WASHINGTON — To earn the vote he wanted to turn out to be the nation’s high well being official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a particular promise to a U.S. senator: He wouldn’t change the nation’s present vaccination schedule.
However on Tuesday, talking for the primary time to 1000’s of U.S. Well being and Human Providers company staff, he vowed to research the childhood vaccine schedule that stops measles, polio and different harmful ailments.
“Nothing is going to be off limits,” Kennedy mentioned, including that insecticides, meals components, microplastics, antidepressants and the electromagnetic waves emitted by cellphones and microwaves additionally could be studied.
Kennedy’s remarks, which circulated on social media, had been delivered throughout a welcome ceremony for the brand new well being secretary on the company’s headquarters in Washington as a measles outbreak amongst principally unvaccinated individuals raged in West Texas. The occasion was held after a weekend of mass firings of 1000’s of HHS staff. Extra dismissals are anticipated.
In his feedback Tuesday, Kennedy promised {that a} new “Make America Healthy Again” fee would examine vaccines, pesticides and antidepressants to see if they’ve contributed to an increase in continual sicknesses equivalent to diabetes and weight problems which have plagued the American public. The fee was shaped final week in an government order by Donald Trump instantly after Kennedy was sworn in because the president’s new well being secretary.
That directive mentioned the fee will probably be made up of cupboard members and different officers from the administration and can develop a technique round youngsters’s well being inside the subsequent six months. Kennedy mentioned it is going to examine points, together with childhood vaccinations, that “were formally taboo or insufficiently scrutinized.”
His name to look at the vaccination schedule raises questions on his dedication to Republican Sen. Invoice Cassidy, a Louisiana doctor who harbored deep misgivings over the well being secretary’s anti-vaccine advocacy. Cassidy finally voted to ship Kennedy’s nomination to the Senate flooring after he mentioned Kennedy gave him assurances that he wouldn’t alter the federal vaccine schedule.
“On this topic, the science is good, the science is credible,” Cassidy mentioned throughout a Senate flooring speech earlier this month explaining his vote. “Vaccines save lives. They are safe.”
Rigorous research of 1000’s of individuals adopted by a long time of real-world use have confirmed that the vaccines accepted by the Meals and Drug Administration for each youngsters and adults safely and successfully stop ailments.
Cassidy mentioned throughout his Senate speech final month that Kennedy had made numerous guarantees that stemmed from “intense conversations” to garner his help. Particularly, Cassidy mentioned Kennedy would “maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ recommendations without changes.”
These suggestions are what pediatricians across the nation use to resolve the most secure and best ages at which to supply vaccinations to youngsters. The committee meets yearly to evaluate the most recent knowledge on each outdated and new vaccines to make sure there aren’t any pink flags for security or different points earlier than publishing its annual schedule.
When contacted about Kennedy’s remarks, Cassidy’s workplace didn’t remark.
Kennedy gained a loyal following for his nonprofit by elevating objections to COVID-19 protocols and doubts across the COVID-19 vaccine. Regardless of his work, Kennedy repeatedly advised senators that he was not “anti-vaccine” throughout his affirmation hearings.
Dr. Paul Offit, an infectious-disease professional at Youngsters’s Hospital of Philadelphia who sits on a federal vaccine panel, didn’t imagine him.
“I think he will do everything he can to make vaccines less available and less affordable because he’s an anti-vaccine activist,” Offit, who developed the rotavirus vaccine that’s on the CDC’s childhood immunization schedule, mentioned final week.
Kennedy promised staffers on Tuesday throughout his speech that he would hold an open thoughts in his new job and requested them to return the favor.
“A lot of times when I read these articles characterizing myself, I think I wouldn’t want to work for that guy, either,” Kennedy mentioned, eliciting some laughs from the gang. “Let’s start a relationship by letting go of any preconceived perceptions you may have of me.”