Trump’s pick to lead US health policy lobbied to rescind 2021 authorization and to deny any future vaccine

Robert F Kennedy Jr reportedly sought to block the historic and pioneering new Covid-19 vaccinations in 2021, six months after they began being rolled out at the height of the pandemic when many thousands of people were dying of the virus.

In a petition filed with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May 2021, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the $1.8tn Department of Health and Human Services – who was not an elected politician or public official at that time – called on health officials to rescind emergency government authorization for the shots and to refrain from approving any Covid vaccine in the future, the New York Times reported on Friday.