Robert F. Kennedy, Vaccine Skeptic, Confirmed As Trump's Secretary Of Health: Health Care Stocks To Watch

The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday to confirm President Donald Trump's nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

The Details: The Senate voted 52 to 48 to confirm Kennedy as health secretary, with Sen. Mitch McConnell as the only Republican who voted "no." All Democrats voted against the nomination.

As secretary of health, Kennedy will oversee several critical health agencies including the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Kennedy takes the helm of the nation's health systems as health care costs are soaring and bird flu is spreading through wild birds and poultry farms, with the potential for a pandemic if the virus evolves to transmit between humans.

What To Watch: During his Senate hearings in January, Kennedy called out “rapacious behavior by insurance companies" and suggested he would support efforts to crack down on abusive tactics like denying care and overcharging the government.

Some insurers tied to Medicaid and Medicare are UnitedHealth Group Inc. UNH, the largest Medicare Advantage insurer in the U.S., and Elevance Health, Inc. ELV, one of the largest Medicaid managed care organizations.

Kennedy has been an outspoken skeptic on vaccines for decades and pharmaceutical stocks could be affected by potential policy changes under his leadership. Some of the largest pharmaceutical companies that produce vaccines are Moderna, Inc. MRNA, Merck & Company, Inc. MRK and Pfizer, Inc. PFE

While campaigning for president in 2024, Kennedy wrote a post on social media doubting the safety and efficacy of bird flu vaccines in particular.

“There is no evidence these vaccines will work, and they appear to be dangerous,” Kennedy wrote.

He also attempted to push a conspiracy theory that stated deadly bird flu strains were being engineered in government labs in order to create a market for pharmaceutical companies to profit from vaccines.

“We already know our public health agencies are out of control. We have to stop the runaway gain-of-function experiments and the highly lucrative pandemic vaccine experiments right now,” he wrote.

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