Corporate media began voicing warnings and concerns about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday, shortly after President-elect Donald Trump appointed him to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

Kennedy originally ran as an independent party presidential candidate, but later called off his campaign to support Trump. faced with backlash After President Trump announced Kennedy’s role in his second administration, hosts and political commentators on stations such as MSNBC and CNN criticized the choice.

PBS host Margaret Hoover appeared on “Erin Burnett Outfront” and argued that people could die because of Kennedy’s views, specifically citing Kennedy’s stance on measles. (Related: President Trump reveals the names of two people who will not serve in his administration)

“RFK Jr. has specific examples like the island of Samoa, where he decided to go to the island of Samoa during a measles outbreak, where an improperly administered vaccine caused deaths. Because there was a situation where I got out,” Huber said. Said. “He then went on to say that these false deaths happened because of the vaccine, which led to the measles outbreak, and because the vaccine mistakenly killed these two people, thousands of people died. Many more people contracted the measles.” Many more people died from the disease. ”

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“You can’t lie about a vaccine, make people believe it to some degree, and then have it not affect real life. If this kind of spokesperson is promoted to head of the U.S. Department of Health, people will die.” “Yes,” Hoover added. “By the way, it goes without saying that he plans to fund research into infectious diseases and viruses, or at least that’s what he says.”

CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Adam Kinzinger, a former Illinois Republican congressman and anti-Trump opponent, if he believed Kennedy would be confirmed by the Senate, and then asked a viewer, “Measles? There was a scene in which he sharply teased viewers by saying that he hoped that they would like him.

“I would be really surprised if that were the case.” [Republican Florida Rep. Matt] Gates confirmed. That’s why I was surprised that he resigned from the House of Representatives. He’ll be a commentator on Fox News or something, because he has nothing to fall back on. So I expect there will be resistance to him,” Kinzinger said. “I don’t know about the rest, but it’s probably RFK Jr. I mean, are there enough Senate Republicans left?”

“Well, I hope you like measles, America,” Tapper later said.

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Doctors were also featured prominently on CNN that night, with chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta asking host Wolf Blitzer that he had “concerns” about President Kennedy and his stance on vaccines. said.

“Well, I think a lot of it has to do with what Brian was talking about, specifically vaccines. He’s said in the past that the coronavirus has been bioengineered to specifically attack certain demographics. They said they were being manipulated,” Mr. Gupta said. “But I think when it comes to him constantly talking about vaccines and the connection between vaccines and autism, for example, I think that’s probably what gets the most attention. He’s hard to pin down sometimes, Wolf, he’s Because they say one thing at a time and then say something else or say they didn’t say that.”

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“There are a lot of concerns. Even in the last few hours, I’ve received a lot of notes from people. So I think it’s fair to say that the medical community is not monolithic,” Gupta added. Ta. “There’s a lot of different voices here, but there’s pretty much a consensus on public health issues and concerns about some of the RFKs. I think that’s kind of a big deal.”

Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown School of Public Health, also told Blitzer that in addition to Kennedy’s views on vaccines, Kennedy’s oversight of health insurance programs such as Medicare could “endanger” the health of Americans. Mr. Kennedy was a “very bad choice,” he said.

“Obviously, we know his views on vaccines, but the HHS secretary, who oversees Medicare, decides what is covered, not through the Seniors Program, which applies to all seniors. “We oversee Medicaid, which covers almost half of America’s children. It’s a huge job,” Jha said.

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“The way previous secretaries have done it, in the Trump administration, the Biden administration, etc., is to let the scientists in those agencies make the decisions. RFK Jr. has given every signal that he’s not going to do that. ,” Jha added. “He’s not going to rely on evidence or rigorous analysis to make decisions, and instead he’s going to use his own ideas. That sounds good on a bumper sticker, but in reality it’s not the policy we need in this country. .”

But Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis said not all Democrats are upset about Trump’s choice. Post At X, he said he was excited about Kennedy taking the lead on health issues in the United States.

“He helped defeat the vaccine mandate in Colorado in 2019 and will help make America healthy again by shaking up HHS and the FDA. It’s just as bad as becoming I hope people will lean toward personal choice instead of (I think it’s a good thing), but I’m most optimistic that big pharma and agricultural companies will be able to improve our health. against oligopolies,” Polis wrote.

“He will face strong special interest opposition on these, but I look forward to working with him to truly make America healthy again and hope we can finally make progress on these important issues.” I hope so,” Polis added.

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