The impact of an RFK Jr. Health Administration
If RFK Jr.’s nomination is approved, he would be in charge of agencies tasked with things from medical research to public health.
Jeff Zink doesn’t fit the usual profile of a political appointee to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Zink, a Republican activist who lives in Phoenix, wears a cowboy hat and cowboy boots; he rejects the scientific consensus surrounding vaccines and modern pharmaceuticals; and, though he is trained in sports medicine and physiology, he has no experience working in government.
Still, he’s on the shortlist for a job under Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the politician and anti-vaccine activist who President-elect Donald Trump has chosen to lead one of the country’s top health agencies.
In an interview with The Arizona Republic, Zink described at length the process of applying for a job under Kennedy. He said the topic of vaccines, and vaccine mandates, was the main focus of his hour-long job interview with a Kennedy aide.
“The problem that I’m seeing is that the federal government is trying to say, ‘Well, you don’t know better. We do. And therefore we will make these decisions for you,’” he recalled telling the aide.
“Our Founding Fathers absolutely made it very clear in our Constitution that that was to never happen.”
Members of Kennedy’s transition team did not return multiple requests for comment, though Zink provided emails and phone records that confirmed his account.
That Zink would be considered for the position underscores the dramatic break that Kennedy was promising from the status quo.
Political appointments in federal agencies usually go to subject-matter experts at the top of their field. Zink is a passionate but contrarian grassroots activist who has made fringe conspiracy theories a centerpiece of his political work.
Since Kennedy ended his presidential campaign and joined forces with Trump, his call to “Make America Healthy Again” has made him an energizing figure on the right. Many of Kennedy’s supporters, including Zink, see him as challenging big corporations and placing power back into the hands of ordinary people.
Top scientists, on the other hand, have voiced concern that his ideas could put Americans at greater risk of illness and contagious disease.
Zink’s background: January 6, election ‘audit’
Zink, who is active in Arizona Republican circles, has a knack for landing himself at the center of GOP drama.
He worked on the Arizona Senate’s discredited review of Maricopa County ballots after the 2020 election, a partisan “audit” operation that attempted to hand-count the nearly 2.1 million ballots cast. It was lengthy, a gaffe-prone process during which an Arizona Republic investigation revealed even its top leadership lost faith.
He and his son attended the Jan. 6, 2021, rally that preceded the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Zink’s son, Ryan, was convicted of two misdemeanors for his actions that day, including entering restricted grounds in or around the Capitol and disorderly conduct, and was sentenced to three months in federal prison.
Since then, the elder Zink has spent much of his time as a candidate for public office. In 2022 and 2024, he ran to represent Arizona’s bright-blue 3rd Congressional District in Congress, where Democrats outnumber Republicans 3-to-1.
While campaigning this year, he argued that his 2022 election, which he lost by a margin of 77% to 23%, was “stolen” from him.
In job application materials submitted to Kennedy’s transition team, Zink emphasized his commitment to “election integrity” efforts and “medical autonomy.”
“During the pandemic, I provided thousands of religious exemption letters across the nation, including for members of all branches of the U.S. military,” he wrote in a cover letter addressed to Kennedy. “Due to my commitment to medical freedom, I faced backlash, even being asked to leave my church for advocating to keep it open.”
“Your advocacy for medical transparency and your stance against the coercive measures taken during the pandemic align with the values I’ve upheld throughout my campaign,” the letter continued. “Together, I believe we can amplify this message and help restore trust in our healthcare system.”
Kennedy team asked Zink about vaccines, vaccine mandates
Zink described in detail the process of getting screened for a job under Kennedy.
He uploaded his application materials to an online portal shortly after Trump’s election victory. Zink told The Republic that people close to the president-elect put in a good word about him personally, and Arizona advocates talked him up to Kennedy’s team.
He received a brief email from the transition team confirming receipt of his application, followed by an emailed link to a 90-minute online questionnaire, which Zink characterized as an “IQ and aptitude test.”
Days later, he received a voicemail from Katie Sweeney, a consultant and autism activist who worked on Kennedy’s presidential campaign. Sweeney introduced herself as part of the “MAHA transition team” and told Zink he was on the “final list of candidates” for a position with the Assistant Secretary for Health’s office, a division of HHS.
In an hour-long interview, Sweeney asked his views on vaccines and vaccine mandates, Zink said.
Zink told her that he’s not against vaccines per se: He spoke highly of the rollout of the polio vaccine, which has virtually eradicated that disease in the U.S. But he didn’t like how quickly the Covid-19 vaccine was brought to market, and the number of people who he believes suffered adverse health impacts from the vaccine.
Public health officials “lied and misled the American people,” he said. “They did not provide the evidence so that people can make an informed consent (decision).”
He believes there’s an economic dimension to the problem too.
“We need to get back to what our grandparents and Native Americans had,” he said. “However, the pharmaceutical companies, every time that a natural, homeopathic pharmaceutical company starts up, they sue them into oblivion and force them out of business. … That is a monopoly.”
Those and similar views once got him banned from X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, before it was purchased by the GOP-aligned tech mogul Elon Musk, Zink told The Republic.
Zink said he’s expecting to get a final answer in the next few weeks.
Laura Gersony is a reporter with The Arizona Republic. Contact her at [email protected] or 480-372-0389.
Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=674dc4f3764b48e292da6c4dcb8453fb&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2Fpolitics%2Farizona%2F2024%2F12%2F02%2Fvaccine-skeptic-jeff-zink-of-arizona-shortlisted-for-job-under-rfk-jr%2F76659704007%2F&c=6419310482768944518&mkt=en-us
Author :
Publish date : 2024-12-02 00:40:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
