President-elect Donald Trump has appointed ‘vaccine sceptic’ Robert F Kennedy Jr as his nominee for Department of Health and Human Services Secretary.

Mr Kennedy had run the Presidential campaign as an independent, but dropped out of the race to support Mr Trump.

This job offer is widely seen as his ‘reward’.

Mr Kennedy has spread disinformation about vaccine efficacy, but disputes the tag of vaccine sceptic.

Vaccine stance

On The Pat Kenny Show today, Mr Kennedy's interview with CNN’s Casey Hunt during the Presidential campaign was played to illustrate his vaccine stance.

It was put to Mr Kennedy that he previously said “there’s no vaccine that is safe an effective”.

Mr Kennedy replied that he had “never said that”.

Ms Hunt then played a clip of a previous interview Mr Kennedy had undertaken.

“I think some of the live virus vaccines are probably, averting more problems than they're causing. There's no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective,” Mr Kennedy said in that previous interview.

'Risk profile'

Responding to the interview clip, he said, “I can say right now there is no medicine for cancer that's safe and effective. It doesn't mean I'm out against all medicines.”

“I've been fighting 40 years to get mercury out of fish - nobody calls me anti fish,” Mr Kennedy said.

“We do not know what the risk profile is for those products…

“What I'm saying is that none of the 72 vaccines has ever been tested in a safety study pre life.”

77 Vaccines

Ms Hunt questioned Mr Kennedy on his opinion about people with young babies getting children vaccinated.

In a previous podcast clip, Mr Kennedy said he thinks “for many years” that parents “were gaslighted”, “scapegoated”, “vilified and marginalised”.

“You're walking down the street, and I do this now myself… I see somebody on a hiking trail carrying a little baby, and I say, I'm not vaccinated and he heard that from me, if he hears it from 10 other people, maybe he won't do it, you know, maybe he will save that child,” Mr Kennedy said in a podcast clip.

In response to the clip, Mr Kennedy said, “I had three vaccines when I was a kid and I was fully compliant - my kids got 72 and current recommendations are around 77.”

If Mr Kennedy is confirmed by the Senate into the role of Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, he will have control over Federal Drugs Administration (FDA), Medicare and Medicaid - the social medical programs provided by the American State.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Donald Trump shaking hands. 23/08/2024 Image: Alamy