Kennedy to launch public health podcast ahead of US midterm elections

By Mariam Sunny

April 8 (Reuters) - U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Wednesday he will launch a podcast to discuss public health issues and hold conversations with doctors and scientists, calling it a step toward greater transparency at the nation's top health agency.

The podcast will "ask questions and lift the taboos and expose the hypocrisy and the conflicts and the corruption," and "confront the lies that have made us spiritually, morally and physically sick," Kennedy said in a video of more than a minute posted on X.

"The Secretary Kennedy Podcast" is expected to launch next week, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told Reuters.

The move follows setbacks to Kennedy's efforts to overhaul U.S. vaccination policy, including low public support and a federal court ruling last month that halted key plans to reduce routine childhood vaccinations and revamp a federal vaccine advisory committee.

The Trump administration is still weighing whether to appeal the court ruling, Reuters reported last week citing senior administration officials, as it works through which health issues are most voter-friendly ahead of November's midterm elections.

Kennedy co-founded the anti-vaccine group Children's Health Defense, and has linked vaccines to autism, a theory long debunked by scientific research.

"The Secretary Kennedy Podcast will provide a direct platform to engage with the public on the health issues that matter most to American families, from chronic disease and nutrition to food quality and health care costs, while bringing radical transparency to the conversations shaping those issues," the HHS spokesperson said.

When asked for a comment on the podcast, a White House spokesperson said: "Tune in!"