Antonia Mufarech, Bloomberg Information
Donald Trump’s election win opens the door for vaccine denier Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to play a major function within the administration and drastically change the nation’s public well being practices.
The previous presidential candidate emerged as one of many main voices within the anti-vaccine motion in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, when he challenged the security of preventive pictures. He’s additionally an opponent of consuming water fluoridation, a measure that has improved oral well being for tens of millions of People.
“RFK Jr. is probably the best financed and most influential anti-vaxxer, anti-science conspiracy theorist in the world,” mentioned Lawrence Gostin, a professor of worldwide well being legislation at Georgetown College. “And now he’s likely to join at a high level in the White House — that should send shivers down the spine of anyone who thinks that health, safety and the environment are important.”
Kennedy has mentioned that Trump provided him “control of the public health agencies,” citing potential management of the Division of Well being and Human Companies and the Division of Agriculture.
“He’s going to help make America healthy again,” Trump mentioned of Kennedy in his victory speech Wednesday. Trump mentioned Kennedy ought to keep away from oil and gasoline, however “other than that, go have a good time, Bobby.”
Trump has inspired Kennedy, the son of the late U.S. lawyer basic and senator who was assassinated throughout his 1968 presidential marketing campaign, to work on extra particular points.
“I said, ‘Bobby, you work on women’s health, you work on health, you work on what we eat,” Trump mentioned at a rally in Macon, Georgia, on Sunday. “You work on pesticides. You work on everything.”
Specialists and officers have beforehand raised considerations about Kennedy, saying his statements about vaccines and different pandemic-related points are deceptive and harmful to public well being. In July 2023, the Biden administration denounced feedback by Kennedy that falsely claimed Jewish and Chinese language folks have been “most immune“ to COVID-19.
Jason Schwartz, an associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health, said the United States is “in for a very significant change in terms of the federal government’s approach to public health and the priorities and actions of our government health agencies.”
Kennedy and Trump have been linked by their skepticism of public well being practices and scorn for specialists and officers. Throughout the pandemic, the previous president promoted unproven COVID-19 therapies together with hydroxychloroquine, the antiparasitic ivermectin, and plasma from beforehand contaminated folks. In a single press convention, Trump instructed utilizing bleach to deal with infections.
Whilst Trump insisted in October 2020 that People have been prepared to maneuver previous the pandemic, his personal well being advisers continued warning that the hardest months have been nonetheless to return.
Kennedy has criticized how Anthony Fauci, america’ high infectious illness skilled in the course of the pandemic, dealt with the disaster. In his ebook “The Real Anthony Fauci,” he accuses the previous head of the Nationwide Institute of Allergy and Infectious Ailments of serving to orchestrate “a historic coup d’etat against Western democracy.”
Kennedy just lately wrote on the social media platform X that Trump would transfer to take away fluoride from public water instantly after taking workplace. Jan. 20. Trump then advised NBC Information that he hadn’t but spoken to Kennedy about fluoride, “but it sounds OK to me.”
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