Trump’s rfk jr choice to lead important US health organizations is anti-vaccine, and experts say diseases “we have controlled for decades” will resurface.
Donald Trump has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead important US health organizations. Kennedy Jr. gained national notoriety as one of the nation’s most steadfast and powerful vaccination denialists. Kennedy, 70, ended his own third-party presidential campaign in August and backed Trump. He is the nephew of President
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John F. Kennedy and the son of former Attorney General and presidential contender Robert F. Kennedy. RFK Jr., who was trained as an environmental lawyer, became well-known for promoting conspiracy theories and challenging scientific findings, frequently portraying himself as more knowledgeable about illnesses and epidemiology than experts. He has spread the myth that HIV is not the cause and emphasized baseless allegations that immunizations are linked to autism in youngsters.HIV Aids and unfoundedly connected the use of a particular herbicide to an increase in young people coming out as transgender and certain medications to an increase in school shootings.According to a 2019 analysis, Kennedy’s group was among the top two Facebook financiers of anti-vaccine advertisements. He was listed as one of the top 12 internet disseminators of false information regarding the Covid-19 vaccine by the Center for Countering Digital Hate in 2021.
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Notably, prior to a catastrophic measles outbreak in 2019, Kennedy’s Children’s Health Defense, the nonprofit anti-vaccine organization he headed until running for president, inundated American Samoa with false material about vaccines. The Senate must approve the appointment to head the US Health Department. According to experts, vaccines will be “the first issue on the table” if they are permitted. Even if public policies stay the same, Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, stated that if federally sanctioned authorities voice opposition to vaccines, “that discourages people who might otherwise be vaccinated, and at that point that’s as bad as not having a vaccine at all.” The effects are not hypothetical. Just as recently as the previousLess than half of healthcare workers had received flu vaccinations, and less than one in six had received updated Covid-19 vaccines during the 2023–24 respiratory virus season, according to a report issued this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Since the epidemic, childhood immunization rates have also decreased. Researchers identified two main causes: vaccine reluctance and disinformation.
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We forget how many children perished each year from measles, polio, and pertussis (whooping cough) in our country fifty years ago, Osterholm remarked. “Diseases that we have managed for decades are going to reappear.”Although state and municipal governments require fluoride levels, RFK Jr. has also suggested eliminating fluoride from drinking water. He has long criticized the big commercial farms and animal feeding companies that control the business, and he has advocated against processed foods and the use of herbicides like Roundup. He wants to stop the “revolving door” of workers who have worked for pharmaceutical corporations in the past or who quit government service to work in that sector. Additionally, he wants to terminate 600 National Institutes of Health staff.which manages the development of vaccines, and replace them with 600 new employees.