Can RFK Jr. make America healthy again?
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 25 November 2024
⏱️ 27 minutes
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Summary
Today on “Post Reports,” we unpack President-elect Donald Trump’s seemingly contradictory picks for the top positions in public health – in particular, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
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Public health experts have been alarmed by the idea that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist, could be running the Department of Health and Human Services. But some of his other positions – like getting ultraprocessed foods out of school lunch and leaving abortion decisions up to women and their doctors – sound like liberal talking points.
Today, Martine unpacks his beliefs with accountability reporter Lauren Weber, who covers the forces behind medical misinformation for The Post. They talk about how likely it is that RFK Jr. and Trump’s other health picks could be confirmed, and what power they could have over American public health.
Today’s show was produced by Rennie Svirnovskiy with help from Emma Talkoff. It was edited by Maggie Penman with help from Reena Flores. It was mixed by Justin Gerrish.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Over the last couple of days, we've heard more about the team that President-elect Donald Trump has chosen to lead public health. |
| 0:09.8 | He's been rolling out a bunch of folks that he says will help him in his agenda to make America healthy again. |
| 0:15.5 | That's the big slogan that they're using. |
| 0:17.6 | One that a lot of listeners probably have heard of is Mehmet Oz. |
| 0:20.7 | He would be in charge of Dr. Oz is Mehmet Oz. He would be in charge |
| 0:21.5 | of Dr. Oz. Dr. Oz. He would be in charge of CMS, which runs Medicaid and Medicare services. |
| 0:27.0 | And then you also have the announcements of a flurry of picks that happened on Friday night. You have |
| 0:32.7 | Dave Walden, who was chose to lead the Centers for Disease Control Prevention. He's a former GOP congressman who's pushed debunked claims about vaccines and their safety. |
| 0:41.6 | You also have Marty Macri. |
| 0:43.1 | He's a Johns Hopkins surgeon and writer who will lead the FDA or Food and Drug Administration. |
| 0:48.5 | He's been one of the agency's most prominent critics and has also argued that the response to the COVID pandemic was too |
| 0:54.7 | heavy-handed. And then there's also Jeanette Neshawatt for Surgeon General. And she's a physician |
| 1:00.8 | who's best known as a Fox News commentator. And then last but not least. You have their boss, |
| 1:06.3 | Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who would be, if confirmed the Senate, would be Trump's pick for |
| 1:12.1 | head of the Department of Health and Human Services. |
| 1:15.1 | Lauren Weber is an accountability reporter at the Post covering medical misinformation, |
| 1:20.1 | and she has reported on the many conspiracy theories that RFK Jr. believes. |
| 1:25.7 | RFK has suggested that AIDS may not be caused by HIV. |
| 1:29.3 | That is false. |
| 1:30.3 | He's argued that children's gender identity can be impacted by water. |
| 1:34.3 | Also not true. |
| 1:35.3 | He has said that COVID-19 was, quote, ethnically targeted, |
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