Democratic presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg attends the 88th Winter Session of the United States Conference of Mayors on January 22, 2020 in Washington, DC.
Yasin Ozturk | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Billionaire and public health advocate Mike Bloomberg on Tuesday lambasted President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. anti-vaccination record and urged the Senate to reject his offer to lead the nation’s top health agency.
“Imagine if Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had taken office during Trump’s first term,” Bloomberg said at the meeting. Bloomberg U.S. Health Summit in washington d.c.
“Will Operation Warp Speed happen? If it does, how long will vaccinations be delayed? How many fewer people will be vaccinated? How many more people will die?”
“What we can say for sure is this: it will make the coronavirus more deadly and cause greater economic damage,” he said.
He warned that giving Robert Kennedy Jr. the power to direct U.S. health policy would be “very dangerous, it would be medical malpractice on a massive scale.”
The former New York mayor spent almost all of his 19-minute speech blasting Kennedy for spreading false information about vaccines, including his “outrageous comments.” False claim”, Covid-19 vaccine is “ deadliest ever ”.
Bloomberg, who ran for president as a Democrat in 2020, has long advocated for public health reform, both as mayor and through philanthropy.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. originally ran for president in 2024 as a Democrat, but switched to running as an independent and later dropped out to support Trump.
Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer and son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, whose campaign gave him a major national platform and oxygen to his conspiracy theories about vaccines.
In a speech on Tuesday, Bloomberg directly called on U.S. senators not to confirm Robert Kennedy Jr. to a cabinet post in the next Trump administration.
“We cannot allow Kennedy or Trump or anyone else to inflict unimaginable pain on the American people,” he said.
Bloomberg expressed hope that Senate Republicans would persuade Trump to reconsider the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. before being asked to weigh in. Our children, vote no,” he said.
Bloomberg also cautioned Democrats, who appear willing to let Robert Kennedy Jr. lead the Department of Health and Human Services because of his advocacy against junk and processed foods.
“We don’t need to choose between those who support healthy food and those who support vaccines. Americans should have both,” he said.
Bloomberg noted that he had fought for this many restrictions During his tenure as mayor, he took some steps against unhealthy products, including banning a number of sugary drinks. These battles generated a backlash from conservatives and affected consumer industries at the time.
But Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took a similar tack, backing a plan he said was aimed at working with Republicans to “make America healthy again.”
Bloomberg praised his own efforts for improving New Yorkers’ life expectancy and praised his charitable foundation for continuing to invest in fighting diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.
“But all of this progress will be lost if the federal government withdraws from the vaccine,” he said, suggesting that doing so could lead to millions of unnecessary deaths.
Bloomberg believes that if the government starts investing in “crazy conspiracy theories,” funding for research into treatments for other diseases could be set back years.
“It’s unbelievable that the Senate would even consider giving Kennedy any authority over U.S. health policy,” he said.
“Whatever one thinks of his stance on food policy, it’s not enough to overcome his opposition to vaccines.”
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