The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) last week (November 14) endorsed the nomination of Robert F Kennedy Jr – popularly known as RFK Jr – as US health and human services secretary.
Kennedy, who was selected by President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday, is the nephew of former US President John F Kennedy and is known for his controversial views about vaccines.
In a July 2023 episode of the Lex Fridman podcast, he said that although “some of the live virus vaccines are probably averting more problems than they’re causing”, there is “no vaccine that is safe and effective”.
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And he has referred to the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism, telling Fox News in July last year that he believes “that autism does come from vaccines”.
In 2021, he also described the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine as “the deadliest vaccine ever made”.
Kennedy, however, has argued before Congress that he’s “never been anti-vaccine” and has told Fox News and CNN that he just wants “good science” and “vaccines that are proven safe”.
“Pharmacy deserts”
Trump’s nomination of Kennedy as health secretary has proved controversial in both the US and the UK due to his comments on vaccines, with the BBC, Channel 4 and the Financial Times calling him a “vaccine sceptic”.
But the NCPA, which represents over 18,900 community pharmacies in the US, issued a statement congratulating RFK Jr on his nomination.
“We are encouraged by his lifelong willingness to take on the biggest and most powerful corporations on behalf of citizens and small businesses,” it said.
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“We are eager to work with him and his team to educate them about how one of the country’s most important public health assets – the 19,000 independent pharmacies across the country – are in great jeopardy,” it added.
According to the NCPA, this is “because of the unfair, anticompetitive business practices of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and insurers”.
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It said that community pharmacies are “disappearing” in the US and “pharmacy deserts are forming”.
“We very much hope Kennedy and the Trump administration will support our effort to rein in these bad actors,” it added.
C+D reported in 2016 that Trump planned to make UK community pharmacy “great again” and was considering bidding for control of a large UK pharmacy chain.