Leading health experts are “quietly excited” about Robert F Kennedy Jr’s potential to improve the nation’s diet, yet fearful he could trigger an “explosion” in infectious diseases, according to a report.
Kennedy, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for health secretary, already faces an uphill battle of being confirmed by the Senate due to his past anti-vaccine statements and health-related conspiracy theories.
As Kennedy is making his case to senators this week, researchers and public health officials told Politico the controversial pick also represents a chance to improve the poor diet of Americans and reduce their exposure to harmful toxins.
Life expectancy in the U.S. is the lowest among wealthy nations at 77.5 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Kennedy attributes toxins in our food and the environment as causes of chronic disease. To tackle the problem he has previously called for a ban on additives and chemicals in food. “We have 1,000 ingredients in our food that are illegal in Europe, that are illegal in other countries and they’re making our kids sick,” he has said. “They’re there because of corruption in our agencies.”
Jessica Fanzo, climate professor and director of the Food for Humanity Initiative at Columbia University, told Politico that targeting the food system made sense.
“Our diets are significant factors in noncommunicable diseases or chronic diseases,” Fanzo said. “If it were me, I, too, would ambitiously want to go after the food system.”
Sandra Albrecht, an epidemiology professor at Columbia University, agreed that a “reframing” of health policy goals has “long been needed,” and told the outlet that officials “need to work with the [Trump] administration.”
However, Albrecht also expressed skepticism of Kennedy’s ability to maneuver his way through Washington’s health bureaucracy when it comes to bringing in big changes across the food system.
On the flip side are those who are fearful about Kennedy’s potential appointment, given his previous anti-vaccine statements, and worries he could attempt to cut vital research funding.
“We are very fearful that investment in research in chronic diseases and prevention will be cut,” Dr. Elbert Huang, director of the Center for Chronic Disease Research and Policy at the University of Chicago, told Politico.
A group of doctors, the Committee to Protect Health Care, has vocally opposed Kennedy, along with 75 Nobel Prize winners who have urged senators not to confirm him due to his criticisms of mainstream medicine.
Dr. Rob Davidson called Kennedy a “danger.”
“We have to deal with the person in front of us and what he represents,” said Davidson, the committee’s executive director. “There’s a clear and present danger in front of us.”
Last week it emerged that a lawyer who is currently helping Kennedy pick federal health officials once petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to revoke its approval for multiple critical childhood vaccines, including the polio vaccine.
Aaron Siri, managing partner at Siri & Glimstad LLP, has a history of challenging the FDA to pause or completely withdraw various vaccines – a move which raises concerns given Kennedy’s historic anti-vaccine rhetoric.
In response, outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a polio survivor, warned last weekend: “Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed — they’re dangerous.”
Kennedy has assured people he will not “take away” vaccines, while Trump has attempted to reassure critics that his nominee may not be able to go as “wild” on health as previously feared.
“I think he’s going to be much less radical than you would think,” Trump said Monday. “He’s going to have an open mind, or I wouldn’t have put him there.”
