What RFK Jr. Is Taking Away From You

The problem isn’t just that he’s a quack - it’s that he’s a quack with power over your health, and he’s using that power to hurt you.

Photo: Nathan Howard/Reuters

One of the biggest problems in our politics is that we seem to experience it as a kind of show - or, lately, a circus - crowding out the blunt reality that we all actually live politics, not as a show but as a process that shapes our everyday life.

The absurdity and drama of our politics, especially today, makes it harder to focus on the actual consequences of it all, the most important part: its very direct impact on our families, freedoms, incomes, homes, and health.

Consider the media coverage of the Trump administration’s most notorious appointees. From the judiciary to the arts, Trump is installing people who are spectacularly unqualified, extreme, and often bizarre - which, of course, draws attention toward their wild personalities and disqualifying views. Fair enough. But this can actually mean that not enough attention goes toward what is most dangerous about them, which is how they are using their new power to make our lives worse.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is perhaps the most glaring example of this. Much attention has rightly been paid to the sheer strangeness of this man. That’s why putting him in charge of public health was a darkly clever act of theater on Trump’s part, trolling the doctors and medical experts whom the president has taught his followers to hate. But this is about more than theatrics or trolling - we have reached the stage where you and I are finding our options, our freedom, and our health are directly worsened by the actions of this very powerful government official.

When you go in for a Covid shot this fall, as you have done the last few years, you might suddenly find that you can’t get one, because RFK Jr. has stripped eligibility for the vaccine from most adults under 65 years old.

If you are a parent in Florida in back-to-school mode, you have been robbed of some peace of mind, because the RFK Jr.-aligned surgeon general there has terminated the vaccine mandates that prevent so many diseases from running rampant in classrooms and playgrounds. In other words, your family is being denied a basic public health protection, the assurance of a vaccinated student body, which modern societies have long taken for granted.

And your future health just got worse too, in ways that are harder to predict but just as direct, because this administration has terminated $500 million in research to develop safe, effective immunizations using the same technology that brought us the Covid vaccine. Who knows how many of us might one day find that our lives are saved by such a vaccine - or at risk because it does not exist.

The problem with RFK Jr. isn’t just that he’s a quack who makes a mockery of the idea of science and medicine in public policy. The problem is that he’s a quack with power over your health, and he’s using his power to hurt you.

So what are we supposed to do about it? The answer we hear all too often is that “elections have consequences,” which is true - but most of us want to be able to address these harms without waiting for the next Election Day. So for now, the most important thing we can do is apply political pressure a little closer to home. That includes engaging your state and local health officials, who can either stand up against this damage or go the way of the Florida surgeon general. It includes getting the attention of Members of Congress who have oversight of RFK Jr. and his department (and tellingly, even Republican Senators are clearly becoming uncomfortable with their own support for him). And it includes speaking with neighbors, family members, and friends who may no longer trust what they hear in the media, no matter how reputable the source, but still trust their doctors, and just might trust you.

Whether it’s the Trump budget cuts to Medicaid or the Trump administration letting RFK Jr. wreck our nation’s defenses against disease, it’s clear that this administration is actively making America less healthy. But as with any democratic society - even our very troubled one - it is up to us, the people, to take responsibility for what happens next.