President-elect Donald Trump has began to make appointments to his future cupboard, and lots of are ready to see what position Trump can have for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his one-time competitors for president and present ally.
In spite of everything, Trump introduced at a rally in late October that he would let Kennedy “go wild” on healthcare within the nation. “I’m gonna let him go wild on health. I’m gonna let him go wild on the food. I’m gonna let him go wild on medicines,” Trump stated.
Kennedy later stated that Trump “asked me to end the chronic disease epidemic in this country. And he said, ‘I want to see results, measurable results in the diminishment of chronic disease within two years.’ And I said, ‘Mr. President, I will do that.’”
Kennedy is a longtime anti-vaccine activist who has repeatedly expressed views about well being that battle with scientific proof. He has created a plan endorsed by Trump referred to as “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA), which is a broad-ranging collection of proposed insurance policies that the politician claims on-line is “more powerful than Wall Street, Big Tech, Big Pharma, Big Food and the War Machine.”
It’s not clear what official position Kennedy can have within the second Trump administration, if any. However there have been whispers of him being nominated for a prime place at a federal well being company, like head of the Division of Well being and Human Providers (HHS), Meals and Drug Administration (FDA), or Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC). The latter two roles are usually held by somebody with a medical diploma, which Kennedy doesn’t have.
What might his well being management imply for the way forward for U.S. healthcare and well being coverage? 4 well being coverage specialists clarify.
He might goal fluoride in ingesting water
Kennedy has repeatedly spoken out about his issues with the general public well being observe of including fluoride to ingesting water. Fluoride, a mineral that strengthens enamel and reduces the danger of cavities, has been added to ingesting water since 1945 to advertise good tooth well being in youngsters. Knowledge present that including fluoride to water lowers the quantity of tooth decay in younger children by 35%. This observe is at present listed by the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) as one of many biggest public well being achievements of the twentieth century.
A authorities report launched in August discovered that fluoride in ingesting water at twice the really useful restrict is linked with decrease IQ in youngsters. The report discovered with “moderate” confidence {that a} hyperlink exists between increased ranges of fluoride and decrease IQs in children. However the CDC stated in a assertion that professional panels within the U.S. and overseas “have not found convincing scientific evidence linking community water fluoridation with any potential adverse health effect or systemic disorder such as an increased risk for cancer, Down syndrome, heart disease, osteoporosis and bone fracture, immune disorders, low intelligence, renal disorders, Alzheimer disease, or allergic reactions.”
Kennedy stated in an interview with NPR that he thinks fluoride ought to be faraway from ingesting water. “Now we have fluoride in toothpaste,” he stated. In one other interview with NPR, Kennedy stated, “we don’t need fluoride in our water. It’s a very bad way to deliver it into our systems.”
However public coverage specialists say he’s unlikely to make a lot of a change with fluoride in water. “The issue of whether water is fluoridated is made by state and local authorities—it’s not a federal issue,” says Leighton Ku, Ph.D., M.P.H., professor and director of the Middle for Well being Coverage Analysis at George Washington College’s Milken Institute College of Public Well being. Ku says it’s attainable that the federal authorities might make new requirements across the fluoridation of water, “but that would take a long time to happen.”
To be able to cease the fluoridation of water from a federal standpoint, “Congress would have to pass a law outlawing the use of fluoridation or perhaps the EPA would have to put fluoridation of water on a dangerous chemical list,” says Gerald Kominski, Ph.D., senior fellow on the UCLA Middle for Well being Coverage Analysis. However Kominski says that Kennedy might have affect “through public persuasion and the authority of whatever position he might have to encourage municipalities to go ahead and stop using fluoride.”
He’s more likely to attempt to affect vaccination insurance policies
Kennedy is a longtime anti-vaccine advocate. “There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective,” he stated on the Lex Fridman podcast in 2023. Amongst different issues, Kennedy has linked vaccines with autism, a declare that has been debunked by the scientific group. Kennedy additionally stated in 2021 that it was “criminal medical malpractice” to present the COVID-19 vaccine to youngsters.
In an NPR interview, Kennedy stated that he would “immediately” work on altering vaccine rules and analysis. “Of course, we’re not going to take vaccines away from anybody,” he stated. “We are going to make sure that Americans have good information about vaccines and vaccine safety.”
Kennedy stated that the science on vaccine security “has huge deficits and we’re going to make sure those scientific studies are done and that people can make informed choices about their vaccinations and their children’s vaccinations.”
His assertions are regarding to specialists. “He claims that vaccine safety data is ‘hidden’—it is not—and that no placebo controlled studies have been done with respect to vaccines. They have,” says Katrine Wallace, Ph.D., epidemiologist and adjunct assistant professor on the College of Illinois at Chicago College of Public Well being. “He also spread COVID-19 misinformation and sowed doubt about vaccines during the pandemic. He doesn’t change course when actual evidence is presented, or when flaws in his logic are explained.”
