The top processed food expert at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has resigned from his role, announcing the decision in a lengthy social media post in which he implied that aides to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr had attempted to censor his work.
Dr. Kevin Hall told CBS News that aides to RFK Jr blocked him from speaking to The New York Times about a new study into the addictive nature of ultra-processed foods.
The research in question “just suggests that they may not be addictive by the typical mechanism that many drugs are addictive,” Dr Hall told the network.
“But even this bit of daylight between the preconceived narrative and our study was apparently too much.”
On Wednesday night, Dr Hall announced his resignation in a post on LinkedIn.
“After 21 years at my dream job, I’m very sad to announce my early retirement from the National Institutes of Health,” Dr Hall wrote
“Given recent bipartisan goals to prevent diet-related chronic diseases, and new agency leadership professing to prioritize scientific investigation of ultra-processed foods, I had hoped to expand our research program with ambitious plans to more rapidly and efficiently determine how our food is likely making Americans chronically sick.
“Unfortunately, recent events have made me question whether NIH continues to be a place where I can freely conduct unbiased science,” he continued.
“Specifically, I experienced censorship in the reporting of our research because of agency concerns that it did not appear to fully support preconceived narratives of my agency’s leadership about ultra-processed food addiction.”
Dr Hall continued: “I was hoping this was an aberration. So, weeks ago I wrote to my agency’s leadership expressing my concerns and requested time to discuss these issues, but I never received a response.”
“Without any reassurance, there wouldn’t be continued censorship or meddling in our research, I felt compelled to accept early retirement to preserve health insurance for my family.”
He later alleged that Kennedy’s spokesperson Andrew Nixon had downplayed the findings and subsequently sent edited versions of his written answers back to the NYT without Hall’s consent.
His claims have since been denied by the HHS, which stated in a press release that it was “disappointing that this individual is fabricating false claims.”
It continued: “NIH scientists have, and will, continue to conduct interviews regarding their research through written responses or other means.
“We remain committed to promoting gold-standard research and advancing public health priorities.
“Any attempt to paint this as censorship is a deliberate distortion of the facts.”
Dr Hall further told CBS that he had been blocked from presenting his research at a conference and ordered to comply with edits made by officials to a manuscript he had worked on, or to remove himself as its co-author.
“I was hoping this was an aberration. So, weeks ago, I wrote to my agency's leadership expressing my concerns and requested time to discuss these issues, but I never received a response,” he said.
RFK Jr has been on a national speaking tour this week, discussing his “Make America Healthy Again” initiative and highlighting research into rising autism statistics by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a significance that his own experts have downplayed.
The upheaval also coincides with the publication of new findings by the University of Amsterdam that reveal that distrust in science is currently rampant among American conservatives.
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