Science

"NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump announced Thursday he will nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, putting a man whose views public health officials have decried as dangerous in charge of a massive agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research, Medicare and Medicaid.

"Even as Earth sets new heat records, humanity this year is pumping 330 million tons (300 million metric tons) more carbon dioxide into the air by burning fossil fuels than it did last year."

"For the second year in a row, Earth will almost certainly be the hottest it’s ever been. And for the first time, the globe this year reached more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming compared to the pre-industrial average, the European climate agency Copernicus said Thursday."

"State and local health departments would no longer be able to track opioid overdoses, provide cancer screenings and help people quit smoking, according to health officials, if Republicans carry out their plans to dramatically shrink the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under a second Donald Trump presidency."

"In September 2018, I was in North Carolina riding out Hurricane Florence and reporting on its impacts. For a few days, I embedded with a FEMA rescue team stationed at Hope Mills Recreation Center near Fayetteville, accompanying emergency responders as they evacuated a senior center in the middle of the night and touring flooded neighborhoods by day."

"Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told supporters on an online organizing call this week that former President Donald J. Trump had “promised” him “control” of the nation’s public health agencies, should Mr. Trump win the election next week. The Trump campaign, however, would confirm no such commitments."