As far as getting the worst possible person for the job goes, it’s hard to beat the appointment of notorious anti-vaxxer Robert Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health in the second Trump administration – less an example of setting the fox to guard the henhouse than of setting an idiot to guide anything. RFK has spent his time in office pushing pseudoscience, weakening vaccine mandates and causing completely avoidable deaths. He’s presided over the first outbreak of measles in the United States – to be fair, the outbreak started before he took office, but his ‘guidance’ during it has measurably worsened it. RFK is an advocate of the ‘miasma’ theory of disease, which (a) was discredited more than a century ago; and (b) he does not understand correctly in any case.
As with all Trump appointments, loyalty to the leader has been prioritised over actual competence among those reporting to or working for the Department of Health. This has led to many qualified staff leaving the department, which – in addition to the sweeping reductions to staffing levels and budgets insisted on by DOGE – means that the Department of Health is now a shadow of its former self. And Bobby seems to think he’s doing a great job.
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