2 hours ago
3
WASHINGTON:
Robert F Kennedy Jr
, the vaccine skeptic and former presidential candidate who fled his family's party and threw his "medical freedom" movement behind President Donald Trump, has been confirmed by the Senate as the nation's next
health secretary
.
The vote, 52-48, capped a remarkable rise for Kennedy and a curious twist in American politics. He was confirmed by a Republican Senate, without a single Democratic vote, in a chamber where his father, Robert F Kennedy, and his uncles, John F Kennedy and Edward M Kennedy, all held office as Democrats. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a polio survivor and the former Republican leader, voted no, the lone Republican to oppose Kennedy.
Kennedy is expected to be sworn in Thursday afternoon to lead the federal department of health and human services, a sprawling agency with 13 operating divisions, including some - the FDA, the National Institutes of Health and the CDC - that he has called corrupt.
Kennedy's views about vaccination were at the center of Democrats' fight against him. He has said he favours both the measles vaccine and the polio vaccine. But he opposes vaccine mandates, even for schoolchildren, and when pushed, he refused to accept the mainstream scientific consensus that vaccines do not cause autism.
