Who is RFK Jr? Kennedy family black sheep, vaccine sceptic, Trump health adviser

Robert F Kennedy Jr looks set to play a prominent role in the health policy of US president-elect Donald Trump, with the vaccine sceptic’s position considered a big risk by health officials.

Besides his famous name, who is RFK Jr?

Who is RFK Jr?

A member of the Kennedy family, RFK Jr is the son of Robert F Kennedy and nephew of John F Kennedy.

His uncle, the former president, was assassinated in 1963 and his father was assassinated in 1968, while running for president.

Early career and drug problems

In 1982, Mr Kennedy started his career as an assistant district attorney for Manhattan. After failing the New York bar exam, he resigned the following year.

Mr Kennedy had a heroin problem, which he says started at the age of 15. and he was convicted for possession of the drug in 1983.

He was sentenced to two years of probation and community service, and said his drug use was over after entering a rehabilitation facility.

In 1984, Mr Kennedy began volunteering at The Hudson River Fisherman’s Association, renamed Riverkeeper in 1986 after a patrol boat it had built with settlement money from legal victories preceding Kennedy’s arrival.

He was admitted to the New York Bar in 1985, and Riverkeeper then hired him as a senior attorney. This started his long association with environmental causes.

Environmental work

In 1987, Mr Kennedy founded the Environmental Litigation Clinic at Pace University School of Law. He served as the organisation’s clinic’s supervising attorney and co-director and clinical professor of Law for three decades.

In 1999, he was involved in the group that founded the Waterkeeper Alliance.

In 1991, Mr Kennedy represented environmentalists and New York city watershed consumers in lawsuits against the city and water polluters in upstate New York.

He alleged the state of New York was failing in its responsibility to protect the water repository and supply. Five years after he started the cases, in 1996, he was central to the $1.2 billion New York City Watershed Agreement.

New York Magazine reported on the agreement in a cover story titled: ‘The Kennedy Who Matters’.

Mr Kennedy worked on a number of prominent cases, including representing the The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) gainst a proposal to build a garbage transfer station in a minority neighbourhood in Ossining, New York.

In 1987, he successfully sued Westchester County to reopen the Croton Point Park, which was heavily used primarily by poor and minority communities from the Bronx.

Along with environmental causes, his political stances included issues surrounding economic inequality, while he was critical of US military intervention in foreign countries.

Early political aspirations

Mr Kennedy considered running for the US Senate in New York in 2000, a seat formerly held by his father.

He ultimately decided against running again in 2005 and 2008.

Mr Kennedy was also considered for various roles in Democratic administrations.

Anti-vaccine activism and public health conspiracy theories

While Mr Kennedy was a respected environmental lawyer for years, he is now more well-known for anti-vaccine misinfromation and conspiracy theories around public health.

Children’s Health Defense, a non-profit organisation Mr Kennedy founded, spread Covid-19 vaccine misinformation, including that vaccinated children died at a faster rate.

Dozens of young children died of measles in American Samoa in 2019 after anti-vaccine activists, including Mr Kennedy, spread misinformation about the vaccines’ safety in the island state, according to FactCheck.org and Dr Paul Offit, the director of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s vaccine education centre.

Mr Kennedy in July testimony to Congress said he has never been opposed to vaccines and never told the public to avoid them.

In July 2023, White House officials joined a chorus of Democrats and medical professionals who criticised Mr Kennedy for claiming in a video that Covid-19 was targeted to attack white and Black people and that Jewish and Chinese people are most immune.

Mr Kennedy has also suggested anti-depressants cause school shootings, Wi-Fi radiation causes cancer and that the 2004 election that re-elected George W Bush was stolen, according to FactCheck.org.

2024 presidential campaign

Mr Kennedy initially said he would challenge for the Democratic nomination.

However, he subsequently announced he would run an independent campaign for the presidency, after expressing frustration at the lack of opportunities to challenge US president Joe Biden, as the Democratic Party did not run primaries.

His campaign received a huge financial post from a number of Republican-associated political action committees.

However, the Trump campaign soon became concerned he could take votes from them too, with many polls suggesting he could take a significant portion of votes with US voters weary at the prospect of a Trump v Biden rematch.

Members of the Kennedy family, including RFK Jr’s siblings, issued a statement condemning his campaign and endorsing the then-Democratic candidate Joe Biden.

Mr Kennedy’s campaign faltered as he faced challenges in getting on the ballot in many states.

After previously describing Mr Trump as a “terrible human being” and a “discredit to democracy”, Mr Kennedy did a U-turn and announced he would be dropping out to endorse Mr Trump.

This came following protracted talks between staff from the two campaigns, and Mr Kennedy had previously reached out to Kamala Harris’ campaign with no response.

He appeared at a number of rallies for Mr Trump, and even posted a last-minute message telling voters not to vote for him in the states where he remained on the ticket, and instead give their vote to the Republican.

He pledged to ‘Make America Healthy Again’, a play on Mr Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ catchphrase.

What role will Mr Kennedy play in the Trump administration?

Mr Trump recently said he would let former presidential candidate and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F Kennedy Jr “go wild” on vaccine and healthcare policy.

Mr Kennedy has said that Mr Trump promised him control over the FDA, CDC, HHS, and the USDA. Those jobs could potentially give him control over what vaccines are approved and whether Americans are recommended to receive them.

Trump transition co-chair Howard Lutnick has said Mr Kennedy is not going to be put in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services, but suggested he could advise on vaccines.

Jeremy Levin, CEO of biotech company Ovid Therapeutics OVID.N and former chairman of biotech lobby group BIO, said he would be alarmed if Mr Kennedy was given oversight over vaccines, and that other executives had also expressed concern.

“Vaccine denialism, which is a central plank of RFK’s, is perhaps as dangerous as anything you can imagine,” he said, adding that president Trump’s previous appointments for the Covid vaccine effort and the FDA suggest to him that more moderate positions will win out. Some executives were also concerned that Mr Kennedy’s influence could harm the US’ reputation and ability to review new drugs.

On Saturday, it emerged Mr Kennedy was involved in vetting resumes of potential US Department of Health appointments. – Additional reporting from Reuters

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