Antivax puppies have come home to the shelter. Late last week, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services.

Trump did announcement late Thursday, following media speculation earlier in the day. It’s a move that would effectively put Kennedy in charge of the country’s public health, as he would oversee agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration. If the nomination is finalized, it would be the culmination of RFK’s long-running crusade against science — one with the potential to harm Americans across the country.

Trump’s appointment of Kennedy is somewhat of a reversal (members of his transition staff previously denied that RFK would get any job at HHS), but it’s not a very surprising decision. In the months and weeks leading up to Trump’s landslide election victory, he made it clear that he fully embraced Kennedy, a former third-party candidate who dropped out of the race and threw his support behind Trump in late August. During his victory night speech, Trump Reiter that it would allow Kennedy to “Make America Healthy Again,” echoing Kennedy’s slogan during his own campaign. But nothing in Kennedy’s track record suggests that the country’s public health will improve with him at the helm.

The most troubling aspect of RFK’s potential agenda concerns vaccination. He has been one of the world’s most prominent anti-vaccination advocates, particularly in his former position as head of the Children’s Health Defense group. As part of that resume, amid declining vaccination rates, he and other activists have been involved in the local anti-vaccination movement in Samoa in 2019. Months before the country faced a disastrous measles outbreak, he visited the island nation that summer to support those efforts and even met with government officials, including the prime minister and health authorities . Local health professionals said AP last year that his visit galvanized activists. The subsequent outbreak killed at least 83 people, mostly children under the age of five. Kennedy later denied any role in the debacle, saying he never told anyone not to get vaccinated.

Kennedy went on to promote the completely debunked claim that vaccines are linked to autism—a belief that Trump appears to have shared in the past (Trump, years before he became president, repeatedly tweeted in support of the alleged connection). If he wields significant power at HHS, it is possible that Kennedy could have an impact on the country’s vaccination rate, either through potential policy changes or by further amplifying the anti-vaccination movement.

RFK’s anti-science rhetoric doesn’t stop at vaccines, however. He also raised concerns about fluoride, despite what most studies find no significant link to cancer or other major health risks at recommended levels. While some research suggests potential neurodevelopmental impacts with high exposure, public health experts generally support the use of fluoride.

In his 2021 book, The real Anthony FauciKennedy he wonders if AIDS was caused by HIV (is) and previously suggested that a “gay lifestyle”, specifically the use of recreational drugs such as poppers among the gay community was the real cause of AIDS.

Kennedy suggested that flawed vaccine research played a role in the emergence of diseases such as HIV and the 1918 influenza pandemic (while there were early attempts at development a flu vaccine (back then, the actual virus wasn’t identified until the 1930s). At a press event last year, he he wondered aloud if the covid-19 virus was designed to “attack Caucasians and black people” while sparing Chinese and Jews. He was also warned about the supposed evils of chemical tracks— the one conspiratorial belief that airplanes deliberately release dangerous chemicals into the atmosphere; in fact, the trails these planes leave behind are mostly water vapor. In a post on X last summer, RFK indicator he would stop the chemtrail “crime” if given the chance.

And even when Kennedy hits a nugget of truth and highlights a real problem, he is quick to shift the blame to targets that are not supported by scientific evidence. Americans generally have unhealthy diets, and we could stand to eat less processed foods, some of which contain ingredients linked to a higher risk of chronic disease. RFK, however, has highlighted food ingredients such as seed oilsor refined plant-based vegetable oils as a major reason why we are less healthy compared to other countries. But research has generally not shown a link between seed oil consumption and worsening health statuswhile some studies have even suggested that replacing certain sources of saturated fat with seed oils can improve cardiovascular outcomes. Meanwhile, a more pressing concern with many processed foods is their high levels of sugar, salt and fat.

It sure is fun poking fun at RFK’s various eccentricities, from his repeated instances of mutilation of dead animals to literally have a dead worm in the brain (RFK stated in 2012 that the worm contributed to his cognitive problems at the time, but that such symptoms have since cleared up.) But America has a lot of real and enduring public health problems, and there is little indication that it plans to seriously address any of them. Instead, it focused on amplifying fringe ideas and undermining established science. As a recent example, Kennedy did promise to suspend government-funded drug development and infectious disease research for eight years — fresh from a pandemic that killed more than a million Americans.

Before this last presidential campaign, RFK and his crazy ideas were probably supported by a diverse coalition of people. More recently, it has become clear that his supporters are or have become heavily right-leaning. That said, it’s no guarantee that Kennedy’s nomination will be clear, though possibly only because some GOP members are unwilling to overlook his previous pro-choice stance (Mike Pence he stated last Friday that his selection to HHS was “an abrupt departure from our administration’s pro-life record.”). Assuming he becomes head of HHS, his agenda will be championed and supported primarily by the Republican party.

Whatever RFK has in store for us, it will be the furthest thing from making America healthy again.