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President Donald Trump Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “It's a very bad choice for the health of the American public,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University's School of Public Health, for the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. warned Thursday.
“I was worried we'd go down, but I was worried we wouldn't go this low,” said Dr. Carlos Del Rio, Emory Medical and Grady Health System associate dean. He wrote The picker.
Although Trump It is marked. Kennedy's nomination for the nation's top health post has sent shockwaves through the public health world, worrying about the potential impact on vaccination rates amid an election campaign to allow the vaccine skeptic to run “wild” on health, food and medicine. , Misinformation on Infectious Disease Research and Established Science.
“For too long, Americans have been victimized by the industrial food complex and pharmaceutical companies that have engaged in deception, misinformation and disinformation about public health,” Trump said in a statement Thursday. “The safety and health of all Americans is the most important role of any administration, and HHS plays an important role in helping to protect everyone from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceuticals and food additives. This country's greatest health crisis.”
Public health advocates did not mince words with their criticism.
“Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is a clear and present danger to the nation's health. It should not be allowed in a building within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), let alone the nation's public health agency in charge,” said Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer advocacy nonprofit Public Citizen. In the statement. “Donald Trump's destruction of public health policy during the Covid pandemic has cost hundreds of thousands of lives. Trump's appointment of Kennedy as HHS secretary is another policy-driven public health disaster.
Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research at the University of Minnesota, told before the election that he felt compelled to publicly weigh in on Kennedy's comments because of concerns about Trump's policies and what he mentioned. Kennedy's “Pseudoscience”
Osterholm, who has served in a health policy role in every presidential administration since Ronald Reagan and thinks so himself, said: “Everything we see and know about what the Trump administration is like is going to hurt public health in this country.” As a “public health soldier”
But even some skeptics admit they agree with parts of Kennedy's proposals, including overhauling the food system.
Here are some of the places where Kennedy said he planned to make a change.
as if press release After Thursday's announcement, Kennedy said he was eager to work with HHS staff to “de-organize” public health agencies and “clean up corruption.”
“I look forward to working with the more than 80,000 employees at HHS to free the agencies from the burdensome cloud of corporate capture,” Kennedy said.
“Together, we'll clean up corruption, stop the revolving door between industry and government, and return our health agencies to their rich culture of gold-standard, evidence-based science. We'll give Americans access to transparency and all the information they need to make informed choices for themselves and their families,” he continued.
Several key agencies such as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention And the US Food and Drug Administration falls under the umbrella of HHS, and Kennedy took a broadside shot at the FDA late last month.
“The FDA's war on public health is almost over,” he said on social media. Post. This includes psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunlight, exercise, nutrients, and anything else that improves human health and cannot be patented. in pharmacy. If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages: 1. Keep your records and 2. Prepare your bag.
This warning followed Comments Kennedy stopped the National Institutes of Health research on infectious diseases and stopped doctors in the field.
“Infectious diseases are part of our present and will be part of our future Do you want to stop studying them? Dr. Paul Offitt, director of the Center for Immunization Education and an infectious disease physician at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told .
Normal Childhood vaccinations In the year It is projected to prevent hundreds of millions of illnesses, tens of millions of hospitalizations and more than 1 million deaths among people born between 1994 and 2023, according to the CDC. Vaccines are thoroughly tested before release, and their safety is monitored continuously.
However, Kennedy promoted false claims about the vaccine for years 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 the year In July 2023, Kennedy told Fox News host Jesse Watters that vaccines cause autism, a claim that has been repeatedly denied. between Other thingshe has too. Wrong There is compelling evidence that vaccine contents, falsely reported. 1918 influenza epidemic And HIV They both repeatedly cite misinformation about covid-19 vaccines that originates from vaccine research.
But the day after the election, Kennedy said, “He's not going to take anybody's vaccines.” I have never been anti-vaccination. I make sure the scientific safety and efficacy studies are there, and people can make an individual assessment of whether that product works for them.
Many public health experts are skeptical. Dr. Jason Schwartz, an associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health, said his stance was “an eleventh-hour attempt to clear his name and position himself as a rational champion of chronic disease prevention.”
Kennedy said a second Trump administration would recommend it. Fluoride Removal of water supply from the country. “On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S. Water systems to remove fluoride from public water. Fluoride is an industrial waste linked to arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders and thyroid disease,” he wrote in a social media post.
Fluoride, found naturally in the environment and in some foods, can be a byproduct of certain industries. Since 1945, an enamel coating has been added to many public water systems across the country in an effort to prevent tooth decay. More than 60% of the U.S. population — about 209 million people — is served by fluoridated drinking water systems, according to the CDC.
High levels of fluoride have been linked to lower IQ in children, according to a federal review, but the American Dental Association calls fluoridated water “the single most effective public health measure to prevent tooth decay.”
In September, a federal judge ordered The United States Environmental Protection Agency is taking additional measures to control drinking water fluoride because of its effects on children's brains Development.
U.S. District Judge Edward Chen said that while it is unclear whether the amount of fluoride commonly added to water can lower IQ in children, there is enough of a risk to investigate and the EPA has decided to do more to control it. The decision did not specify what steps EPA should take, and the agency is reviewing the decision.
“I think fluoride is on the way out because of that court decision,” Kennedy told MSNBC last week. “I think the sooner it comes out, the better. I'm not forcing anyone to come out, but I'm advocating for water districts about their legal responsibility, their legal obligation to serve their constituents. And I'm going to give them good information about the science and I think fluoride will go away.”
some Experts agree that while the issue is politicized, more research is needed to understand the effects of fluoride – not only on young children, but also on the general population.
Dr. Ashley Malin, an assistant professor in the department of epidemiology at the Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions, told in an email: “Protecting victims from environmental toxins is a nonpartisan issue that needs to be addressed in its current state. of science”
“I think the health effects of fluoride in young children, particularly in the area of neurodevelopment, have been studied enough that it is now recognized that IQ is dangerous in children. However, I would argue that more research is needed to better understand the effects of chronic low fluoride exposure on health outcomes in adults because that Research is scarce,” Malin said.
Kennedy advocated for controlling chemicals in food and limiting access to soda and processed foods in school lunches and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — and proposed a swap. Tallow fat Seed oils for making McDonald's French fries healthier.
Kennedy's message on food policy resonated with some health professionals in that field.
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“They are asking to do everything possible to fix the food system, to coordinate and do something to address 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,” she says on her blog. “It's hard for me to argue with all this and I don't want to.”
Nestle explained more…