Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is dealing with Senate lawmakers on Wednesday in his affirmation hearings to lead the Division of Well being and Human Providers (HHS) underneath President Donald Trump.
Kennedy has regularly promoted views at odds with the consensus of public well being researchers and the mainstream scientific group, together with falsely claiming that sure vaccines trigger autism and calling for fluoride to be faraway from ingesting water, claiming it harms adolescent growth.
The environmental lawyer has vowed to crack down on dyes within the meals business and has referred to as for restrictions on ultra-processed meals.
Throughout a charity dinner final yr in New York Metropolis, Trump pledged Kennedy would “go wild on well being” and that Kennedy “desires wholesome folks, he desires wholesome meals.”
This is a take a look at the place Kennedy stands on a number of well being points:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be secretary of Well being and Human Providers, speaks throughout a gathering on the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 9, 2025.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP, FILE
Questioning vaccine security
Though Kennedy has denied he’s “anti-vaccine” and has stated his kids have been vaccinated, he has promoted views on vaccines that consultants have refuted.
Throughout a 2023 interview on Fox Information, Kennedy stated he believes autism comes from vaccines, a fable born from a now-debunked paper from the U.Okay. in 1998 that claimed the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine precipitated autism.
The paper has since been discredited by well being consultants, retracted from the journal through which it was revealed, and its major creator, Andrew Wakefield, misplaced his medical license after the paper was discredited and an investigation discovered he had acted “dishonestly and irresponsibly” in conducting his analysis. Greater than a dozen high-quality research have since discovered no proof of a hyperlink between childhood vaccines and autism.
Kennedy has additionally unfold what the medical group has thought-about to be vaccine misinformation in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, falsely claiming the COVID-19 vaccine is harmful.
Throughout a December 2021 Louisiana Home of Representatives assembly discussing a proposal to require schoolchildren to obtain the COVID-19 vaccine, Kennedy falsely referred to as the vaccine the “deadliest vaccine ever made.”
Inventory picture of a lady getting Covid-19 vaccine.
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In the identical yr, Kennedy petitioned the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration to revoke its authorization of all COVID-19 vaccines. The FDA denied the petition three months later.
Well being officers say COVID-19 vaccines are secure and efficient following medical trials that concerned tens of hundreds of individuals, and have since helped save hundreds of thousands of lives.
Eradicating synthetic dyes from meals
Kennedy has been vocal about his opposition to synthetic dyes, calling for them to be faraway from meals and drinks.
“The very first thing I might do is not going to value you something as a result of I am simply gonna inform the cereal firms: Take all of the dyes out of their meals,” about actions he’d take as a member of the Trump administration, in keeping with a social media publish from the non-profit Youngsters’s Well being Protection, of which Kennedy is a founder.
Kennedy has regularly cited Froot Loops for example of a meals with doubtlessly dangerous dyes, saying the model of the Kellogg’s cereal bought overseas is more healthy and has fewer elements in comparison with the U.S. model.
Kellogg’s has insisted its merchandise are secure for consumption, saying the elements meet the federal requirements set by the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration.
Kennedy was flawed concerning the variety of elements — Canadian Froot Loops have 17 elements in comparison with 16 within the U.S. Nonetheless, the 2 cereals differ on the subject of the usage of dyes.
American Froot Loops comprise synthetic meals dyes comparable to Crimson 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6 and Blue 1 whereas Canadian Froot Loops are coloured with concentrated watermelon juice and blueberry juice.
A 2018 report from New York College and the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Environmental Well being and Local weather Change discovered synthetic meals colours might have an effect on kids’s habits and exacerbate signs of attention-deficit/hyperactivity dysfunction.
Just lately the FDA stated it was transferring to ban the usage of Crimson 3 dye in meals merchandise, drinks and ingested medicine, in response to a 2022 petition from well being teams and activists.
Processed meals and continual illness
Kennedy has criticized the U.S. meals business and the proliferation of ultra-processed meals, blaming them as one motive for the rise of continual illness within the U.S.
“A whole bunch of those chemical compounds at the moment are banned in Europe, however they’re ubiquitous in American processed meals,” he stated throughout a September 2024 roundtable dialogue on well being led by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc. “We are actually poisoning our kids systematically for revenue.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of Well being and Human Providers walks to a gathering with Sen. Bernie Sander within the Dirksen Senate Workplace Constructing on Jan. 8, 2025, in Washington.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Pictures
A 2021 joint examine by the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention and the College of São Paolo in Brazil discovered that individuals who consumed extra energy from ultra-processed meals had decrease scores on checks measuring cardiovascular well being.
Kennedy has additionally railed in opposition to seed oils, calling them “one of many driving causes of the weight problems epidemic” and has referred to as on quick meals eating places to fry their merchandise with animal fat as a substitute.
Seed oils comprise sure sorts of wholesome fat which might be good for the guts when utilized in moderation, a long time of analysis reveals.
Claims that fluoride impacts kids’s growth
In an interview with NPR in November, Kennedy doubled down on his promise that the Trump administration will suggest that native governments take away fluoride from their water provides.
He has claimed that fluoride in ingesting water impacts kids’s neurological growth and that different international locations which have eliminated fluoride from their water provides haven’t seen a rise in cavities. Some well being professionals have expressed issues about extreme fluoride consumption and potential toxicity.
Nonetheless, high-quality research present fluoride prevents cavities and repairs harm to tooth brought on by micro organism within the mouth. Fluoride additionally replaces minerals misplaced from tooth because of acid breakdown, in keeping with the CDC.
ABC Information’ Youri Benadjaoud and Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.