US Senate confirms Robert F Kennedy Jr as Trump's health secretary

The confirmation of Kennedy means that he will have control of USD 1.7 trillion in federal spending, vaccine recommendations and food safety as well as health insurance programmes for roughly half the country.

The Senate on Thursday cleared the way for Robert F Kennedy Jr. as President Donald Trump's health secretary. The confirmation means Kennedy will have control of USD 1.7 trillion in federal spending, vaccine recommendations and food safety as well as health insurance programmes for roughly half the country.

Republicans fell in line behind Trump despite hesitancy over Kennedy's views on vaccines, voting 52-48 to elevate the scion of one of America's most storied political — and Democratic — families to secretary of the Health and Human Services Department.

Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, who had polio as a child, was the only “no” vote among Republicans, mirroring his stands against Trump's picks for the Pentagon chief and director of national intelligence. All Democrats opposed Kennedy.

The GOP has largely embraced Kennedy's vision to “Make America Healthy Again” by directing public health agencies to focus on chronic diseases such as obesity.

Kennedy, 71, whose name and family tragedies have put him in the national spotlight since he was a child, has earned a formidable following with his populist and sometimes extreme views on food, chemicals and vaccines.

His audience only grew during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Kennedy devoted much of his time to a nonprofit that sued vaccine makers and harnessed social media campaigns to erode trust in vaccines as well as the government agencies that promote them.

With Trump's backing, Kennedy insisted he was “uniquely positioned” to revive trust in those public health agencies, which include the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes for Health.

Last week, Senator Thom Tillis, R-N. C., said he hoped Kennedy “goes wild” in reining in health care costs and improving Americans' health. But before agreeing to support Kennedy, potential holdout Senator Bill Cassidy, R-La., a doctor who leads the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, required assurances that Kennedy would not make changes to existing vaccine recommendations.

(With inputs from AP)