RFK Jr.’s nomination as prime well being officer raises alarm

With President-elect Donald Trump’s number of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his nominee to guide the Division of Well being and Human Providers, quite a few public well being leaders are voicing fears that the nation’s premier well being businesses will probably be weakened at a time when the nation faces rising threats from infectious ailments, emboldened business lobbyists and the harmful penalties of medical misinformation.

If confirmed as secretary of HHS, Kennedy — a proponent of fringe medical conspiracies and a self-described “poster little one for the anti-vax motion” — would have oversight of establishments together with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, the Meals and Drug Administration, the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Providers and the Nationwide Institutes of Well being.

Like the 2 most not too long ago confirmed HHS secretaries, Xavier Becerra and Alex Azar, Kennedy is an lawyer with no formal scientific or medical credentials. His purview would come with packages and departments he has fiercely criticized up to now, typically in ways in which opponents say distort or ignore information and misread science.

Most of the issues Kennedy has publicly stated he desires to sort out are issues shared broadly by healthcare suppliers, public well being officers and members of the general public. They embody pervasive persistent illness, poor diet and the ubiquity of processed meals containing synthetic chemical compounds.

However his nomination has alarmed many public well being and medical officers who say they’re apprehensive that the options Kennedy would possibly deem acceptable might undermine People’ well being in the long term.

“Placing anyone in cost who’s unable to discern the distinction between good and unhealthy science is absolutely harmful for the American folks,” stated Dr. Peter Lurie, president and govt director of the Middle for Science within the Public Curiosity.

“Sure, there are some issues that he helps that we might agree with, however they really feel extra just like the stopped clock that’s proper twice a day,” Lurie stated, citing meals components as one instance. “There are alternatives for small victories. … However general, it’s dissolved in so many unhealthy concepts that it’s completely not value it.”

Kennedy declined to debate his plans for HHS with The Occasions, however he has indicated some priorities for the company in earlier public statements.

As an illustration, he stated Trump would advise towards water fluoridation on his first day in workplace. He informed NBC Information he wouldn’t “take away” vaccines, however he would “make certain scientific security research and efficacy are on the market, and other people could make particular person assessments about whether or not that product goes to be good for them.”

Greater than half a dozen specialists who spoke with The Occasions stated Kennedy’s solutions that the science round vaccines is unsound would undercut public well being.

The US has “the very best vaccine security system on the earth,” stated stated Dr. Richard Besser, a former performing CDC director who now leads the Robert Wooden Johnson Basis. “RFK Jr. has completed so much to undermine confidence in that.”

Certainly, circumstances of measles have been rising within the U.S. as childhood vaccinations lag, particularly for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic. The CDC has recognized 277 measles circumstances this 12 months, up from 59 in 2023.

“I don’t need to should see us go backwards to be able to remind ourselves that vaccines work,” Dr. Mandy Cohen, the CDC’s director, stated this week on the Milken Institute Way forward for Well being Summit in Washington, D.C.

Kennedy’s zeal to take away fluoride from ingesting water on the declare that the mineral causes neurodevelopmental issues and different well being situations is one other instance of shirking the very best science, stated Dr. Walter Willett, a professor of epidemiology and diet on the Harvard T.H. Chan Faculty of Public Well being.

“That has been checked out fastidiously and there has not been proof of a hyperlink,” Willett stated. “However, there are severe issues with lead in water programs.”

Vaccines and fluoride are simply two areas the place Kennedy may have a possibility to implement concepts that lack sturdy scientific assist.

Final month, he decried the FDA’s “aggressive suppression” of unproven well being treatments like dietary dietary supplements and ivermectin and warned: “When you work for the FDA and are a part of this corrupt system, I’ve two messages for you: 1. Protect your data, and a couple of. Pack your baggage.”

However meals security advocates who’ve shared lots of Kennedy’s criticisms about lax regulation stated gutting the company will not be the reply. Any effort to scale back or get rid of chemical components in meals would require skilled staffers to draft new guidelines and shepherd them by the required regulatory course of, stated Ken Cook dinner, president of the Environmental Working Group.

“When you’ve gotten rid of all of the bureaucrats, who’s going to write down the regulation?” Cook dinner stated.

Or take into account FDA’s reliance on person charges from corporations that need the company to approve its medical merchandise. Such charges make up almost half of the company’s working price range. Kennedy and others have criticized such charges, but when these {dollars} went away, Congress can be unlikely to backfill them, Lurie stated.

“Ending person charges is tantamount to ravenous the company,” he stated. “That may imply a meals program that’s restricted in what it might probably do, medicine coming to market extra slowly, and vaccines which can be even much less well-monitored for security.”

Lurie stated he wouldn’t be shocked to see Kennedy process researchers on the Nationwide Institutes of Well being with searching for damaging unwanted side effects of vaccines and elusive advantages of potential therapies which have already been proven to be ineffective, resembling chelation as a remedy for autism and ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19.

“He appears to suppose these maintain nice promise,” Lurie stated. “Most of these concepts are sinkholes for presidency spending, which is ironic given the Trump administration’s purported devotion to effectivity.”

Important because the HHS function is, Kennedy would nonetheless discover his powers curtailed by the bounds of the company’s attain — and probably by the whims of his boss.

Willett stated he agrees with Kennedy that the nation’s well being is in decline, and that our meals and healthcare programs are “in some ways dysfunctional.” He would welcome efforts to crack down on the quantity of salt allowed in meals and to curtail consumption of added sugars, refined grains and sugar-sweetened drinks.

But when Kennedy takes steps like these, “we all know for positive he’ll run into resistance from business,” Willett stated. “It will be attention-grabbing to see if he’s ready to tackle Coca-Cola.”

Though Kennedy is captivated with decreasing pesticides and different chemical compounds in meals, it’s as much as the Division of Agriculture to manage pesticide use on crops, and it’s the job of the Environmental Safety Company to find out what publicity ranges are thought of protected for folks, Cook dinner stated. Nor would Kennedy have the facility to reform farm subsidies to encourage natural and regenerative agriculture.

“He doesn’t have a lot buy on pesticides from his perch,” Cook dinner stated. “That’s not likely an HHS factor or an FDA factor.”

The FDA does have the authority to manage the chemical compounds that come off of meals packaging and might discover their means into meals, and Kennedy might prioritize that, Cook dinner stated.

It’s additionally attainable that Kennedy might shield the budgets of the Nationwide Institute of Environmental Well being Sciences and the Company for Poisonous Substances and Illness Registry, Cook dinner stated.

To assist him obtain his objectives, Kennedy has invited the general public to weigh in on individuals who might fill necessary roles throughout the federal authorities’s well being businesses.

Names which have garnered 1000’s of votes within the “America’s Well being” class of his “Nominees for the Individuals” web site embody Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, who claimed COVID-19 vaccines made folks magnetic, and Dr. Simone Gold, the anti-vaccine Beverly Hills doctor whose medical license was suspended after she pleaded responsible to unlawfully coming into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Her license has since been restored.)

Kennedy’s personal accession to the HHS secretary submit will not be but sure. Cupboard positions are alleged to be confirmed by the Senate, although Trump has recommended that he could use recess appointments to bypass the necessity for lawmakers’ approval.

Dr. Georges Benjamin, govt director of the American Public Well being Assn., stated that even when Kennedy wins affirmation, it’s unsure how lengthy he would stay in Trump’s good graces.

“I remind people that his first well being secretary didn’t final a 12 months,” Benjamin stated. “We’ll see what occurs right here.”