‘I’m going to let him run wild on health care,’ former President Trump promised Sunday during his rally at Madison Square Garden. “I’m going to make him crazy about food. I’m going to let him run wild with the meds.

Trump was talking about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the former political rival whom Trump increasingly considers promising will play a health role in his administration if elected for a second term.

Trump’s plans have been met with concern in the public health community, not so much because of the specific policy proposals Kennedy communicated as part of his “Make America Healthy Again” platform as for the key issue he left aside: vaccines.

“I think we’re seeing an effort to rebrand in the weeks leading up to the election, but that shouldn’t be taken seriously,” said Dr. Jason Schwartzassociate professor at the Yale School of Public Health.

Kennedy, who based the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense, which promotes anti-vaccine materials such as the recent documentary “Vaxed III: Authorized to Kill” has more recently focused on chronic illness, without mentioning its flagship issue in a September issue. opinion article in the Wall Street Journal or in a appearance Tuesday on “Fox and Friends.”

Instead, Kennedy advocated for regulating chemicals in food – including the idea of ​​swapping tallow fat in favor of seed oils to make McDonald’s fries healthier – and limiting access to soda and processed foods through school meals and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

“He knows (vaccines are) a lightning rod problem and it doesn’t help him,” said Dr. Michael Osterholmdirector of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

But, Osterholm warned, “I can’t imagine anyone who would be more detrimental to vaccines and their use than RFK.” »

Focus on chronic diseases

A Kennedy spokesperson did not directly respond to a question about whether he planned to take an agency head role in a Trump administration, but said the former president had asked him to “rid the federal health agencies from conflict and corruption and to return them. to the tradition of evidence-based science, the gold standard.

“He also called on him to address the chronic disease epidemic, which affects more than 50% of Americans and has a devastating impact on the country’s health, economy and global security,” the Gate said -speaker, Stefanie Spear.

Kennedy has recently focused on obesity and diabetes as well as kidney disease, autoimmune diseases, cancer and dependence. He wrote in the Wall Street Journal that he wanted to reform the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s funding system through user fees on the pharmaceutical industry, cap drug prices at the level they are in Europe and review guidelines for direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising on television. .

He also said he would prohibit members of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee from making money from food or drug companies, prevent National Institutes of Health funding from going to conflict of interest researchers and revise standards for pesticides and chemicals.

“Americans are getting sicker and sicker, beset by illnesses that our medical system does not treat effectively,” Kennedy wrote.

During a recent appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Trump held up a chart comparing life expectancy and health spending around the world, with the United States being a clear negative exception for both metrics.

“I’m going to send this to RFK Jr.,” Trump told Rogan, who responded, “I like that you guys teamed up.”

The Trump campaign was warned by donors and business owners “about the impacts on the party and the country of being seen as anti-scientific and having to deal with and cope with a deluge of measles outbreaks and polio,” Dr. Jerome Adams, who served as surgeon general under Trump, told CNN.

Adams said Kennedy might “spread misinformation and take us back to the dark ages when it comes to vaccine-preventable diseases” but that he hoped he would instead focus on “promoting well-being.” be general.

And, Trump allies point out, it’s hard to argue that America’s health care system can’t be improved.

“Who’s to say we’re spending a lot of money on health care and we’re not getting value for money? Joe Groganwho served as director of the Domestic Policy Council in the Trump administration, told CNN. “We are in a mental health crisis, an obesity crisis, a chronic disease crisis, and we are plagued by addiction and overdoses. We are not healthy and we need to fundamentally rethink where our money is going.

“Anything RFK can do to bring attention to this should be appreciated and welcomed by anyone who wants Americans to be healthy,” Grogan continued. “Regardless of political party. »

“Strange Bedfellows”

Kennedy’s message, at least when it comes to food policy, resonates with some health experts in this area.

“They call for fixing the food system, doing something to coordinate and address diet-related chronic diseases, ending corporate power, eliminating conflicts of interest between industry and government , to eliminate toxic chemicals from the food supply and to do everything possible to refocus the food environment and dietary advice on health,” Marion Nestle, food policy researcher. wrote on his blog Food Politics.

She was referring to a round table discussion on nutrition and policy led by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, which involved Kennedy and others that Nestlé described as “primarily influencers.”

“These are things I’ve been writing about here for years,” Nestlé said on its blog. “It’s hard to argue with any of that and I won’t.”

Yet, she noted, “politics, as they say, makes strange bedfellows.”

Nestlé expressed more skepticism when contacted by email, telling CNN that while it shares some of the same goals, “we have no evidence” that Kennedy “can or will” accomplish any of them. between them, “and ample evidence from the Trump presidency that public health, education and health care will suffer.”

On the medical side, Kennedy’s omission of vaccines in his latest policy discussions does not allay the fears of public health experts. Schwartz noted that anti-vaccine advocates often allege: without credible evidence – links between vaccines and rising rates of chronic disease, suggesting that the focus on vaccines is just below the surface of Kennedy’s current message.

Kennedy also warned that he plans to gut federal agencies, like the FDA and NIH.

“The FDA’s war on public health is about to end,” he said. job Friday on exercise “and anything that advances human health and cannot be patented by Pharma. .”

“If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records,” Kennedy continued, “and 2. Pack your bags.”

This warning followed comments Kennedy proposed ending NIH research on infectious diseases, putting doctors in the field on alert.

“Infectious diseases are an integral part of our present and will be an integral part of our future, and he wants to stop studying them? said Dr Paul Offitdirector of the Vaccine Education Center and infectious disease physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

“A science denier”

Offit said Kennedy continued to make misleading or false statements about the safety of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, including some that were related to a deadly measles outbreak in Samoa in 2019 – even though the evidence shows it to be false. When it comes to vaccines, Offit said, “he’s a science denier.”

Schwartz called Kennedy’s most recent shutdown of vaccine discussion a “last-minute attempt to clean up his reputation and rebrand himself as a reasonable champion of chronic disease prevention — presumably to land a position in a possible administration Trump,” which he said “is simply not the case.” not credible.

Osterholm, who noted that he has played a health policy role in every presidential administration since Ronald Reagan’s and considers himself a “nonpartisan soldier of public health,” said he felt obligated to speak out publicly where he hadn’t before, concerned about Trump’s potential policies and what he calls Kennedy’s “pseudoscience.”

“Everything we see and know about what a Trump administration would look like would be devastating to public health in this country,” he said. “Devastate him.”

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