Important Takeaways:

• The Senate on Thursday confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, sweeping aside concerns about his past vaccine skepticism to let him “go wild” on health under President Trump.
• The 52-48 vote capped a run of success for Mr. Trump’s most polarizing nominees and placed the heir of a Democratic political family in a vital job within a Republican administration.
• Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican who had polio as a child, voted no alongside all Democrats.
• HHS is a sprawling agency with a $1.7 trillion budget and oversight of food and drugs, disease-fighting efforts and major insurance programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.
• Kennedy built his career as an environmental lawyer, activist and chairman of the anti-vaccine Children’s Health Defense, making him an unusual pick after a run of HHS secretaries who included former congressmen and a pharmaceutical executive.
• He has vowed to end the cozy relationship between drug companies and U.S. officials who regulate them while he combats additives in the food supply and finds the root causes of disease.
• Based on his pledges, one of Mr. Kennedy’s first moves could be to fire legions of workers from HHS agencies or to eliminate entire offices from the Food and Drug Administration. He also proposes shifting resources away from infectious disease-fighting and toward research that promotes general health.

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