See no evil, hear no evil. In a recent interview, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., professed to not know anything about the Trump administration’s plans to strip away billions in funding from state and local health departments.
RFK Jr.’s apparent ignorance was on display during his first network TV interview as HHS secretary, which aired Wednesday on CBS news. At one point, CBS News chief medical correspondent Jon LaPook asked Kennedy whether he had personally approved the federal government’s attempt to rescind $11 billion meant for health departments, to which Kennedy responded that he was “not familiar with those cuts.” It’s only the latest messaging flub for Kennedy, however.
In late March, HHS sent letters to various health departments announcing that it would immediately terminate $11.4 billion in federal grants that were expected to last through September. The grants were allocated in response to the covid-19 pandemic, but were earmarked for a variety of public health initiatives, such as funding community mental health services, supporting substance use prevention and treatment programs, and shoring up efforts to prevent and respond to emerging infectious diseases.
Over 20 states have filed a lawsuit against HHS and the federal government to prevent the funding reversal. Last week, a district judge agreed to temporarily block the funding stoppage until the court case is decided.
All of this has happened under RFK Jr.’s term as the new HHS secretary, which began in mid-February, making his professed blindness to the cuts all the more baffling and suspicious.
Indeed, right after saying that he wasn’t familiar with the rescinded funds, RFK seemed to change tack, arguing that the “cuts were mainly DEI cuts, which the president ordered.” HHS did previously announce a round of funding cuts last month that were ostensibly related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and so-called “gender ideology” research projects. But these projects only amounted to $350 million in funding, according to HHS at the time—far below the $11 billion in extra lost funding now being threatened.
Kennedy hasn’t exactly been a stickler to the facts during his reign as HHS chief, of course. In response to the still-growing outbreaks of measles impacting Texas and other states, for instance, RFK Jr. has doled out good and bad advice. While he has tepidly supported vaccination as the most effective measure against the spread of measles (including during his CBS News interview), he’s also touted several unsupported and potentially dangerous treatments for the viral disease, such as cod liver oil supplements.
It’s been one step forward and three steps back for the Trump administration’s approach to public health. And our ostensible leaders like RFK Jr. are either ignorant or playing dumb to the destruction they’ve wrought across the country’s health agencies.
