Anti-vaccine media figures say they are advising RFK Jr. and the Trump transition team about public health policy

[Nevilledog]

https://www.mediamatters.org/robert-f-kennedy-rfk-jr/anti-vaccine-media-figures-say-they-are-advising-rfk-jr-and-trump

As President-elect Donald Trump and his transition team announce selections for various government positions, multiple anti-vaccine figures with a history of spreading conspiracy theories about vaccines and COVID-19 have claimed to be consulting or attempting to consult with Trump’s team — including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services — about public health policy.

On November 14, Trump announced that he would nominate Kennedy for HHS secretary, implying that Kennedy would stop what Trump called “deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health.” Kennedy, a former presidential candidate, is a known anti-vaccine activist who has spread a range of conspiracy theories — including conspiracy theories about 5G towers, Ukrainian biolabs, chemtrails, and supposed microchips in vaccines — and has associated with QAnon figures.

Since Trump’s announcement that he would nominate Kennedy for HHS, anti-vaccine media figures known for spreading conspiracy theories have claimed to be consulting with the Trump team regarding HHS and public health policy:

* Robert Malone is a doctor known for spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and its treatments, and he has ties to other conspiracy theorists. He told The Epoch Times-affiliated outlet NTD that he had “spoken at length with some of the people that are very close to Bobby [Kennedy] that are involved in the transition and the planning” about “major structural changes across HHS.” On a podcast a few days later, Malone went further, claiming that he had even been “asked by somebody in the transition team … to lay out thoughts about how [the] FDA could be reformed” and speculating that he might find himself “on the inside.”

* Thomas Renz is an attorney who has pursued litigation over, and pushed misinformation about, COVID vaccines, and he has partnered with QAnon figures for some of those efforts. On his podcast, Renz said regarding vaccines that he would “write out a couple of different things … so that, you know, day one, my recommendation for a few different things and send it over” to Kennedy, with whom he said he had “spoken at length a few different times.” (Renz did note that he doesn’t “know whether [Kennedy] will listen or not.“)

*snip*