OPINION: RFK Jr. is too dangerous for the government

One of Donald Trump’s major first-term achievements was Operation Warp Speed, the $18 billion effort to accelerate development of the COVID-19 vaccine. He deserves continued praise for his support of the great efforts it entailed, the millions of lives it helped save and the enormous economic benefits it generated. So why would he now appoint someone who would destroy his own success?

In his victory speech on election night, Trump suggested that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – a notorious anti-vaccine crusader and junk science peddler – would play a prominent role in his administration. It would be a disastrous mistake that would kill and sicken countless Americans, while also damaging Trump’s political standing and tarnishing his first-term legacy.

Trump must remember that Kennedy spread lies about the COVID vaccine and falsely called it the “deadliest vaccine ever made.” In any position of influence, Kennedy would jeopardize decades of hard-won public health progress and needlessly endanger American lives.

Kennedy, nephew of America’s 35th president, has no expertise in public health. He is an environmental lawyer who has spent decades fighting corporate polluters. However, in the early 2000s, he began exploring the dark corners of pseudoscience, including the baseless and debunked conspiracy theory that common childhood vaccines were linked to autism. His list of public health grievances has expanded to include the fluoridation of drinking water. But of all his crazy ideas, his vaccine denialism is the most dangerous.

Vaccinations are one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century, saving millions of lives in the US and around the world. One study found that infants accounted for two-thirds of the 154 million lives saved by global vaccination efforts over the past half century. Thanks to vaccines, diseases like polio are now rare. Smallpox has been eradicated.

Kennedy would jeopardize all that progress. Do you want to see a return of measles, mumps and rubella in schools across the country? Appoint Kennedy. Do you want to see more people die from COVID? Appoint Kennedy. Do you want to see spikes in diphtheria? Appoint Kennedy.

That most Americans can’t tell what diseases like diphtheria and rubella do is a testament to the success of vaccines. The loss of public support for them – and for future vaccine developments – would have devastating consequences.

I grew up at a time when one of parents’ biggest fears was that their children might contract polio, which paralyzed and killed thousands before the vaccine was introduced in 1955. If someone had told us then that someone who is against vaccines because If deadly diseases were eligible for a top presidential appointment, we would have thought that person was delusional or insane.

Parents who remain – rightly – angry about school closures and mask mandates are not looking for a return of polio and measles. Unfortunately, that is exactly what Kennedy’s agenda would deliver.

Kennedy is now trying to claim he is not against vaccines, but his own words prove otherwise. “There is no vaccine that is safe and effective,” he said in July. He couldn’t be more wrong. There is no scientific basis for his attacks on vaccine safety, and the false doubts he sows have already caused terrible harm to families.

The anti-vax movement he led has lowered vaccine uptake and increased deaths from diseases for which vaccines exist. Measles, a highly contagious and potentially fatal virus, was declared eliminated in the US in 2000. By 2024, more than 270 cases had been reported in 30 states.

It is unclear what role Kennedy might play in a second Trump administration. A position as secretary of Health and Human Services or commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration requires Senate confirmation. Senate Republicans, especially centrists who want to play an influential role over the next four years, must quietly but firmly send a clear message to the president-elect: Don’t send us Bobby.

Trump could still appoint him to an advisory role within the White House, but he would have to recognize how damaging that would be — not just to American health, but to his own legacy.

Through his support of Operation Warp Speed, Trump helped oversee one of the great scientific breakthroughs of the 21st century. He should celebrate that achievement, not undermine it. The best decision of his second term might be removing Kennedy from his list of presidential hopefuls.

Michael R Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, parent company of Bloomberg News, UN Special Envoy for Climate Ambition and Solutions, and Chairman of the Defense Innovation Board.

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