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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is trying to tamp down concerns about his history of vaccine skepticism as he meets with GOP senators who will vote on whether to confirm him as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the US Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy on Monday told reporters on Capitol Hill that he is “all for” the polio vaccine — comments that came hours after Trump said at a news conference that Americans are “not going to lose the polio vaccine.” (Bradner, 12/16)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. swept onto Capitol Hill late Monday as the anti-vaccine health guru from the famous political family reintroduced himself to senators, this time as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the nation’s Health and Human Services Department. It was a soft-opening debut for Kennedy, whose wide-ranging views — yes to raw milk, no to fluoride, Ozempic and America’s favorite processed foods — are raising alarms in the scientific community and beyond. In the Senate he’s facing a mix of support, curiosity, skepticism and downright rejection among the senators who will be asked to confirm him to Trump’s Cabinet. (Mascaro and Jalonick, 12/16)

Nearly a dozen researchers and public health officials who spoke with POLITICO see in Kennedy a chance to improve Americans’ poor diet and exercise habits and reduce their exposure to harmful chemicals. But they also see a purveyor of dangerous misinformation about vaccinations who could do irreparable harm to the public’s health. They’re coming to different conclusions about whether they should seek to direct Kennedy’s energies or oppose him entirely. (Payne, 12/17)

President-elect Trump tried to downplay concerns about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday, telling reporters that his nominee for Health and Human Services secretary won’t be “radical.”  “I think he’s going to be much less radical than you would think,” Trump said during a wide-ranging news conference at Mar-a-Lago. “He’s going to have an open mind, or I wouldn’t have put him there.” (Weixel, 12/16)

President-elect Trump said he thinks there are “problems” with vaccines and again drew a false connection between vaccines and autism rates on Monday.  “There are problems. We don’t do as well as a lot of other nations, and those nations use nothing,” Trump said during a wide-ranging press conference at Mar-a-Lago. During the press conference, Trump again hinted that vaccines are driving up autism rates and that his administration would investigate it. (Weixel, 12/16)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Trump’s Picks For Top Health Jobs Not Just Team Of Rivals But ‘Team Of Opponents’

Many of President-elect Donald Trump’s candidates for federal health agencies have promoted policies and goals that put them at odds with one another or with Trump’s choice to run the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., setting the stage for internal friction over public health initiatives. The picks hold different views on matters such as limits on abortion, the safety of childhood vaccines, the covid-19 response, and the use of weight-loss medications. (Armour and Rovner, 12/17)

The California measure to increase punishments for theft and drug crimes will not only grow prison and jail populations, but will also likely result in more people accused of crimes being referred to federal authorities for potential deportation. Along with President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to usher in a wave of mass deportations, industry leaders say the anti-crime crackdown embraced by voters is good for their business. (Burke and Bollag, 12/16)

Marty Makary knows how to captivate an audience. President-elect Trump’s nominee for Food and Drug Administration commissioner has spent his medical career crusading against injustice in the health care system, attracting constant media and political attention along the way. Recently, he’s used his skills to help vault chronic disease into a hot-button political issue and to amplify distrust of the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. But Makary, a pancreatic surgeon, got his start raising awareness about an important and hard-to-grasp issue: the impact of hospital workplace culture on patient care. (Lawrence, 12/17)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Trump Threat To Immigrant Health Care Tempered By Economic Hopes

President-elect Donald Trump’s promise of mass deportations and tougher immigration restrictions is deepening mistrust of the health care system among California’s immigrants and clouding the future for providers serving the state’s most impoverished residents. At the same time, immigrants living illegally in Southern California told �������ýҕ�l Health News they thought the economy would improve and their incomes might increase under Trump, and for some that outweighed concerns about health care. (Sánchez, 12/17)