suffer under his leadership.”

Mitch McConnell, a polio survivor, was the only Republican to vote against RFK.

McConnell said polio vaccines have saved millions of lives and their proven value shouldn’t be relitigated. 

HHS “deserves a leader who is willing to acknowledge without qualification the efficacy of lifesaving vaccines and who can demonstrate an understanding of basic elements of the U.S. healthcare system,” McConnell said.

Kennedy has blamed autism on vaccines, though many studies have found there isn’t a link. He has said the Covid-19 vaccines were the deadliest ever made. 

After it emerged he could hold a prominent health role in a Trump administration, Kennedy moderated his statements about the shots, saying he didn’t want to take them away. 

Of course he wouldn’t take them away, but he might make them voluntary, which would not halt the spread of epidemics.

He told many senators during meetings that he isn’t antivaccine but simply wants good data to support shots.

He “wants good data” means that he is not yet persuaded, despite decades of evidence, that vaccines protect children against many communicable diseases. The data is good enough for doctors who know far more than Kennedy. What will it take to persuade him?

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.), a medical doctor, said he agreed to vote for Kennedy in exchange for a commitment to keep current federal vaccine recommendations, among other pledges.

The senators have learned nothing. They believe that a leopard can change its spots. They have been fooled again and again.