But is putting Robert Kennedy Jr. in charge of HHS the right way to fix them?
Hahahahaha, no.
I'm not sure the premise is even sound, that the CDC, FDA and NIH have "long needed drastic reform". But, if that were true, you'd want an expert in leadership and management to address the problem, not a fucking nutjob. To reform those agencies, you'd need someone who the bureaucracies would trust has the same goals they do. Sure, there would always be people who would not want any reform, but you would also have allies who agree something needs to change, and who would support the necessary changes. Nobody at those agencies is going to listen to a fucking nutjob. Instead, they'd do everything possible to sabotage everything he was trying.
"Back in 2017, RFK Jr. talked with then-President Trump about setting up a vaccine safety review commission"
The fucking nutjob is an antivaxxer. That would be like putting a flat-earther in charge of NASA.
The whole premise is stupid. An opinion piece in a rabidly libertarian rag declares that these agencies need reform, citing other opinion pieces articles from this same rabidly libertarian rag.
These agencies may need some tweaks, but Reason magazine isn't a reputable source for what changes are needed, and RFK junior is definitely not the person who should be in charge of anything. If he tries, at best he'll merely fail. At worst he'll do serious damage to these important agencies that will take years to undo.