Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, on Friday raised concerns about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s agenda for the Department of Health and Human Services.
“I think if RFK follows through on his intentions, and I believe he will, and I believe he can, it will cost lives in this country,” Gottlieb told CNBC, referring to Kennedy, whom President-elect Donald Trump has said he will nominate for health secretary.
“You’re going to see measles, mumps and rubella vaccination rates go down,” Gottlieb, who led the FDA under Trump’s first administration, added. “And like I said, if we lose another 5%, which could happen the next year or two, we will see large measles outbreaks. For every 1,000 cases of measles that occur in children, there will be one death. And we are not good in this country at diagnosing and treating measles.”
If he’s confirmed as HHS secretary, Kennedy’s role would include oversight of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the FDA, the agency in charge of reviewing and approving new vaccines.
Gottlieb referenced Kennedy’s long history of vaccine skepticism, which has included false claims that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine can cause autism.
It’s a theory that’s been routinely debunked and originated with a discredited 1990s study led by a researcher who later lost his medical license.
According to the CDC, “to date, the studies continue to show that vaccines are not associated with [autism spectrum disorder].”Kennedy has also cast doubt on the effectiveness of the Covid vaccines, which health experts say are overwhelmingly safe.
In a 2021 meeting with Louisiana state legislators, Kennedy baselessly called the coronavirus vaccine “the deadliest vaccine ever made.”
In the days after Trump was projected to take back the White House, Kennedy told NBC News that he would not seek to unilaterally ban vaccines.
“If vaccines are working for somebody, I’m not going to take them away. People ought to have choice, and that choice ought to be informed by the best information,” he said. “So I’m going to make sure scientific safety studies and efficacy are out there, and people can make individual assessments about whether that product is going to be good for them.”
Gottlieb also alluded to some of Kennedy’s other controversial ideas as reasons why some Republican senators may be reluctant to vote to confirm him in January, including his position on abortion.
“I think that there’s skepticism in the Republican caucus more than I think the press is reporting right now,” Gottlieb said.
“There’s going to be [agricultural] state senators that are concerned about his impact on food prices. There’s going to be principled pro-lifers who are concerned about his positions on abortion, and there’s going to be a number of public health-minded senators who have deep concerns about his position on vaccines,” the former FDA commissioner added.
Gottlieb also pushed back on the idea that Kennedy wouldn’t impose drastic changes to health policy in the U.S., saying, “I’m not so sure that people really understand how Kennedy’s intention is going to translate into policy and how serious he is.”
To prove his point, Gottlieb referenced something one of Kennedy’s advisers, Del Bigtree, said in November: “Bobby didn’t get dragged through the mud for over a decade just so he could compromise his values once he finally got inside the castle.”
Gottlieb added that while he doesn’t speak for the president-elect, he was confident that Trump doesn’t share Kennedy’s beliefs about vaccines.
“I talked to President Trump about vaccines in my first term,” Gottlieb said. “I don’t think that these policy efforts reflect his views as well. I don’t think the president wants to see a resurgence of measles, wants to see a resurgence of whooping cough in this country — God forbid we have cases of polio in this country. He does not want to see that.”
Representatives for the Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Gottlieb’s remarks.
