Trump picks RFK Jr., anti-vaccine activist, for health and human services secretary
www.nbcnews.com
During his presidential campaign, Kennedy developed a national profile for his criticism of the Covid vaccines and childhood immunizations.

Summary

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an outspoken anti-vaccine activist, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Known for promoting debunked claims linking vaccines to autism, Kennedy’s appointment has sparked concerns within federal health agencies, with some FDA staff reportedly considering resignations.

Kennedy, who previously ran for president before endorsing Trump, has hinted at plans to overhaul the FDA, ban fluoride in drinking water, and reduce ultra-processed foods.

His nomination marks a significant potential shift for U.S. public health policy.

  • leaky_shower_thought@feddit.nl
    0·
    9 days ago

    i think i remember in the debates, maybe it was JaDonald Vance, saying “it is either we choose to rely in science people, or rely on wisdom and common sense Trump has”.

    this is that wisdom.

  • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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    9 days ago

    Next time ebola breaks out, I half expect him to eat a live bat on TV to prove it doesn’t exist and immediately become patient zero right here

  • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    What on Earth is the NIH thinking right now?

    I mean, what if an moon landing skeptic took over NASA? It’s like that. They literally produce this mountain of evidence and organize this stuff, and… yeah.

  • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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    9 days ago

    I feel like these articles blowing up now is just a way to make people less interested when it eventually has to pass the Senate… manufacturing consent and all that

  • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
    0·
    9 days ago

    Ban floride testing of the water, there’s no treatment used in mass water to remove all natural occurring floride.

  • bamboo@lemm.ee
    0·
    9 days ago

    I don’t know how he thinks he’ll reduce ultra-processed foods but that’s probably not the worst. Other stuff is 🤮

    • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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      9 days ago

      Depends on what he means by “ultra-processed”, but you can bet that it’s probably not a reasonable criteria that he’ll be using.

      The man isn’t rational, and doesn’t base his conclusions on sound reasoning.

      Note the call to lessen regulations around “raw milk, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine”. That’s pretty insane.

      And I can almost be certain that what they’ll do is eliminate funding for snap benefits and school lunches going to what they’ll classify as “ultra processed foods”, without adjusting funding to account for what they left behind being significantly more expensive. Some definitions of “ultra-processed” include things like “store bought bread”, “frozen meals”, “soup concentrate”, “yoghurt” and “sausage”.
      Call me cynical, but I think if you apply the stricter work requirements for benefits they always want, while reducing the scope of the benefits to cover fewer things, and almost nothing helpful for the people with the severe time restrictions the work requirements can cause you’ll end up seeing people use the benefits far less often, because they give less usable food for the money. Then they’ll use that to justify reducing the size of the program even further.

      We expect people making school lunches to make hundreds of meals that finish at the same time, to have the meal be nutritionally complete, tasty, and now also not use frozen or premade ingredients. We give them literally $1 for the ingredients for these meals, and maybe another $2 for operational overhead like labor costs and equipment.
      Saying you can’t use canned tomato sauce, peanut butter, pre-packaged bread or ground meats is basically just cutting funding for feeding children under the guise of not paying for a scary sounding classification of food.

    • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      9 days ago

      In practice what it probably means is removing all the modern preservatives and added vitamins/minerals. Who’s excited to get goiter and pellagra?!

      Doing that would also mean a return to traditional preservatives: salt and sugar. Because we don’t have enough of that in the American diet already.