President Donald Trump has revealed that he will authorize Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to investigate the potential links between childhood vaccines and autism once he wins the confirmation to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Kennedy has said for years that autism is likely tied to childhood vaccines.
However, RFK Jr. must first win confirmation from the U.S. Senate to serve as HHS secretary.
He was nominated to lead HHS by Trump last month.
Kennedy has promised sweeping changes to agencies under the HHS, like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The NIH supports and funds research into autism, as well as potential new vaccines.
Kennedy has previously revealed he would revamp the NIH to focus on the causes of autism, autoimmune diseases, and neurodevelopment diseases.
He vowed to end the NIH’s practices of developing drugs and serving as an incubator for pharmaceutical products.
In his recent interview with “Meet The Press,” Trump noted that autism cases have increased in recent decades.
When asked if Kennedy would investigate the issue, Trump said he is “open to anything.”
“When you look at some of the problems, when you look at what’s going on with disease and sickness in our country, something’s wrong,” Trump said.
“I think somebody has to find out.
“If you go back 25 years ago, you had very little autism. Now you have it.”
Autism rates have soared in recent years.
CDC information shows that around one in 36 American children today has an autism diagnosis.
This is compared to one in 150 in the year 2000.
When he ran for president as a Democrat and then as an independent, fighting chronic disease, improving children’s health, and addressing corporate influence on government agencies were vital parts of Kennedy’s campaign platform.
Kennedy suspended his presidential campaign and backed Trump in August.
Under the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) campaign, Kennedy intends to curtail what he calls the chronic disease epidemic.
His plan involves addressing the so-called “corporate capture” of federal health agencies and removing toxic chemicals from the nation’s food supply, among other objectives.
Several Republicans have praised Trump’s move to nominate Kennedy as HHS secretary.
Yet, some critics oppose the nomination because they consider Kennedy to be a so-called “anti-vaxxer” or anti-science.
However, Kennedy argues that these characterizations that Kennedy has said are not true.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) called Kennedy a “conspiracy theorist.”
Garcia claims that Kennedy “will destroy our public health infrastructure and our vaccine distribution systems.”
Peter G. Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said in a statement that the center “opposes this nomination.”
“Nominating an anti-vaxxer like Kennedy to HHS is like putting a Flat Earther at the head of NASA,” Lurie claims.
Kennedy has consistently said that he isn’t against vaccines and that he advocates vaccine safety and informed consent.
RFK Jr. will face confirmation hearings with the Senate Finance Committee.
The hearings are scheduled to be led by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID).
If he is approved by that panel, the full Senate will vote on his nomination.
No comments:
Post a Comment