The Senate confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr., one in all America’s most infamous vaccine skeptics, to run the nation’s main well being company, the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers (HHS), on Thursday, sparking outrage amongst public well being specialists who fear that Kennedy will hurt public well being and additional erode belief in science and medication.
“I believe it’s a tragic day for America’s youngsters. I believe it’s a tragic day for public well being when somebody who’s a science denialist, conspiracy theorist, and virulent anti-vaccine activist is [leading] the largest public well being company in the USA,” says Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Schooling Heart at Youngsters’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who has served on vaccine advisory committees for the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) and the Meals and Drug Administration (FDA). “I believe each Senator who voted for his affirmation ought to be ashamed of themselves for his or her unwillingness to face up for the well being of the American public.”
Kennedy, 71, was one in all President Donald Trump’s most controversial Cupboard nominees. For years, Kennedy has unfold medical disinformation, enraging specialists within the discipline. He’s repeated the debunked declare that vaccines trigger autism—regardless that analysis overwhelmingly proves that vaccines are each protected and efficient—and has made controversial statements about uncooked milk and fluoride in water. Throughout his affirmation hearings, he confronted heated questioning by Senators over his anti-vaccine views, flip-flopping stance on abortion, and former help for some conspiracy theories, akin to his assertions that Lyme Illness and COVID-19 had been engineered bioweapons. He appeared unfamiliar with sure points he would oversee as the top of HHS, at instances seemingly complicated Medicaid and Medicare. All the identical, Kennedy was confirmed by a vote of 52 to 48, with Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky—a polio survivor—the one Republican who voted in opposition to his affirmation.
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Public well being specialists first sounded the alarm when Trump introduced Kennedy as his nominee to steer HHS again in November. As head of HHS, Kennedy will oversee well being companies just like the CDC and the FDA.
On the forefront of specialists’ concern is the affect Kennedy would have over vaccines. Kennedy tried to distance himself from his earlier anti-vaccine statements throughout his affirmation hearings, saying that he’s not “anti-vaccine” however “pro-safety,” and he has mentioned that he and the Trump Administration wouldn’t take vaccines off the market. However specialists forged doubt on whether or not the Administration would maintain true to that assertion, and plenty of fear that Kennedy may appoint individuals to companies just like the FDA and CDC who may impede or revoke vaccine approvals, not solely limiting entry to but in addition sowing mistrust in a robust public well being device.
Dr. Rob Davidson is an emergency doctor in Michigan and govt director of the Committee to Defend Well being Care, which had circulated a petition garnering greater than 22,000 signatures from physicians calling on the Senate to reject Kennedy. Davidson says he worries about how Kennedy will reply to rising illnesses, akin to H5N1, extra generally generally known as chicken flu. Along with his anti-vaccine rhetoric, Kennedy has beforehand urged placing a pause on infectious illness analysis, sparking backlash from many public well being specialists.
“He’s only a harmful particular person relating to public well being,” Davidson says. “It’s harmful to have a man who’s led [the vaccine skepticism] motion being the top of this company, the mouthpiece of the U.S. authorities relating to public well being. So that’s really terrifying.”
“I believe a whole lot of lives are in danger probably due to this individual operating this company,” Davidson continues.
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Consultants are additionally involved concerning the actions Kennedy may tackle abortion. Kennedy, who had beforehand expressed help for individuals’s proper to decide on, has since shared anti-abortion statements, saying throughout his affirmation hearings that he agrees with Trump “that each abortion is a tragedy” and abortion coverage ought to be left as much as particular person states.
In the course of the hearings, Kennedy was requested concerning the abortion treatment mifepristone, which was accredited by the FDA for abortion functions greater than twenty years in the past however has just lately been unsuccessfully challenged in court docket by a gaggle of anti-abortion docs and organizations. Kennedy gave obscure solutions when requested concerning the drug, saying that Trump requested him “to check the security of mifepristone” and that the President “has not but taken a stand on learn how to regulate it.” Davidson worries that, underneath Kennedy’s management, HHS and the FDA may make mifepristone much less accessible or accessible.
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The one space wherein Kennedy has garnered some favor amongst well being specialists is his stance on meals and diet. Kennedy has shared a plan to “Make America Wholesome Once more,” wherein he vows to “ban the a whole lot of meals components and chemical substances that different international locations have already prohibited” and “change laws, analysis subjects, and subsidies to scale back the dominance of ultra-processed meals.”
Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a heart specialist and director of the Meals Is Medication Institute at Tufts College, says he thinks Kennedy and the Trump Administration “have an opportunity to actually coalesce across the prime disaster dealing with our nation, which is food-related power situations.” Whereas he hopes that Kennedy will give attention to addressing this concern and switch away from his extra controversial statements on vaccines, Mozaffarian says he was disillusioned by Kennedy’s responses to questions over his anti-vaccine rhetoric throughout his affirmation hearings. “I believe he had an opportunity there to place that controversy to relaxation and present he’s going to actually give attention to the place the consensus is, which is that our meals system is damaged,” Mozaffarian says.
Many well being specialists are skeptical that Kennedy will really take significant steps on meals and diet. “It’s completely eclipsed by his different controversial views,” Davidson says of Kennedy’s stance on meals. “The hazard of him is a lot higher than any potential advantage of these views.”
Consultants fear that Kennedy may exacerbate public mistrust in science and medication, and plenty of say that his affirmation and the help he’s obtained is already a regarding signal of that.
“I believe immediately actually is a marker within the highway, marking rising distrust in establishments, marking energy of adjusting info panorama, however most prominently, the marker that the traces between reality and falsehoods are blurred and the way we navigate this new world goes to require a unique strategy,” says Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist and founding father of the e-newsletter Your Native Epidemiologist. “What I’m most involved about is the rhetoric and the sowing of doubt and the confusion … that we’re all going to be dealing with.”
