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Former President Donald Trump said, “I'm going to let the wildlife go on health.” He promised. Sunday at a rally in Madison Square Garden. “I make him go wild on the food. I'm going to let him go wild on his meds.
Trump on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Trump's rising former political rival promising If elected for a second term, he will have a health role in the administration.
Trump's plans have met with consternation in the public health community, not least the specific policy proposals that Kennedy has put forward as part of his “Make America Healthy Again” platform for all of the key issues that Kennedy left behind. Vaccinations.
I think we're seeing an effort to change itself in the weeks before the election, but it shouldn't be taken too seriously. Dr. Jason SchwartzAssociate Professor at the Yale School of Public Health.
Kennedy Man established Children's Health is a non-profit organization that promotes anti-vaccine materials such as the latest Documentary film “Vaxed III: Licensed to Kill” in September focuses on his recent chronic illness, not to mention his signature case. Comment piece The Wall Street Journal or Appearance Tuesday on “Fox & Friends.”
Instead, Kennedy advocated for control of chemicals in food – including the idea of substitution Tallow fat For seed oils to make McDonald's French fries healthier – and limiting soda and processed foods in school lunches and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
“He knows this [vaccines are] The issue of the lightning rod and that he doesn't understand it,” he said Dr. Michael OsterholmDirector of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
But Osterholm cautioned, “I can't think of anyone more damaging to vaccines and vaccine use than RFK.”
On Monday, Kennedy held a live event with supporters he said. Trump has promised to give him “control” of several public health agencies, including the US Department of Health and Human Services and the US Department of Agriculture.
“I think the key is — you know, what President Trump promised me — is oversight of the public health agencies, which are HHS and its subsidiary agencies, the CDC, the FDA, the NIH and a few others, and then also the USDA, which is — you know, the key to making America healthy.” has obtained a video of the event, Kennedy said.
Kennedy's spokeswoman did not directly respond to a question about whether he would play the role of agency head in the Trump administration, but said the former president “has called on federal health agencies to clean up and restore corruption and corruption.” A culture of evidence-based science at the gold standard.
“He called on him to address the chronic disease epidemic that is affecting more than 50% of Americans and is wreaking havoc on the nation's health, economy and global security,” spokeswoman Stephanie Spear said.
has contacted the Trump campaign for comment.
Kennedy has recently been diagnosed with obesity and diabetes, as well as kidney disease, immune conditions, cancer, and more Addiction. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, he said he wants to overhaul the US Food and Drug Administration's funding system through user fees from the pharmaceutical industry, reform where drug prices are located in Europe and direct-to-consumer drug advertising guidelines on TV. .
He also said he would bar members of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee from taking money from food or pharmaceutical companies, prevent National Institutes of Health funding from going to researchers with conflicts of interest, and review pesticide and chemical standards.
“Americans are sickened by diseases that our medical system is effectively treating,” Kennedy wrote.
On a recent Joe Rogan podcast, Trump said a Chart Comparing life expectancy and health costs around the world, the US scores negatively on both measures.
“I'm going to send this to RFK Jr,” Trump told Rogan, who responded, “I love the fact that you guys are united.
Trump's campaign has been warned by donors and business owners “about the impact of anti-science in the party and the country and the need to control and own the measles and polio epidemics,” Dr. Jerome Adams, who served as surgeon general under Trump, told .
Adams hopes Kennedy will spread misinformation and return us to the dark ages of vaccine-preventable diseases, but will focus on “enhancing overall safety.”
And as Trump's allies say, it's hard to argue that the US health care system couldn't be improved.
“Who can argue that we spend a lot of money on health care and are not getting our money's worth?” Joe GroganHe served as director of the Domestic Policy Council in the Trump administration, told . “We have a mental health crisis, we have an obesity crisis, we have a chronic disease crisis, and we have an addiction and binge drinking crisis. We are not healthy and we need to rethink where our money is going.
“Anything RFK can do to draw attention to that should be appreciated and embraced by anyone who wants Americans to be healthy,” Grogan continued. “Regardless of political party.”
Kennedy's message, at least on food policy, is resonating with some health professionals in that field.
“They are asking to do everything possible to fix the food system, to coordinate and do something to solve diet-related chronic diseases, to end corporate power, to eliminate conflicts of interest between industry and government, to remove toxic chemicals from the food supply and to refocus on the food environment and health.” Dietary recommendations,” food policy researcher Marion Nestle He wrote On her Food Politics blog.
You are referring to a Round table A discussion on nutrition and policy moderated by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin Kennedy and others that Nestle describes as “primarily influential”.
“These are things I've written about over the years,” Nestle wrote on her blog. “It's hard for me to argue with all this and I don't want to.”
Still, she said, “politics makes a strange bedfellow, as they say.”
Nessl expressed more skepticism when reached by email, saying that while she shared some of the same goals with , there is no evidence that Kennedy can or will accomplish “any of them,” and that “there is a lot of evidence from the Trump presidency that public health education and health will be harmed.”
On the medicine side, Kennedy's omission of vaccines from recent policy discussions is not allaying the fears of public health experts. Schwartz said anti-vaccination advocates often charge that – Without Reliable Evidence – The link between vaccines and increased chronic disease suggests that the focus on vaccines is beneath the surface of Kennedy's message.
Kennedy also warned that he plans to disrupt federal agencies such as the FDA and NIH.
“The FDA's war on public health is coming to an end. Posted On Friday at X, formerly known as Twitter, the laundry list of psychedelics, raw milk, ivermectin, vitamins, sunlight, exercise, and anything else that improves human health and cannot be patented by pharma said it was “oppressive oppression.”
“If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages: 1. Keep your records, and 2. Pack your bags,” Kennedy continued.
This warning followed Comments Kennedy has done NIH research into infectious diseases, putting doctors in the field on edge.
“Infectious diseases are part of our present and will be part of our future Do you want to stop studying them? He said. Dr. Paul Offitt.director of the Center for Vaccine Education and an infectious disease physician at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Off said Kennedy continued to make misleading or false statements about the safety of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine — including some. Connected. In the year Deadly measles outbreak in Samoa in 2019 – although evidence suggests it's not true. “The science is deniable,” Offit said of vaccines.
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Schwartz said Kennedy's latest move away from discussing key vaccines is an “eleventh-hour attempt to clear his name and position himself as a champion of rational chronic disease prevention — perhaps to secure a position in the Trump administration.” Unbelievable”
Osterholm, who has served on health policy in every presidential administration since Ronald Reagan and describes himself as a “public health warrior,” said he was forced to weigh in publicly in a place he had never been before. About possible Trump policies and what Kennedy called “pseudoscience.”
“Everything we see and know about what the Trump administration will look like will destroy public health in this country,” he said. “Turn it off”
's Aaron Pellish contributed to this report.