Vaccines, fluoride, raw milk: How RFK Jr.’s views may shape public health

The announcement that President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the logo new leader of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and products has brought renewed attention to many comments the nominee has made about public health.

Kennedy used to be announced as Trump’s p.c. on November 14. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he will lead a department that oversees myriad agencies that keep watch over important public health programs and conduct scientific research. The list includes the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Regulate and Prevention. Which means that Kennedy can have a hand in drug and vaccine approvals, food safety and more, issues that touch virtually everyone.

Many of Kennedy’s views on health issues run counter to decades of research and broad scientific and medical consensus, yet he has gained a public following. Here’s a study the established science behind an awful lot of the important thing issues Kennedy has raised at some point of the past and which may well well maybe be impacted lower than the logo new administration.

Fact: Vaccines save lives

Kennedy is a dominant force at some point of the anti-vaccine movement (SN: 5/eleven/21). He told podcaster Lex Fridman in a July 2023 interview, “There’s no vaccine it be, you recognize, safe and effective.”

No longer true. When it involves effectiveness, the World Health Organization says, “vaccines have saved more human lives than some other medical invention in history” — praise it be backed by ample evidence.

Inside the US, a slew of infectious diseases, including polio, diphtheria, measles and smallpox, caused hundreds of thousands of cases of illness at some point of the twentieth century. By the end of that century, cases had dropped by ninety five to 1 hundred p.c, primarily resulting from the widespread introduction of vaccines.

For the duration of the covid pandemic, COVID-19 vaccination prevented 14.Four million deaths globally at some point of the first year it used to be accessible, from December 2020 to December 2021, researchers reported at some point of the Lancet Infectious Diseases in 2022.

And research on the advisable impact of vaccines keeps coming. Since 1974, vaccination against 14 pathogens has prevented 154 million deaths worldwide, most of them among children: Immunization averted 146 million deaths among children younger than 5, researchers reported at some point of the Lancet in May.

Inside the US, routine childhood immunizations for teenagers born from 1994 to 2023 can have staved off an estimated 508 million cases of illness, stopped 32 million hospitalizations and prevented 1.1 million children from dying, researchers reported at some point of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report in August.

The spread of misinformation and disinformation on vaccine safety has a protracted history but now reaches many more people by strategy of social media (SN: eleven/eleven/21). Kennedy’s own Instagram account used to be taken down from 2021 to 2023 for posting debunked claims in regards to the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines. Common misinformation in regards to the protection of vaccines has been refuted by a giant body of evidence. Let's say, vaccines do not diminish the body’s ability to mount an immune response.

Vaccines are tested in people for safety and effectiveness earlier than being licensed by the FDA. After approval, a pair of national surveillance systems continue to video display vaccine safety.

“Vaccines are the safest and most cost-effective resulting from offer protection to children, families and communities from disease, disability and death,” Benjamin Hoffman, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement on November 15.

Fact: The measles vaccine doesn’t cause autism

Anti-vaccine advocates including Kennedy continue to push the debunked notion that vaccines cause autism. A paper published in 1998 at some point of the Lancet presupposed to locate a link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and autism. The paper, in response to falsified data, used to be later retracted, on the choice hand the damage used to be done, and the thought that vaccines in general may maybe cause autism took off (SN: 5/eleven/21).

The science is settled: There is no evidence that means vaccines — or any of the ingredients in them – cause autism spectrum disorders.

The causes of autism aren’t known, but they're likely complex (SN: 10/sixteen/18; SN: 7/29/eleven). Current thinking is wondering differences in brain development early in life, more than likely even at some point of the womb. Scientists are exploring genetic differences and differences in how neurons grow as conceivable links, and are investigating the way you may seek the disorder early in life (SN: 2/27/14; SN: 1/eleven/19; SN: Four/10/17).

Fact: Fluoride in water strengthens teeth

Earlier this month, Kennedy announced his goal of eliminating fluoride from drinking water.

A naturally occuring mineral, fluoride has a special superpower: It should maybe rebuild teeth. When acid from bacteria eats away at tooth enamel, fluoride can breach the gap and entice other sturdy minerals reminiscent of calcium and phosphate to latch on. This process, is often called remineralization, keeps cavities at bay.

That’s why fluoride has been added to water supplies at some point of the US the reason is, 1940s – a move described in 1999 by the CDC as one amongst the 10 great public health achievements of the twentieth century.

Kennedy and other fluoride skeptics argue that the mineral damages the growing brains of children. And in high doses, it is a superb distance ready to. There have been reports of fluoride toxicity from across the arena. But as the saying goes, the dose makes the poison. Inside the US, the optimal dose of fluoride is set at Zero.7 milligrams per liter of water, well below levels which have been linked to harm.

Some communities that have removed fluoride from municipal water supplies have noted a upward push in tooth decay. In Canada, children in Calgary, where fluoridation used to be stopped in 2011, had more decay than neighboring children in Edmonton, where fluoride stayed in water. Similar trends of more dental decay have turned up in Israel, which stopped fluoridating water in 2014, and in Juneau, Alaska, where fluoridation used to be stopped in 2007.

Cavities can lead to pain, trouble talking and eating, social and psychological harm. Untreated tooth decay, in children and adults, may cause death. Fluoridated water is backed by medical organizations including the World Health Organization, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Dental Association.

Fact: Microbes in raw milk can make people sick

In an Oct. 25 post on X, Kennedy accused the FDA of “aggressive suppression” of a laundry list of substances, one amongst which used to be raw milk.

Raw milk hasn’t been pasteurized, a process that heat-treats food products to kill harmful microbes (SN: eleven/18/22). Proponents list an awful lot of reasons to drink raw milk, including the claim that some bacteria in raw milk may well maybe be advisable for gut health. But those bacteria come from cows or the farm environment, and best microbes that come from people may well maybe be an asset to our health.

Pasteurization to kill the bad stuff is essential for food safety, in accordance with both the FDA and CDC. Those that drink raw milk may well maybe be exposed to foodborne bacteria reminiscent of E. coli, Salmonella and Listeria, all of which may well well cause severe illness.

What’s more, genetic traces of bird flu have shown up in milk amid an outbreak in U.S. dairy cows (SN: Four/25/24). While pasteurization kills the virus, it should stick around in raw milk and pose an infection risk. Mice that consume virus-spiked milk can get infected with bird flu, as an instance, suggesting humans may well maybe be at risk, too.

Fact: Hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin don’t treat COVID-19

Hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, two drugs that gained notoriety within the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, were also listed in Kennedy’s Oct. 25 X post. While early studies done on cells in dishes raised hopes that the treatments may well assist COVID patients, myriad studies have since shown that hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug, and ivermectin, an antiparasitic, are ineffective against the covid (SN: eight/2/20).

In spite of the immense evidence against the medicine’ use for COVID, some people, including Kennedy, continue to falsely claim that they're ready to have saved lives within the course of the pandemic. In a July 2023 interview with Fox News, Kennedy said that fewer people would have died if hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin had been accessible to treat COVID. The FDA had authorized hydroxychloroquine for emergency use at some point of the pandemic’s early days. But the agency pulled that authorization because studies showed it used to be no better than a placebo at preventing or dampening the disease (SN: 6/15/20).