The overriding rule of medicine is: First, do no harm.
We’re certain installing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head Health and Human Services breaks this rule.
Maybe he’s sworn to focus narrowly on areas where he clearly can help — inspiring Americans to embrace healthier diets and more exercise, etc.
But . . .
We sat down with RFK Jr. back in May 2023, when he was still challenging President Biden for the Democratic nomination.
As we noted then, he’s an independent thinker who sees through a lot of bull, an incisive critic of some of Biden’s worst policies, who saw that “the Democratic Party lost its way most acutely in reaction to” Donald Trump’s first election.
But the insights we were impressed with had nothing to do with health.
When it came to that topic his views were a head-scratching spaghetti of what we can only call warped conspiracy theories, and not just on vaccines.
“Neocons” are responsible for America’s policy ills. “Pesticides, cellphones, ultrasound” could be driving an upswing in Tourette syndrome and peanut allergies.
He told us with full conviction that all America’s chronic health problems began in one year in the 1980s when a dozen bad things happened.
Convincing to the gullible conspiracy-hungry crowd on Twitter, but not to the rest of us.
In fact, we came out thinking he’s nuts on a lot of fronts.
And even where he makes fair points as a critic, it’s hard to see how he’s the guy to lead HHS and its staff of 83,000 to practical solutions.
The relationship between Big Pharma and the feds is deeply dysfunctional, for example — but drug companies do a lot of good, and employ a lot of people.
Sending the industry — or even just its stocks — into a tailspin would be a disaster in its own right.
His views also put him at odds with Trump’s aim of supporting energy and farmers, as RFK Jr. wants to ban fracking and many pesticides and fertilizers.
Look: The HHS chief oversees over 100 programs across 11 operating divisions; keeping the trains running is a major job in its own right.
A radical, prolonged and confused transition ordered by a guy like RFK Jr., who will use his high office to spout his controversial beliefs, leaves a lot of room for things to go wrong — and for people to wind up harmed or even dead.
All that, of course, if the Senate actually confirms RFK Jr., which will be a challenge in its own right: Republicans only have three votes to spare.
Donald Trump won on promises to fix the economy, the border and soaring global disorder; his team needs to focus on delivering change on those fronts — not spend energy either having to defend crackpot theories or trying to control RFK Jr.’s mouth.
We fear the worm that he claims ate some of his brain some years ago is contagious and there’s been an outbreak at Mar-a-Lago.
