There seems to be one principle governing RFK Jr.’s view of health.

This is part of Hello, Trumpworld, Slate’s reluctant guide to the people who will be calling the shots now—at least for as long as they last in Washington.

The “again” in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s rallying cry is what makes it so sickening. Make America Healthy Again? Like when we had more measles and malnutrition and cervical cancer? Obviously, MAHA is a suck-up to Trump and the white-nationalist “again” in MAGA. It’s also an appeal to the powerful force of nostalgia. It echoes the wellness-grifter ethos: vague, aspirational, anything-natural-is-good nonsense sold with a slick catchphrase. Kennedy is worse than that, though: He’s a dangerous, dishonest conspiracy theorist who will, if he’s confirmed as secretary of Health and Human Services, cause unnecessary suffering and death.

The nostalgia starts with his name and his frequent references to his uncle (President JFK) and father (presidential candidate RFK), even though other members of Junior’s family hate him and are horrified by how he’s used the family legacy to push disinformation. He nostalgically claims that in the good old days, there was no such thing as autism or ADHD or other developmental differences. Neurodivergent people have always existed, but they were often marginalized, institutionalized, or, like his Aunt Rosemary, lobotomized. Autism diagnoses are up—thanks to better awareness and broader diagnostic criteria.

Instead of accepting the fact that society and science have progressed, RFK Jr. will have you know that he’s smarter than everyone else. He is the only person brave enough to reveal that neurologists, epidemiologists, data analysts, pediatricians (those devils), the media, medical philanthropies, pharmaceutical companies, and publishers of scientific journals have conspired to hide the truth that vaccines are causing a “holocaust.” Instead of accepting that the world has become more inclusive, RFK Jr. clings to a fraudulent 1998 paper claiming that vaccines are responsible for a rise in autism. The link has been debunked and disproven by studies around the world using decades of data and including hundreds of thousands of children. The original study has been retracted. Every relevant scientific and medical institution has affirmed that vaccines are some of the most lifesaving and health-improving interventions in history.

RFK Jr.’s view of reality is warped, and he’s belligerently wrong about plenty of things. He actively fears modernity. He has questioned whether AIDS is really the result of a virus, despite the fact that HIV-suppressing drugs have saved millions of lives and prevented millions of infections. He’s in favor of jailing people with addiction. He claims Wi-Fi causes cancer. He promotes drinking raw milk, at a time when the H5N1 bird flu virus is circulating in dairy cows and is concentrated in milk before it’s pasteurized. It’s “natural,” so it must be good. Even though the most natural thing in history is to die of infectious disease.

Kennedy’s bad judgment and poor character are not limited to his plans to take a wrecking ball to public health, and they predate the “brain worm” that he disclosed in divorce proceedings in an attempt to minimize estimates of his earning potential. He’s a creepy womanizer. He’s been accused of sexual assault. He deposited a bear cub carcass in Central Park, like some spoiled showoff pulling stupid stunts to pledge the world’s most grotesque fraternity. But the COVID pandemic brought out the worst in him. He published a book accusing poor Tony Fauci of intentionally killing people. He called lifesaving COVID vaccines poison. He claimed the coronavirus was engineered to spare Chinese and Jewish people. He said that unvaccinated people have less freedom than Anne Frank.

Senators: Is this the guy you want to have leading America’s federal health agencies during a crisis?

Leadership matters for public health. Ronald Reagan ignored the AIDS epidemic when public awareness could have saved lives. Donald Trump politicized COVID to the point that Republicans are more likely than Democrats to go unvaccinated and die. Kennedy has already shown what he’s capable of: He met with anti-vaxxers in Samoa and amplified misinformation ahead of a measles outbreak that has killed 83 people and that he characterized as “mild.”

What can we expect from RFKJ in the Trump administration? Their relationship is new and transactional, so he’s unlikely to be a loyalist. (Kennedy reached out to the Harris campaign to discuss an endorsement-for-appointment deal before turning to Trump.) Before he went full MAGA, Kennedy said some accurate things about Trump, including that he pursued “pollution-based prosperity.” (Kennedy now blames the media for brainwashing him.) Kennedy started his career as an environmental lawyer, and he is not (yet) a climate denier. In a best-case scenario, Kennedy will be stymied or distracted from all things to do with drugs and infectious diseases, and push HHS to help protect people from air pollution and climate change. We can dream.

How well will he play with his fellow appointees? Kennedy has criticized the Ozempic family of diabetes and obesity medications, which could set up a fun conflict with Martin Makary, Trump’s pick to head the Food and Drug Administration, who is the chief medical officer for a company that sells relatively inexpensive compounded versions of the weight loss drugs. But Kennedy will probably work well with nominated National Institutes of Health director Jay Bhattacharya, who puts his version of individual liberty above science and public health. And Mehmet Oz, poised to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, often has a Kennedyesque disregard for pesky facts—though Oz has said positive things about weight-loss drugs, so whether their versions of the world will clash or not, we’ll see.

Trump and Kennedy are a lot alike, too: messianic, grandiose, verbose, narcissistic. But the most important thing to know about both of them is that you can’t believe what they say. They lie. They reject clearly established facts. They make up stories to make themselves look like heroes. Let’s hope Kennedy’s presidential-ish name and arrogance threaten Trump’s need for superiority, and they have a spectacular falling-out that distracts them both from causing more damage.

Fortunately, the institutions of public health are not just these guys at the top, and resistance is not futile. Federal health employees, state and local public health officials, health care providers, scientific experts, and all of us can affirm reality and share trustworthy information about health and science, even if we’re out-shouted by some of the worst people in the world.

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