Kennedy is Unqualified and Wrong

OK, before you come after me for using the "F" word, just know that dramatic times require dramatic responses.

Robert F Kennedy Jr. is now Donald Trump's pick to lead the giant Department of Health and Human Services. This choice is absurd and wrong on so many levels. His kooky and unscientific views on vaccines and promotion of untested supplements are dangerous. Public Health experts across the nation are appalled and these are people who actually use data and population trends to make decisions that have benefited society. His controversial positions include claims that vaccines cause autism in children, that AIDS is not caused by HIV, that antidepressants are responsible for mass school shootings and that atrazinem a widely used herbicide, triggers gender dysphoria and young people identifying as transgender. "He has spent his entire life fomenting distrust in public health", says Dr. Lawrence Gostin, a global health expert at Georgetown University.

We have sadly learned how susceptible Americans are to lies, misinformation and propaganda. The CDC director, Mandy Cohen recenly warned that Kennedy's views on vaccines could cost lives. He will be overseeing 13 agencies under HHS, including the Center for Disease Control, National Institute for Health, and the Food and Drug Administration. He wants to fire experts at a number of these agencies, including the nutrition department at the FDA that he says, "Are not doing their job. They're not protecting our kids." He has said he will fire 600 people at the NIH and replace them immediately with loyalists. He is also promoting less FDA regulation policies for alternative treatments like psychedelics, stem cells and certain supplements. He would remove the disclaimer that untested supplements aren't being sold to "diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease". In his world, anything goes. Despite the hundreds of well-run studies that showed Invermectin was not effective against Covid, he is still promoting it. He said "Covid-19 is targeted to attack caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese." He promotes drinking raw milk. (uggh)

There is no dispute that Americans are unhealthy and chronic disease and obesity in adults and children is at a dangerous and all-time high level. And public health experts agree that processed foods are a huge problem and the revolving door between the food industry, Big Ag and the government has influenced US Health Agencies long enough. Stricter oversight of the food industry would be welcome. The US allows chemicals and additives in our foods that are banned elsewhere in the world. (Titanium dioxide, Brominated vegetable oil (BVO), BHA and BHT, rBST, food dyes). But can't we have a leader that is willing to take on these problems without bringing outlandish theories into the mainstream. And I won't even get into the brain worm or the bear in Central Park. Please!!!

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr does not have the medical training or the skill of managing a large organization, and he's not a well-trusted individual. The one attribute he has is that he is loyal to Donald Trump.