Remember the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin, which right-wing media falsely touted as a treatment for the coronavirus?Hydroxychloroquine was taken by thousands after Donald Trump promoted it as a treatment for the coronavirus. What about malaria treatments that suffered from side effects? And think back to when President Trump’s White House, on the advice of pillow-maker campaign donors, considered the toxic oleandrin as a treatment for the coronavirus.
Now, President Trump says he will promote to his Cabinet a man with a notable history of promoting pseudoscience and outright fraud: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy, a prominent vaccine skeptic, is the president of the U.S. promises to be a public health disaster.
In a Nov. 14 post on “It’s been a long time coming,” he said. He announced that he would nominate Mr. Kennedy to be Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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“Mr. Kennedy will restore these institutions to a tradition of gold-standard scientific research and a beacon of transparency, end the epidemic of chronic disease, and make America great and healthy again!” Trump added.
According to Kennedy, that includes pushing for the removal of fluoride from drinking water, re-debating already-scrutinized vaccines, and promoting unproven treatments such as chelation therapy, which is sometimes touted as a treatment for autism. This includes reconsidering the matter.
Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, is good at sowing doubts about public health. He’s employing the same distrust-instilling techniques he’s used for decades in the tobacco industry, a “just ask a question” critique that threatens support for science and an already faltering public health infrastructure. .
Kennedy’s fame and income came primarily from his last name, not from his demonstrated scientific ability. As a senior writer for NBC News’ medical division in the 2010s, I fought many times with senior producers who tried to give airtime to Kennedy and his false health claims. These claims range from vaccine skepticism to raw milk advocacy to concerns that Wi-Fi causes cancer. This gives him tacit legitimacy in the White House. News outlets will have little choice but to report whatever nonsense he decides to spew.
“This is not his area of expertise. I don’t really understand why they would let him do this,” said Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.
The Senate must confirm Kennedy to lead HHS. HHS is a huge department with an annual budget of about $2 trillion that oversees the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Centers for Medicare. and Medicaid services.
But even if the Republican-led Senate balks at confirming Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Trump will give Mr. Kennedy an unofficial team with far-reaching influence over new political appointees who want to please the fickle Mr. Trump. He may be granted the status of “Emperor”.
“They get a call from the White House,” says Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University. “Being able to whisper in the president’s ear carries a lot of power and influence.”
HHS leads the agency tasked with discovering new drugs, approving new treatments and vaccines, advising public health, and preparing for threats such as pandemics and biological attacks. The coronavirus has killed more than 42,000 people in the United States this year alone. And with H5N1 avian influenza circulating among poultry, cattle, and humans, it’s a dangerous time for amateurs to be free to act.
Kennedy entered the Trump administration with a track record of trying to thwart public health campaigns. His nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense, produces films such as: Vaxxed III: Authorized to commit murder; It features testimonies from people who say standard treatments and vaccines have harmed them or killed their loved ones. It says, “I leave it to you to decide where the truth lies.” Vaccination IIIIntroducing Mr. A Facebook misinformation campaign, funded in part by Kennedy’s organization, helped fuel fears about the measles vaccine in American Samoa. An outbreak there in 2019 killed 83 people, mostly children, and sickened more than 5,700. This year alone, vaccination shortages have led to at least 277 measles cases in 32 cities and states, according to the CDC.
Gostin said it was unlikely that President Kennedy could directly limit national vaccine approvals. But he could help scare more people away from vaccines and steer an already skeptical public away from mainstream medicine. “There are no guardrails when it comes to spreading misinformation and disinformation. There are no restrictions,” Gostin said.
“He is, in my opinion, the most influential and best-funded anti-vaxxer in the world. But going forward, he will take control of the White House and public health agencies like the CDC and will It will exacerbate a deep sense of distrust, and even a deep sense of distrust in public health institutions and science itself,” Gostin added.
The CDC is already having trouble getting state officials and dairy farms to cooperate in gathering data on outbreaks of H5N1 in livestock that have caused human infections. In the United States, 53 human infections have been confirmed in seven states. So far, all but one case has been confirmed to have been transmitted from animals to humans. (The source of the additional cases in the U.S. is unknown.)
The virus spreads from poultry to dairy cows and also infects a variety of other mammals, including pigs, which are best known as mixed vessels for influenza viruses. The federal government is already behind the curve in preparing a vaccine if the virus starts spreading from person to person. “If there is an H5N1 outbreak, how can we get people vaccinated, assuming we have an effective vaccine?” asks Benjamin.
It doesn’t help that the Health Secretary tells people to drink raw milk from potentially infected cows. Pasteurization kills viruses, but raw milk has no such protection, and hundreds of people contract the virus and get sick every year. Listeria monocytogenes, campylobacter and other bacterial infections caused by it. The FDA has long fought the raw milk movement. Howard Lutnick, Trump’s transition co-chairman, told CNN in October that Kennedy’s plan includes dismantling trust in vaccines. Despite the vast amount of clinical trial data showing vaccines are overwhelmingly safe, “he wants data that says these things are not safe,” Lutnick said.
“The FDA’s war on public health is coming to an end,” Kennedy recently wrote in X. “These include psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapy, chelates, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunlight, exercise, nutritional supplements, and other things that promote human health, and pharmaceutical companies. cannot be patented.”
Few would dispute the benefits of exercise, but psychedelic treatments have yet to pass clinical trials, hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin do not treat or prevent coronavirus, and hyperbaric therapy does not help with decompression. The FDA is restricted by law from regulating the multibillion-dollar dietary supplement and supplement market, which has only been proven to treat rare conditions such as cancer. Although many legal stem cell treatments exist, thousands of clinics are preying on the hopes of desperate patients by offering fake treatments at exorbitant prices.
President Kennedy is happy to question a vaccine that has been meticulously tested and monitored and has saved 154 million lives over the past 50 years, while offering empty promises and treatments that only empty his pockets. It is ironic that at the same time they are promoting unproven or disproven products.
Benjamin says he is in despair. “We already know that[the FDA]is overburdened, underfunded, and under pressure to move quickly,” he notes.
Powerful leaders at HHS, FDA, and CDC are responding to what the coronavirus experience already promises: an onslaught of confusing, contradictory, and chaotic health guidance emanating from President Trump’s White House. You’ll have a hard time enduring it. Weak leaders may not even try.
“Oh, God, wouldn’t it be scary for us if[President Trump]had another outbreak?” Benjamin asks. “I don’t know how much they learned from their first project.”
This is an opinion and analysis article and the views expressed by the author are not necessarily those of the author. scientific american.
