CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a brain surgeon, said “there’s a lot of concern” in the medical community about former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. having a larger role in the Trump administration, though he added that the medical community is “not monolithic.”
“There’s a lot of concern. Well, even over the last hour or so, I’ve been getting a lot of notes from people. I mean, I think it’s fair to say that the medical community is not monolithic. There’s disparate voices here, but they’re pretty much in lockstep about the concerns with regard to some of these public health issues and RFK,” Gupta told CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer on Thursday.
Gupta’s comments come as President-elect Trump on Thursday tapped the antivaccine activist and environmental lawyer to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The position requires Senate confirmation, though Trump has raised the idea of sidestepping the confirmation process with recess appointments.
Kennedy has long argued that the 13 agencies overseen by HHS are in desperate need of reform as he brings a deep skepticism of pharmaceutical companies and the federal agencies overseeing them. But now he could soon lead those same agencies as he pursues his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.
During the interview, Gupta admitted that Kennedy’s position on medical system reform may be plausible.
“But on the other hand, you know, there’s kernels of truth in what he says when he talks about some of the real challenges in our overall medical system,” Gupta said, adding that the country has spent trillions of dollars on health care.
In 2022, U.S. health care spending reached $4.5 trillion, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Last week, Trump’s promise to allow Kennedy to “go wild” on health sent shock waves among public health experts, who worry he could meddle with key government agencies, amplify vaccine hesitancy and direct agency funding to favor his preferred views.
Prior to the election, Trump said he would “make a decision” regarding banning certain vaccines if he were to return to the White House and Kennedy were to join his administration. In a recent interview with NBC’s Dasha Burns, Trump didn’t rule out the possibility of banning vaccines.