United States | MAGA meets MAHA

What would Robert F. Kennedy junior mean for American health?

Donald Trump’s nomination for health secretary is sceptical about vaccines and mainstream medicine

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks with Donald Trump
Photograph: Getty Images
|WASHINGTON, DC

AS IN MOST marriages of convenience, Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy junior make unusual bedfellows. One enjoys junk food, hates exercise and loves oil. The other talks of clean food, getting America moving again and wants to eliminate oils of all sorts (from seed oil to Mr Trump’s beloved “liquid gold”). One has called the covid-19 vaccine a “miracle”, the other is a long-term vaccine sceptic. Yet on November 14th Mr Trump announced that Mr Kennedy was his pick for secretary of health and human services (HHS).

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