RFK Jr.’s First Month: Touting French Fries And Casting Doubts On Vaccines | EUROtoday

WASHINGTON (AP) — There sat Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s high well being official, at a Steak ’n Shake with Fox News host Sean Hannity, raving in regards to the fries.

“Steak ’n Shake has been great, we’re very grateful for them,” Kennedy mentioned, in between nibbles of fries that the Midwestern franchise lately introduced can be cooked in beef tallow as an alternative of frequent cooking oils that Kennedy claims — opposite to recommendation from nutritionists — are unhealthy for Americans’ weight loss program.

It’s the form of endorsement that docs have implored him to make in regards to the childhood vaccines used to stop lethal illnesses, like measles outbreaks worsened in Texas and New Mexico throughout his first month in workplace.

The secretary of Health and Human Services has, as an alternative, raised doubts about vaccines, most lately saying in his interview with Hannity the photographs trigger “deaths every year,” though he later added vaccinations ought to be inspired.

In his first month in workplace, Kennedy, who vowed to “Make America Healthy Again,” has delivered an inconsistent message that has the nation’s high infectious illnesses specialists fearful that his tepid suggestions will undermine entry to long-proven, life-saving vaccines.

Public well being companies cancel vaccine conferences, analysis underneath Kennedy’s watch

During his first deal with to hundreds of staff on the federal public well being companies, together with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in addition to the Food and Drug Administration, Kennedy promised to “investigate” the childhood vaccine schedule. Days later, the CDC canceled a public assembly of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Panel, a bunch of docs and scientists who make suggestions on vaccines. That assembly has not been rescheduled.

In one other case, a canceled public assembly of vaccine advisers who make suggestions on the flu vaccine yearly for the FDA additionally has not been given a brand new date. This week, the National Institutes for Health, additionally underneath Kennedy’s purview, started canceling funding for some analysis on vaccines.

The CDC is also making ready to analysis autism and vaccines, planning to “leave no stone unturned in its mission to figure out what exactly is happening,” HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon mentioned in a press release. Agency officers didn’t remark additional for this text.

Numerous research have concluded that there isn’t any hyperlink between the 2, a reality the company states on its web site. And finding out it once more may take cash from different analysis together with into discovering the true explanation for autism, famous Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, as he questioned National Institutes of Health director nominee Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.

When Bhattacharya prompt extra research may very well be worthwhile as a result of some could imagine there’s a hyperlink, Cassidy retorted: “There’s people who disagree the world is round.”

“What (Kennedy) is trying to do is scare about the safety of vaccines,” Dr. Paul Offit, an FDA vaccine adviser and infectious illness physician on the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, mentioned of Kennedy’s first month in workplace. “It shouldn’t surprise anybody. His agenda has always been to get vaccines off the market, or to make them less available.”

Offit worries that the cancellation of the FDA’s flu vaccine assembly, held each March for no less than 30 years, is only the start. The committee’s June assembly to suggest the COVID-19 vaccine’s formulation has additionally not been scheduled, he mentioned.

Democrats and Republicans pushed again when Dr. Marty Makary, the FDA nominee, wouldn’t decide to rescheduling the committee’s flu assembly .

“What is lost is the transparency,” mentioned Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who chairs the Senate well being committee and can be a doctor.

Kennedy rejects ‘anti-vaccine’ label however nonetheless echoes the motion

During his senate affirmation hearings earlier this yr, Kennedy appeared to say he wouldn’t undermine vaccines. “I support vaccines. I support the childhood schedule,” he mentioned. He promised Cassidy, who was unsettled about Kennedy’s anti-vaccine work, that he wouldn’t change current vaccine suggestions.

But within the hearings he additionally repeatedly refused to acknowledge scientific consensus that childhood vaccines don’t trigger autism and that COVID-19 vaccines saved hundreds of thousands of lives, and he falsely asserted the federal government has no good vaccine security monitoring.

And since his affirmation, Kennedy has repeated his skeptical views of vaccines in interviews and different public statements.

