{"id":6658,"date":"2025-02-22T21:08:09","date_gmt":"2025-02-22T21:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=6658"},"modified":"2025-02-22T21:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-02-22T21:08:09","slug":"hhs-secretary-robert-kennedy-jr-will-be-a-disaster-for-public-health-predict-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=6658","title":{"rendered":"HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., Will Be a Disaster for Public Health, Predict Experts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Sunita Sohrabji<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr., confirmed by the Senate Feb. 13 to head up Health and Human Services, is likely to gut public health research, including the development of new vaccines to address the onslaught of diseases the US currently faces.<\/p>\n

Kennedy, who was grilled extensively during the\u00a0confirmation process<\/a>\u00a0for his anti-vaccine bent, was confirmed by the full Senate on a 52-48 vote. Former Republican Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, a polio survivor, was the sole Republican to vote against Kennedy\u2019s confirmation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not here to attack vaccines,\u201d Kennedy repeatedly stated during his confirmation hearings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not clear how much of what Mr. Kennedy is saying is just hype and words and how much is going to be action,\u201d said virologist Dr. Ben Neuman, a professor of biology at Texas A&M University. \u201cBut I can confidently say that if he carries out everything he says, it would gut the infectious disease research landscape in the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a thing that may not have immediate consequences because the process of going from a new virus to a new vaccine or drug takes several years. But when you shut off the pipeline, it creates this downstream effect where eventually nothing is going to be coming out. So that is very much my concern and we will see how that plays out,\u201d said Neuman, at a Jan. 10 Ethnic Media Services news briefing (see related story<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Vulnerable Children<\/h2>\n

Neuman expressed concern about Kennedy\u2019s anti-vaccine stance regarding vaccines that are now mandatory for school children. \u201cSince the time we\u2019ve had vaccines associated with school, those have been a big part of the eradication of polio, for example, which is a disease that a lot of younger children catch. There are easily preventable viruses out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if the immunity of the youngest group who are the most susceptible and the most likely to spread the viral franchise, I think we\u2019ll see a lot of spillover into older people, parents, communities, and we don\u2019t really know what the effect will be except to say that it will be bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s depressing, but yes. We are seeing a very large decrease in the vaccines that are not obligatory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spikes in Infectious Diseases<\/h2>\n

Neuman said he expects to see spikes of whooping cough cases, measles, chickenpox, and other illnesses currently protected by vaccines.<\/p>\n

11 million fewer doses of the flu vaccine were taken up in 2024, and compared to 2020, 49 million fewer doses were delivered. \u201cAnd we\u2019re seeing the results in the numbers of virus infections, not only in hospitals,\u201d he said, noting that the H1N1 strain of flu can be effectively stopped with a vaccine because it\u2019s a more recent virus. The H3N2 strain is harder to control with vaccines.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeing about equal numbers of both of those out there. And that is disheartening,\u201d said Neuman. Just 8% of the US population has received a booster Covid-19 vaccination, he added.<\/p>\n

Vaccine Skepticism<\/h2>\n

\u201cI\u2019m worried that the anti-science movement will make people not take advantage of all the tools that we have,\u201d said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of California, San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Defend Public Health, an organization comprised of public health academicians, released a\u00a0letter\u00a0<\/a>Jan. 13, expressing concern about Kennedy\u2019s vaccine skepticism.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nation\u2019s health department must be led by someone who respects and believes in science \u2013 robust basic research, pandemic preparedness and evidence-based approaches to all conditions that threaten Americans\u2019 lives and well-being and are designed to protect us from cradle to grave,\u201d said the letter, which bore over 700 signatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Kennedy is well known for his conspiracy-driven theories on vaccines, COVID-19, HIV, and fluoridation. His unfounded, fringe beliefs could significantly undermine public health practices across the country and around the world,\u201d wrote the signatories.<\/p>\n

Source: Published without changes from Ethnic Media Services<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BySunita Sohrabji Robert F. Kennedy Jr., confirmed by the Senate Feb. 13 to head up Health and Human<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[255],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america-under-attack"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6660,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6658\/revisions\/6660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}