Wallace says she’s involved about what’s going to occur if Kennedy is put able of energy with authority over vaccines. “An administration that is supportive of anti-science rhetoric and misinformation will only cause the vaccine coverage to decrease further, and we will see more vaccine-preventable illness, death, and disability,” she says.
Ku says that Kennedy might have some affect round vaccines if he was accountable for the FDA, which approves vaccines, or the CDC, which recommends how vaccines are utilized by the general public. Vaccines which are accredited are supplied to low-income youngsters free of charge by way of the federal government, and there may be the potential to impression that, Ku says. “But there are a lot of rules that are well-accepted at the FDA and CDC about how they do their business,” he says. “It’s not entirely clear that even the president himself can make changes to things like that on a quick basis.”
If Kennedy was appointed as the pinnacle of the HHS, he might attempt to use stress and affect to take away some substances from vaccines that he feels are dangerous, Ku says. “But I would suspect that people would push back, if there is data to support what he is trying to remove,” he says.
Kominski factors out that Kennedy has “floated the idea” that colleges with vaccine necessities ought to be defunded, though it’s unclear if he might truly try this. “This is not an intelligent, evidence-based way to improve childhood safety and childhood health,” he says. “He has some dangerous ideas and appears to be largely anti-science, which is terrifying when it comes to appointing someone who will have authority over public health.”
He might attempt to change how issues are accomplished on the FDA
Kennedy has been very clear about his dissatisfaction with the way in which issues are run on the FDA. In late October, he wrote on X that the “FDA’s war on public health is about to end.”
“This includes its aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals, and anything else that advances human health and can’t be patented by Pharma,” he continued. “If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.”
However regardless of all of his threats in opposition to the FDA, Kennedy is unlikely to enact that a lot change, even when he was appointed the pinnacle of the FDA or HHS, says Dan Troy, former FDA chief counsel and managing director of BRG. “It is difficult for any one person to drive seismic change within the context of a law-constrained bureaucracy such as the FDA,” he says.
Troy factors out that altering a rule “takes years,” including “a notice of proposed rule-making is dozens, if not hundreds of papers. It requires an economic analysis. It’s a team sport and it requires a lot of collaboration.”
“One cannot just sit in the White House and issue pronouncements and expect that policy is going to change,” Troy continues. “That’s just not the way it works. It takes time, energy, effort, and working with the staff and in the system to really make dramatic changes.”
With regards to the approval of merchandise like vaccines—or antidepressants, which Kennedy has linked to mass shootings—Kennedy is unlikely to have the ability to take away present merchandise. “You can’t just revoke an approval because you don’t like it or because you don’t think there was an adequate basis for it,” Troy says.
Troy factors to the FDA underneath the earlier Trump administration, noting that “it’s hard to think of anything seismic that was done there.” He provides, “there’s just a limited amount that you can actually get done.”
He might try and ban sure meals and promote others
Kennedy stated at a digital occasion in late October that Trump promised him “control of the public health agencies,” together with the HHS, CDC, FDA, and NIH. “And then also the USDA which, you know, is key to making America healthy because we’ve got to get off of seed oils and we’ve got to get off of pesticide-intensive agriculture,” he added.
What he’d prefer to see People eat extra of, he’s stated, is uncooked milk, which proponents of say has extra vitamins and wholesome enzymes as a consequence of being unpasteurized. However it’s one thing typically related to outbreaks of diseases, together with from a possibly-deadly pressure of E. coli, and is even riskier now as a result of fowl flu outbreak amongst dairy cows, specialists instructed the New York Occasions.
However Ku says it’s “less clear” what Kennedy needs to do on this space of meals. “He certainly has some interest in trying to have people eat healthier diets, and that may include moving away from certain additives in foods and trying to change how people eat,” he says. “Those recommendations from the government have some impact, but there are still people who eat what they want, no matter what the government recommends.”
Even when Kennedy was appointed secretary of agriculture, Ku says that’s a “divided” position. “On the one hand, this person has a duty to be supportive of agriculture and the food industry in general; on the other, they have to be supportive of dietary habits of Americans, like school food programs,” he says. Ku cites the instance of encouraging People to eat extra plant-based meals, which may upset producers. “And they are a major constituency of the Department of Agriculture,” Ku says. “Some of these things are a little tough.”
General, Kaminski says it will likely be “challenging” to have Kennedy able of energy at a federal well being company. “Science and facts are under attack,” he says. “We need to keep producing the science and the data that will guide policy in the future.”
However whereas Ku says that it’s “reasonable to be concerned” a few future with Kennedy accountable for a well being company, he stresses that the medical and scientific group will proceed to talk up if proposed insurance policies are with out benefit.
He additionally stresses that the federal government has a system of checks and balances in place for a cause. “It’s not as though if RFK Jr. were appointed to a high level position, he could wave his magic wand and change policy,” he says. “Even Trump when he was president could not do that.”
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