'Worst fears coming true': Conservative WSJ hits Trump for letting Cabinet member run amok

Health advocates sounded the alarm when President Donald Trump first nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, due to his controversial stance on vaccines and a penchant for promoting conspiracy theories. Now, the conservative Wall Street Journal Editorial Board is slamming the administration for allowing Kennedy to operate largely unfettered.

On Monday, the board stated that some Senate Republicans who voted to confirm RFK Jr. "hoped that other Trump HHS appointees — e.g., FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya — would keep Mr. Kennedy in check. It isn’t working out that way."

One of the more disturbing actions, according to the board, revolves around Kennedy's potential choice of longtime vaccine critic David Geier as "senior data analyst" with a new CDC study on vaccines and autism, although the White House did not confirm Geier's involvement.

ALSO READ: 'The Hard Reset': Here's how the U.S. is exporting terrorism around the world

According to the WSJ board, Geier "has spent decades spreading the discredited theory, embraced by Mr. Kennedy, that thimerosal in vaccines causes autism and neurological damage in children. He has published more than a dozen studies that trial lawyers have cited as evidence of vaccines’ harms, though they have been rejected by judges and the government’s special vaccine courts."

In addition, Geier has "accused the CDC of concealing vaccine safety data and claimed that better nutrition and hygiene — not vaccines — are responsible for the disappearance of deadly infectious diseases."

The Editorial Board wrote that if Geier is involved in the research, "The study’s results look preordained."

The board also wrote of its fear of a DHS "brain drain" if Kennedy starts firing scientists who aren't dedicated to his anti-vaccine stance, such as Peter Marks, who was instrumental in President Trump's Operation Warp Speed for life-saving Covid vaccines.

"On Friday Mr. Marks resigned," the board wrote, "which is especially regrettable since he pushed the FDA bureaucracy to accelerate life-saving therapies for children with rare genetic disorders. He also pushed back against those in and outside of the agency, including Biden FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, who fretted that the FDA was approving too many novel drugs with high prices."

In his resignation letter, Marks wrote, "It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.”

The Board concluded, "Our worst fears about Mr. Kennedy are coming true."

Read The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board piece here.