By South China Morning Post | Created at 2024-11-14 21:57:16 | Updated at 2024-11-15 01:23:46
3 hours ago
US president-elect Donald Trump has selected Robert F. Kennedy Jnr, an environmental activist who has spread misinformation on vaccines, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the country’s top health agency, his son Donald Trump Jnr announced on Thursday.
Kennedy ran for president in this year’s election as an independent before dropping out in August and endorsing Trump in exchange for a role in the Republican’s administration.
“He’s going to help make America healthy again,” Trump said in his victory speech on November 6.
“He wants to do some things, and we’re going to let him get to it,” he said.
The Department of Health and Human Services oversees the Food and Drug Administration, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the massive Medicare and Medicaid Services programmes, which provide health coverage for the poor, those aged 65 and older, and the disabled.
Medicaid and Medicare’s tens of millions of enrollees mean HHS had a US$3.09 trillion budget for financial year 2024, representing 22.8 per cent of the US federal budget.
