KENNEDY’S HHS PRIORITIES — President-elect Donald Trump has nominated anti-vaccine activist and environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the next HHS secretary in the Trump administration, perhaps heralding a massive rethinking of the U.S. public health system, Chelsea and POLITICO’s Daniel Payne, Marcia Brown, Brittany Gibson and Annie Snider report. On social media Thursday afternoon, Trump wrote that “Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health.” Kennedy, 70, thanked Trump for choosing him Thursday night. “I look forward to working with the more than 80,000 employees at HHS to free the agencies from the smothering cloud of corporate capture so they can pursue their mission to make Americans once again the healthiest people on Earth,” he posted on X. Why it matters: Kennedy and his Make America Healthy Again movement blame Americans’ poor health partly on what he calls a corrupt alliance among the food and drug industries and the regulators supposed to watch over them. They want to replace the bureaucrats and overhaul the systems for overseeing pesticides, food additives and vaccines. Many Republicans in Congress said they’re open to Kennedy’s ideas. Here’s what Kennedy and MAHA want to do: — Cut corporate influences out of regulation: Kennedy told MSNBC he’d like to see “entire departments ” at the FDA, particularly nutrition regulators, dismissed. The agency’s work includes setting nutrition guidance, overseeing food labeling and safety and combating food-related ailments, such as obesity and heart disease. The full force of industry pushback has yet to emerge, several lobbyists said; instead, it’s waiting to see the extent to which Trump will incorporate MAHA ideas into his policy agenda. But Republicans in Congress have also voiced interest in overhauling the agencies and made clear their distrust in the health system overall. — Reexamine vaccine approvals: Kennedy is well known for touting the debunked claim that vaccines can cause autism. During the pandemic, he argued that Covid-19 shots were unsafe and has pointed to the government’s system for approving vaccines as “agency capture on steroids.” He’s said he wants to examine government vaccine safety data and communicate it to the public. The vast majority of health experts and doctors support vaccine use, pointing to the long history of safe and effective shots that have nearly wiped out many diseases in the U.S. And they say the safety data is already a matter of public record. Kennedy’s false claims about vaccines have concerned some lawmakers. “He could be in an advisory role, but he should not be in an official role,” said Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.), a cardiothoracic surgeon. “His views on, particularly, vaccinations are not mainstream and have not been.” — Ban toxic chemicals: Kennedy has spent much of his career pushing for stricter regulation of hazardous chemicals. Just days before the November election, he put an obscure topic — fluoride in drinking water — front and center when he said on X that the Trump administration would, on Inauguration Day, advise all U.S. drinking water systems to stop fluoridation. While the American Dental Association and the CDC recommend adding small amounts of fluoride to drinking water to prevent cavities, recent research has raised concerns about possible impacts on babies’ and children’s brains. WELCOME TO FRIDAY PULSE. NPR took a look inside a town where vending machines have Narcan and clean needles to fight overdoses and infectious diseases. Some studies have shown the harm-reduction method to be effective. Send your tips, scoops and feedback to ccirruzzo@politico.com and bleonard@politico.com and follow along @ChelseaCirruzzo and @_BenLeonard_.
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