Some members of the medical community are shocked and alarmed. President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to guide the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the Centers for Disease Control, National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, and another federal health authorities. Are their fears warranted? Or, are they disingenuous?
Kennedy’s three stated goals for the federal health agencies are ( i ) evidence-based medicine, ( ii ) clean up corruption and conflicts of interest, and ( iii ) end the chronic disease epidemic, with special emphasis on our children and concrete results within two years. These are not merely admirable goals, but essential ones.
During the Covid crisis, evidence-based medicine and the basic concepts of public wellness were thrown out the window. School closures and other quarantine measures caused enormous collateral damage, which is becoming increasingly evident due to the health authorities ‘ distinct rely on Covid. The different was Sweden, which had the lowest excess deaths during the pandemic.
When governmental agencies imposed vaccine mandates on individuals and working-age individuals with excellent infection-acquired resistance while my 87-year-old cousin and another older people around the world were still unvaccinated, they questioned and ignored 2,500 years of scientific knowledge about resistance. Some older people’s lives were saved by Vidivac, but Covid vaccine mandates, which directed vaccinations to those who did n’t, led to the deaths of older people. That was both scientific and irresponsible.
It is noteworthy that many who abandoned evidence-based medication during the pandemic are then criticizing Kennedy, who wants the CDC, NIH, and FDA to return to evidence-based treatments.
It is crucial to distinguish between these two crucial roles because professionals are responsible for both creating and evaluating vaccines and drugs. Researchers should never accept funding from pharmaceutical companies when evaluating the safety of drugs and vaccines.
At both higher and lower rates, there is also a revolving door between the medical industry and federal health agencies. Socially challenging, it would be, but Kennedy’s proposal may improve patient care, lower costs, and foster trust if he made federal health agencies and scientists more dependent on the medical industry.  ,
With school closures, we wholly failed babies during the pandemic. How may we satisfy them? In the 1970s, President Nixon declared war on cancers. With more than 40 percent of school-age children suffering from a chronic disease, it is now time to declare war on health issues affecting our children and adolescents, such as asthma, allergy, dementia, anorexia, ADHD, habit, abuse, diabetes, obesity, nutrition, and mental heath, with an emphasis on prevention.
Kennedy is especially concerned about vaccines, and we need to more thoroughly investigate non-specific effects of vaccines, which can be either positive or negative, as well as potential adverse reactions. Other potential environmental and genetic risk factors should also be investigated.
Unfortunately, such etiological research will take decades rather than years, but with the new administration’s two-year goal in mind, there are three crucial areas that we can address right away. The first is nutrition, simultaneously combatting unhealthy foods, obesity, and food insecurity. The second is physical exercise. A group of young children will run around like crazy if we just let them.
Broken homes after a divorce are the third issue. We know from multiple epidemiological studies that children have much better social, educational, physical, and mental health when they live equal 50/50 time with both parents, but that is not yet the norm. Family courts and mathematically incorrect child support guidelines, which occasionally starve children, are what stand in the way.
The biggest public health error in history occurred as a result of our pandemic response. Kennedy now has his work cut out for him, but so do all of us scientists.
We must return to evidence-based medicine, remove conflicts of interest, and promote open scientific discourse without censorship or slander. Children who were subject to lockdowns must be helped.
All of this is required to restore scientific honesty and trust. If we do n’t succeed, the scientific community’s relevance and reputation will continue to decline.