He’s despatched “mixed messages” on vaccine security, although the U.S. has “the most elaborate vaccine adverse event surveillance system in the world,” mentioned Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious illness professional at Vanderbilt University. Serious issues, together with demise, are very uncommon and the advantages of vaccination far outweigh the dangers, he mentioned.

“A simple way to describe this to the average person is the serious adverse events generally occur at a rate of 1 to a few cases per million doses of vaccine,” he mentioned. “That’s a needle in a haystack.”

In an opinion piece on FoxNews.com earlier this month, Kennedy mentioned the measles outbreak in West Texas that left a six-year outdated baby useless was a “call to action” however stopped wanting recommending that individuals obtain the vaccine that stops 97% of circumstances. Despite the U.S. registering its first measles demise in a decade, Kennedy has repeatedly downplayed this yr’s outbreaks, noting that when he was a toddler “everybody got measles.”

This yr’s circumstances — reported at 250 — are on observe to far outpace final yr’s reviews of 286 measles infections.

Pediatricians are fielding extra questions from confused dad and mom of their examination rooms, mentioned Dr. Susan Kressly. Worried about reviews of cancelled vaccine conferences, they’re questioning about their entry to subsequent yr’s flu vaccines. Others are asking if they need to get doses of the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine earlier. Kressly mentioned there’s a transparent message the federal government can ship to assist cease the rising case rely.

“The only way to stop an outbreak is increased coordinated positive messaging around vaccinating,” Kressly mentioned.

The CDC has assisted with vaccination efforts in West Texas. But Kennedy himself has publicly advocated for an alternate therapy for measles: Vitamin A. Under his watch, the CDC’s steerage was up to date to say that Vitamin A ought to be given to youngsters with extreme measles and prescribed in doses underneath a health care provider’s supervision.

Vitamin A supplementation has been really helpful for many years to cut back pneumonia and demise in malnourished youngsters in growing international locations, however the advantages in well-nourished youngsters in international locations just like the U.S. are much less clear.

“We need to use Vitamin A for those kids who are unlucky enough to get measles,” mentioned Dr. Andy Pavia, a pediatric infectious illness professional on the University of Utah. “But it can’t prevent measles and it can only provide some help in reducing the severity.”

When administered appropriately, utilizing Vitamin A in children with extreme measles will “do no harm,” Pavia mentioned. But if improperly achieved, excessive doses of Vitamin A may be poisonous and lethal.

Kennedy’s supporters rejoice success on the meals entrance throughout first month

Abrupt staffing adjustments have additionally dominated Kennedy’s first weeks in workplace, with CDC decide Dave Weldon withdrawing from the nomination mere minutes earlier than his listening to, Kennedy’s high HHS spokesman quitting two weeks into the job and the Food and Drug Administration’s newly minted chief counsel departing 48 hours into the place.

Trump and Kennedy’s supporters, nonetheless, have dismissed issues in regards to the rocky begin.

His newfound platform as well being secretary and speak of more healthy meals is already affecting change within the American weight loss program, advisers near Kennedy and Trump have claimed on social media.

They credit score Kennedy with prompting Republican legislators to introduce payments in Utah and Texas that will search to ban soda within the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, for instance. And then there’s Steak ’n Shake’s new fries.

“RFK Jr. just ate Steak ’n Shake on live TV, the fast food joint that’s bravely frying everything in beef tallow,” conservative podcaster Charlie Kirk mentioned this week in a tweet. “This is the way.”

In reality, vitamin science specialists say that a long time of analysis present that consuming plant-based oils lowers the chance of coronary heart illness and that there isn’t any proof to point that beef tallow is more healthy than seed oils.

On Wednesday, after a gathering with a handful of executives from the nation’s largest meals manufactures, Kennedy launched a slickly-produced video that promised extra change can be on the best way, saying corporations have been taking his “MAHA” motion severely.

“They understand they have a new sheriff in town,” Kennedy mentioned.

He didn’t share any particulars about what was mentioned on the assembly.

Associated Press writers Matthew Perrone and Mike Stobbe contributed.