Bill Gates has warned against Robert F. Kennedy Jr. being in charge of America’s health, alleging that the known vaccine conspiracy theorist is ‘misleading people’.
RFK Jr is President Donald Trump’s first pick for health secretary, but has yet to be confirmed to the role by the Senate. A committee will vote Tuesday on whether to advance his nomination.
Kennedy, in contentious confirmation hearings last week, was accused of being financially vested in the anti-vaccine movement and peddling debunked conspiracy theories about vaccines – assertions RFK Jr rejects.
But the billionaire Microsoft co-founder, 69, has dismissed Kennedy’s claims that he isn’t anti-vaccination, telling the BBC – which spoke to him ahead of the release of the new documentary The Making of Bill Gates – that he believes the health secretary pick is ‘misleading’ the American people.
He also threw his support behind initiatives to restrict social media for minors under the age of 16, saying that society needs to be ‘very careful how it gets used’.
‘Social networking, even more than video gaming, can absorb your time and make you worry about other people approving you,’ he said, adding he thinks there is a ‘good chance’ officials in the US will pass a social media age ban – similar to the legislation enacted in Australia last year.
It comes after Gates, in an interview last month to promote his upcoming memoir Source Code: My Beginnings, shared his thoughts on Elon Musk, who has been given the reigns of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by Trump.
Gates said that he hadn’t spoke to Musk directly since his ascendency amongst Trump’s allies, but said ‘admired a lot of the work he has done’. He did, however, have some concerns over certain government departments being cut including agency tasked with humanitarian relief overseas which helps distribute HIV medicines.
Bill Gates has warned against Robert F. Kennedy Jr. being in charge of America’s health, alleging that the known vaccine conspiracy theorist is ‘misleading people’

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in contentious confirmation hearings last week, was accused of being financially vested in the anti-vaccine movement and peddling debunked conspiracy theories about vaccines – assertions he rejects
Musk, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and other Silicon Valley tech leaders were front-and-center at Trump’s inauguration.
Although Gates was not among them, and admitted one ‘can be cynical’ about their motives, he told the BBC that he has also reached out to Trump.
He and the President, along with their respective chiefs of staff, shared a three-hour dinner on December 27 to discuss the policy surrounding global health.
‘He’s making decisions about global health and how we help poor countries, which is a big focus of mine now,’ Gates explained.
Gates has said that together, he and Trump will work to fast-track vaccines in the way the President was able to do during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Having poured billions of dollars into diseases such as polio and malaria through his foundation, Gates was dumbfounded about the conspiracy theories that erupted during the pandemic about the COVID vaccine being tied to his efforts to kill people or other sinister agendas.
Although he remains puzzled by it all, Gates says he isn’t too worried yet, even if outspoken vaccine skeptic RFK Jr is confirmed as the Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services in Trump’s administration.
‘Things don’t always go in a straight line,’ Gates told AP on Monday. ‘If you had said to me that at a time where we’ve cut child’s deaths in half since the turn of the century, and the main reason is vaccines, but their reputation would be more confused today than ever, I would have said, “Are you kidding? These are miracles”.’
‘For somebody with a logical view like I try to have, it is confounding you have those conspiracy theories. I hope that dies down.’
He added: ‘I don’t think we will have something bad happen. Because these infectious diseases are at very low levels in the US, you don’t have this immediate, “Oh my, God, we didn’t take measles vaccines,” and sadly here are these people who died. In Africa, that happens very quickly because measles is everywhere and kids are malnourished.
‘So it just takes a little bit longer that sadly people have to see deaths before they get reconnected to the miraculous value that vaccines provide.’

Elon Musk, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos were among those front-and-center at Trump’s inauguration (pictured). Although Gates was not among them, and admitted one ‘can be cynical’ about their motives, he has also reached out to Trump

Gates has said that together, he and Trump (pictured on Friday) will work to fast-track vaccines in the way the President was able to do during the COVID-19 pandemic
A Senate committee will vote Tuesday on whether to advance Trump’s nomination of RFK Jr to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
If confirmed, Kennedy would run the department, which oversees more than $3trillion in healthcare spending, including agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration and the agency in charge of Medicare and Medicaid health insurance programs covering tens of millions of Americans.
Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, and Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren demanded on Monday that Kennedy recuse himself from all agency matters related to vaccines, arguing that he holds unscientific views about their safety and stands poised to benefit financially from such decisions.
They have also asked that RFK Jr pledge not to engage in lawsuits involving vaccines for at least four years after leaving office.
Groups that oppose Kennedy’s confirmation see a handful of Republican senators as potential swing votes against Kennedy, including Senator Bill Cassidy and Senator Mitch McConnell.
Cassidy, a key committee member, has said he was ‘struggling’ with Kennedy’s nomination due to his positions on vaccines.
In a sign of the tensions within the Republican Party over the nomination, fellow Louisiana lawmaker Rep. Clay Higgins posted a photo of Cassidy to the social media site X, saying Kennedy would be confirmed with or without Cassidy’s support: ‘Either way, we’re watching.’