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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has pledged to tackle chronic diseases like diabetes and obesity. Those are goals that many in the public health world agree on — though to be afraid What else could the famous anti-vaccine activist do in the post?
Don't just suggest solving those goals with a drug like Ozempic.
“We are so stupid that they would consider selling out to the American people,” Kennedy said during an interview with Fox News' Greg Gutfeld. Instagram Last month, Ozympic, a wildly popular drug approved to treat type 2 diabetes and used off-label for weight loss, concluded that it could not “make America healthy again.”
Kennedy Novo Nordisk, which makes Ozympic, does not market the drug in its home country of Denmark; They are not recommended for diabetes or obesity. They recommend dietary and behavioral changes.
Of course, Denmark uses Ozympic, so the Danish Medicines Agency he said. In May, it will limit its use until people can try less expensive drugs to treat diabetes. Instead of eliminating the drug in favor of lifestyle changes, Kennedy suggested, more than 100,000 people could use the drug or others in the class known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, a cost-cutting measure.
Denmark uses Ozympic's sister drug Wegovy, which is approved for weight loss, and is similar. It is stuck Along with the price, asking if the benefits justify them. It is a. Debate It is also happening in America where the cost of the drugs is very high.
Kennedy similarly said that the European Union, although the European regulator, is “thinking about destroying the Olympics itself”. He came to the conclusion The evidence in April does not suggest that Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs cause suicidal thoughts or actions.
Kennedy also oversees the US Food and Drug Administration as HHS secretary has arrived That conclusion comes despite continuing to monitor potential risk.
Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said those confident but false or misleading statements were Kennedy's signature. And they can be particularly dangerous when applied to public health measures like vaccines, he said.
“It's like he doesn't know what he's talking about. Trying to follow him and understand what he's saying is often like nailing Jell-O to a wall,” Osterholm told .
Kennedy's anti-vaccine stance has put public health experts ahead of Trump announced On Thursday, Kennedy was the choice to run the FDA, the department that includes the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, Medicare and Medicaid Services and others.
Kennedy Claims He's not anti-vaccine, but he falsely claims they cause autism, kill more than they prevent, and cause some of the world's deadliest epidemics.
In the year Kennedy, a doctor who helped with vaccination efforts in Samoa after a deadly measles outbreak in 2019, said if appointed to head HHS, “it would hurt children all over America.” Connected. For the disinformation spread by Kennedy – a relationship That's Kennedy He denies it. “Let's rethink this. Let's reverse this appointment and allow it to become part of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Many in the public health world see Kennedy's focus on pesticide control or rethinking agricultural subsidies as potential Positive Moving and a safer place for him Instead of the department that controls vaccination.
While they agree that addressing the rising rates of diabetes and obesity is important, doctors in the field say Kennedy's plans miss the point.
“It's a mistake to think that people with high body weights and BMIs are just sitting around eating low-quality food,” said Dr. Jody Dushay, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and assistant physician in endocrinology at Beth Israel Deacon. Medical center. “Taking medication to treat obesity should not be demonized.”
Kennedy said in the same Fox segment that if he spent a fraction of the cost of treating every obese person in America with Ozympic — it's not something anyone would suggest because they're not GLP-1 drugs. approved To everyone who is overweight – “By giving every man, woman and child in our country three good meals a day, we can solve obesity and diabetes overnight.
Dr. Angela Fitch, Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer Well knownA health care provider for the obese, Kennedy's suggestion that diet and exercise alone will solve obesity “overnight” sets back hard-fought efforts to find better solutions to the problem.
“We've tried to get rid of that stigma for years,” Fitch told . “What we hear a lot in the conversation is 'I want people to eat and exercise more.'” And we know that doesn't work.
Dr. Daniel Drucker, who pioneered research on GLP-1, agrees with Ozympic and similar hormone-mimicking drugs.
“I don't think anyone in the health care business or environment would argue that improving lifestyle, diet and exercise and healthy foods are the cornerstones of improving people's health and weight management,” Drucker told . “The challenge we've had is that there are a lot of experiments that have tried to see: Can we significantly improve people's health and lose weight through diet and exercise? And the answer was no; People lose a little weight.”
It has a GLP-1 component. He made a revolution It's the way doctors treat weight loss because it offers a treatment that works — clinical trials have shown an average of 15 to 20% weight loss — after decades of little options, often with serious safety issues. Doctors don't argue that drugs alone are the solution to weight gain, but they don't think they should be abandoned and recommend lifestyle changes, including a healthy diet and exercise.
Not all people with obesity need the drug, and for some, it can have strong side effects such as nausea. Besides, most people don't have it Insurance Whether it covers them or obesity care in general — if this problem is addressed, it will go a long way toward combating obesity in the U.S., Fitch argues.
In social media Post In September, Kennedy admitted that “weight-shaming is cruel and obesity is not a failure of character” and instead blamed “our sick food system” in part.
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Doctors who treat obese people suggest that dietary modification should not be combined with weight-loss drugs when appropriate.
Kennedy's views on the Olympics do not appear to be universally shared by the entire Trump orbit. as if Post On Friday, billionaire Elon Musk, who is designed to cut government spending under the Trump administration, proposed that making GLP-1 drugs “available at lower cost to Americans who want to use them would dramatically improve health and lower health care costs.”
Musk he said. In the year By October 2022, he was using Wegov.
Kennedy told NPR that he expects Trump to show “a measurable impact on reducing chronic disease within two years.” They suggested getting there by taking steps, including restricting beneficiaries from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program from buying soda or processed foods, and revisiting them.Pesticides and other chemical use standardsHe said.
It's a goal Osterholm expressed doubt he would meet.
“We all agree that this is a very important issue,” Osterholm said. But a lot of his thinking is like, 'A plus B plus C plus it's a miracle and you've got an answer.'”