On Feb. 13, the U.S. Senate confirmed anti-vaccination activist and former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a 52-48 vote as secretary of health and human services. In doing so, the Senate has placed the wellbeing of Americans in the hands of a man who ignores scientifically proven evidence in favor of his own conspiratorial beliefs.

Throughout his career as an activist, Kennedy has made dangerous, bigoted and unfounded claims about medical issues. He claimed that COVID-19 is targeted to attack Black and white people and is less receptive to Jews and Chinese people. He has consistently argued that vaccines cause autism, despite the abundance of studies that find zero link between the two.

He has also viciously attacked the HPV vaccine, alleging it increases the chance of cervical cancer, despite the overwhelming evidence it is successful at preventing cervical cancer. Kennedy’s medical beliefs are either unfounded or supported by fringe studies debunked by the scientific community.

It is absurd that a man who values his own opinion over scientific evidence is now America’s secretary of health and human services.

During the Senate confirmation hearing, when pressed about his history of controversial comments about vaccines, Kennedy did not do remotely enough to justify his confirmation. He refused to accept the scientific consensus about the lack of an autism-vaccine connection and refused to take back his comments about the HPV vaccine.

He also declined to back down from his dangerous belief that Black people should have a different vaccine schedule, due to a stronger immune system. The authors of the study Kennedy cited even came out and said that RFK’s opinion was incorrect and could not be deduced from their study.

The Senate confirmation hearings reaffirmed Kennedy’s dangerous neglect of science, yet he was still confirmed in a vote that took place almost entirely along party lines. The Senate completely neglected its obligation to protect the wellbeing of Americans and instead turned the vote into a simple question of partisan politics. Kennedy is clearly unqualified for the position and is a danger to the health of this country. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services should be a science-based department focused on improving and saving American lives; it should not be led by a man focused on his own conspiracy-based agenda.