Washington (AP) – Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the highest health officer of the nation, was sitting there with a steak ‘n Shake with Fox News moderator Sean Hannity and raves about the french fries.
“Steak ‘n shake was great, we are very grateful for her,” said Kennedy between French fries that the recently announced franchise franchise from the middle west would be cooked in beef valley, instead of together in joint dishes that Kennedy claims – in contrast to advice from nutritionists – are bad for the nutrition of the Americans.
It is the type of confirmation that applied him to make the childhood vaccines that prevent deadly diseases, such as measles, as in Texas and New Mexico deteriorated during his first month of office.
Instead, the secretary for health and human services collected doubts about vaccines in his interview with Hannity that the recordings cause “deaths every year”, even though he later added that vaccinations should be promoted.
In his first month of office, Kennedy, who sworn to “make it well”, has an inconsistent message that fears the specialists of the country’s infectious diseases, which are worried that his deafening recommendations are undermined access to long -term, life -saving vaccines.
Public health authorities cancel vaccine meetings, research under Kennedys clock
During his first speech to thousands of employees of the federal health authorities, including the centers for the control and prevention of diseases as well as the Food and Drug Administration, Kennedy promised to “examine” the schedule for the vaccine in childhood. Days later, the CDC canceled a public meeting of the advisory committee for immunization bodies, a group of doctors and scientists, which made recommendations to vaccines. This meeting was not postponed.
In another case, a canceled public session of vaccination consultants who make recommendations for the FDA every year was not received any novel date. This week, the National Institutes for Health, also under Kennedy’s responsibility, began to terminate the financing for some research into vaccines.
The CDC is also preparing for research into autism and vaccines and plans to “leave nothing unexpectedly in its mission, to find out what exactly happens,” said HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon in an explanation. Agency officers have not commented on this article.
Numerous studies have concluded that there is no connection between the two, a fact that the agency places on their website. And studying again could take money from other research, including the search for the real cause of autism, Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican in Louisiana, stated when he was the National Institute of Health Director, Dr. Jay Bhattcharya, questioned.
When Bhattarya suggested that more studies could be worthwhile because some believe that there is a link, Cassidy replied: “There are people who do not agree to the world.”
“What (Kennedy) tries to frighten the security of vaccines,” said Dr. Paul Offit, an FDA vaccine consultant and doctor for infectious diseases in the children’s hospital in Philadelphia, about Kennedy’s first month of office. “It shouldn’t surprise anyone. His agenda was always to bring vaccines from the market or make them less available. ”
Offit fears that the cancellation of the FDA flu meeting, which takes place every March for at least 30 years, has only been created. The meeting of the committee in June to recommend the formulation of the COVID-19 vaccine was also not planned, he said.
Democrats and Republicans pushed back when Dr. Marty Makary, the FDA candidate, was not obliged to postpone the committee’s flu meetings.
“What is lost is transparency,” said Cassidy, the Republican from Louisiana, who is the chair of the Senate Health Committee and also a doctor.
Kennedy rejects the “anti-access’ label, but still reflects the movement
During his hearings to confirm his Senate at the beginning of this year, Kennedy seemed to say that he would not undermine the vaccines. “I support vaccines. I support the children’s plan, ”he said. He promised Cassidy, who was unsettled by Kennedy’s anti-access work that he would not change the existing vaccine recommendations.
In the hearings, however, he repeatedly refused to recognize scientific consensus that vaccines do not cause autism in childhood and that covid-19 vaccines saved millions of lives, and he mistakenly claimed that the government had no good surveillance of vaccine security.
And since his confirmation, Kennedy has repeated his skeptical views of vaccines in interviews and other public statements.
He sent “mixed news” for vaccine security, although the USA “has the most complex surveillance system of the global vaccine event -“, said Dr. William Schaffner, expert for infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University. Serious problems, including death, are very sporadic and the advantages of vaccination far outweigh the risks, he said.
“An easy way to describe this to the average person is that the serious undesirable events generally occur at a speed of 1 to some cases per million,” he said. “This is a needle in the haystack.”
In an opinion subject to Foxnews.com at the beginning of this month, Kennedy, the measles outbreak into West texas, in which a six-year-old child had remained dead, was a “call to action”, but it was no longer recommended that people receive the vaccine that prevents 97% of cases. Although the United States registered its first measles death in a decade, Kennedy has repeatedly downplayed this year’s outbreaks and found that when he was a child, “everyone has measles”.
This year’s cases reported at 250 are on the right track at last year’s reports of over 286 measles infections to surpass the last year.
Pediatricians ask more questions from confused parents in their examination rooms, said Dr. Susan Kressly. You are concerned about reports on canceled vaccine meetings and are surprised about your access to flu vaccine next year. Other questions whether you used to get doses of measles, mumps and rubella vaccines (MMR). Kress said there is a clear message that the government can send to stop counting the increasing case.
“The only way to stop an outbreak is an increased coordinated positive news about vaccination,” said Kressly.
The CDC supported the vaccination efforts in West Texas. But Kennedy himself has campaigned for an alternative treatment for measles: Vitamin A. Under his observation, the guidance of the CDC was updated to say that vitamin a children with severe measles should be given and prescribed in doses under the supervision of a doctor.
Vitamin A supplementation has been recommended for decades to reduce pneumonia and death among malnourished children in developing countries, but the advantages of well -eating children in countries such as the USA are less clear.
“We have to use vitamin A for children who are unlucky to get measles,” said Dr. Andy Pavia, expert for pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Utah. “But it cannot prevent measles and can only provide help with reducing the severity.”
In the case of correct administration, the operate of vitamin A in children with severe measles will “do no damage,” said Pavia. But if you have improperly done, high vitamin -a can be poisonous and fatal.
Kennedy’s supporters celebrate success on the food front in the first month
Above -to -do changes have also dominated Kennedy’s first weekend in office, with the CDC pick Dave Weldon pulled back just a few minutes before his hearing.
However, the supporters of Trump and Kennedy dismissed concerns about the rocky start.
His newly discovered platform as a health secretary and speech about healthier foods already affects changes in American nutrition. Consultants near Kennedy and Trump have claimed on social media.
They scream Kennedy that they prompted Republican legislators to introduce invoices in Utah and Texas that would try, for example, to prohibit soda in the supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. And then there is steak ‘N Shake’s New Pommes.
“RFK Jr. has just eaten steak ‘n shake on live television, the Fast -Food -Joint, which is frying everything in beef talg,” said the conservative podcaster Charlie Kirk in a tweet this week. “That’s the way.”
In fact, experts in nutritional sciences say that decades of research show that the consumption of herbal oils lowers the risk of heart disease and that there is no evidence that beef alg is healthier than seed oils.
On Wednesday, Kennedy released a silky -produced video after a meeting with a handful of managers from the largest food manufacturers in the country, in which more changes were promised.
“You understand that you have a new sheriff in the city,” said Kennedy.
He did not share any details about what was discussed at the meeting.
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Matthew Perrone and Mike Stobbe, Associated Press Writers, contributed.
