--- title: "Trump’s Crackpot Secretary of Health Admits That Literally Nobody Should Be Taking Medical Advice from Him" description: "Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is reminding us that he is no expert when it comes to healthcare, the thing he was nominated to run." date: "2025-05-15" modified: "2025-05-15" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/health-secretary-rfk-jr-medical-advice" categories: - "Developments" - "Health & Medicine" - "Medical" tags: - "donald trump" - "measles" - "rfk jr" - "vaccines" --- # Trump’s Crackpot Secretary of Health Admits That Literally Nobody Should Be Taking Medical Advice from Him ![Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is reminding us that he is no expert when it comes to healthcare, the thing he was nominated to run.]() *\Image: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/Futurism\* Fresh off his family's dip in Washington, DC's [sewage-contaminated Rock Creek](), Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is reminding us that he is no expert when it comes to healthcare — the thing he was nominated to run. When [speaking to the House of Representatives]() — his first appearance before Congress since his [confirmation hearings in January]() — the [allegedly brainwormed]() Health and Human Services secretary said the quiet part out loud when attempting to weasel out of questions about vaccines. "I don't want to seem like I'm being evasive," Kennedy told the House Appropriations Committee, "but I don't think people should be taking advice, medical advice from me." That rejoinder came in response to questions from Mark Pocan, a Wisconsin Democrat, who asked if the political scion would, vaccinate his family, [as he did in the past](). Kennedy said that he would "probably" vaccinate them against measles — a [face-saving response](), perhaps, given that a massive and deadly measles outbreak has [spread amongst unvaccinated populations]() during his three-and-a-half-month tenure. When asked the same question about whether he'd vaccinate his kids against polio and chickenpox, Kennedy refused to answer directly. "What I would say is my opinions about vaccines are irrelevant," the avowed anti-vaxxer contended. "I don’t want to give advice." That assertion raised the hackles of critics who contend not only that the HHS head is supposed to be the nation's guiding light in healthcare, but also that his vaccine opinions have shaped his tenure thus far. "The problem is that is his job — the top line of his job description — is the nation's chief health strategist," decried Georges Benjamin, the executive director of the American Public Health Association, in a [post-hearing call with reporters](). "That is his job, is to give people the best advice that he can. I believe that he's giving up on, in my view, his chief responsibility." As Benjamin notes, Kennedy's stance on vaccines has indeed been behind the HHS secretary's decision to [direct dosages of Vitamin A]() — rather than extra supplies of measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccines — to be shipped to the [West Texas region]() where the measles outbreak has led to the deaths of two children. (The vitamin, while[ as good as any other](), isn't an effective treatment for measles.) During that [same press call](), public health practice professor Marissa Levine of the University of South Florida put Kennedy's vaccine obfuscation in even starker terms. "I wonder what it would be like," she said, "if the transportation secretary refused to answer a question about whether he would fly." **More on RFK Jr.:** [*Government Launching Database of Everyday People With Autism*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()