President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head up the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is causing much wailing and gnashing of teeth in Atlanta and suburban Maryland. Why? Because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are headquartered in those places. As HHS secretary, RFK Jr. would be able to shape the priorities of these agencies.
In fact, the CDC, the FDA, and the NIH have long needed drastic reform. But is putting RFK Jr. in charge of HHS the right way to fix these dysfunctional public health agencies?
