Vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is sworn in as Trump’s health chief after a close Senate vote

WASHINGTON (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in Thursday as President Donald Trump’s health secretary after a close Senate vote, putting the prominent vaccine skeptic in control of $1.7 trillion in federal spending, vaccine recommendations and food safety as well as health insurance programs for roughly half the country.

Nearly all Republicans fell in line behind Trump despite hesitancy over Kennedy’s views on vaccines, voting 52-48 to elevate the scion of one of America’s most storied political — and Democratic — families to secretary of the Health and Human Services Department. Democrats unanimously opposed Kennedy.

Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, who had polio as a child, was the only “no” vote among Republicans, mirroring his stands against Trump’s picks for the Pentagon chief and director of national intelligence.

“I’m a survivor of childhood polio. In my lifetime, I’ve watched vaccines save millions of lives from devastating diseases across America and around the world,” McConnell said in a statement afterward. “I will not condone the re-litigation of proven cures, and neither will millions of Americans who credit their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles.”

The rest of the GOP, however, has embraced Kennedy’s vision with a directive for the nation’s public health agencies to focus on chronic diseases such as obesity.

“We’ve got to get into the business of making America healthy again,” said Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, adding that Kennedy will bring a “fresh perspective” to the office.

Kennedy — joined by his wife, other family members and several members of Congress — was sworn in Thursday afternoon in the Oval Office by Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, hours after confirmation. He said he’d first been there in 1961, and told stories of seeing his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, there as a child.

Trump announced that Kennedy will lead a new commission on making America healthy again, and Kennedy said Trump has been a blessing in his life and will be for the country, calling him a “pivotal historical figure.”

Kennedy, 71, whose name and family tragedies have put him in the national spotlight since he was a child, has earned a formidable following with his populist and sometimes extreme views on food, chemicals and vaccines.