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Public health expertsDoctors and scientists reacted with fury and disgust to the announcement that Donald Trump would nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of Health and Human Services. If Kennedy, who also promoted dangerous and ridiculous ideas about fluoride, 5G technology and the causes of HIV/AIDS, among countless other pseudoscientific claims– assumes this position, “the damage it could cause is almost infinite,” warns Dr. Andrea Love, immunologist and microbiologist.

The scope of Health and Human Services is immense: it brings together 13 other agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Indian Health Service.

Kennedy, a trained environmental lawyer with no background or degree in medicine or public health, is the founder of the anti-vaccine organization Children’s Health Defense. He became one of the loudest voices in the anti-vaccine movement when he began falsely claiming nearly 20 years ago that the shots were linked to autism.

Kennedy’s nomination is not a surprise. After Kennedy abandoned his own independent presidential campaign, he quickly supported Trump’s. While campaigning together, the ex-president pledged to let him ” go wild about health” in a new administration, as he put it, as part of Kennedy’s so-called “Make America Healthy” agenda – proposals that amount to dismantle and defund government health agencies Kennedy has long opposed it.

University of Alberta law and public health professor says having Kennedy in such a powerful role is Timothy Caulfield” Horrible. A real disaster.

“This is a person who spread deadly lies and conspiracy theories,” added Caulfield, author of several books on the impact of pseudoscience on public health. “He ignores the evidence. He ignores the experts. I have no doubt that it will do a lot of harm…generational harm…public health, trust in science and biomedical research. Additionally, internationally, it will normalize and legitimize pseudoscience and health misinformation, making them more pervasive and harder to verify.

Peter Hotezrecognized vaccine expert and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, is also deeply concerned. He said Mother Jones he is preparing an article on “what could happen to our vaccine ecosystem,” he said.

“It could collapse and we could see polio in the sewage and the return of regular outbreaks of measles and whooping cough,” he said. “And of course, preparedness for H5N1 and other pandemic threats could suffer. »

Dr. Love, who tracks health misinformation online and recently in the face of vitriol of people aligned with the MAHA movement, sees a long list of public health threats under a Kennedy-led HHS. “Honestly,” Love said, “if you look at the competence of the HHS secretary, the damage he could do is almost infinite. And nothing in its long history gives any indication that it will do anything to improve health, especially for the disadvantaged.

It could “divert, redirect and reallocate grants and research funds” toward “marginal research,” Love warns, “reduce funding for education and public health initiatives like vaccination campaigns or other health interventions.” public health like fluoridation” and slow or stop regulatory approval. “for vaccines, biologics, immunotherapies and other critical medical interventions.” Since Kennedy wrongly demonized Covid vaccines as “gene therapy,” Love suspects he will be hostile to the true applications of this science – “the cutting edge of our research into cancer, autoimmunity, disease genetics and latent viral infections. The blow to biotechnology will certainly be substantial.

“Conversely, it could also relax regulatory requirements for less robust wellness interventions like its “peptide” and “chelation” therapies in order to move them through regulation and give them the appearance of legitimacy,” she explained.

“This role would give him a global platform to spread disinformation… He can lie, spread falsehoods and undermine scientific evidence beyond what he has already done. » Love says. “I would expect him to spread more lies about the causes of cancer, the epidemic of “chronic disease,” “toxic chemicals,” and much more. It may also delay or refuse to communicate factual information” during public health crises, such as epidemics.

In charge of HHS, Kennedy could appoint what Love called “unqualified and ideological individuals” within the department and the agencies he oversees who could “erode and erase these critical agencies from within.” It could replace qualified advisory board members with unqualified individuals, further dismantling these agencies.”

Not everyone reacted negatively to Kennedy’s nomination. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), himself a physician and a former member of a fringe medical group who fueled vaccine suspicion, applauded the news, write on Twitter/X“Finally, someone to detoxify the place after the Fauci era. Get ready for healthcare freedom and MAHA! » And Colorado Democratic Governor Jared Polis also issued a welcoming message: explaining that Kennedy “helped us defeat vaccine mandates in Colorado in 2019 and will help make America healthy again by shaking up HHS and the FDA.” (A Polis spokesperson later released a declaration saying the governor remained “opposed to RFK’s positions on a host of issues, including vaccines and the fluoride ban.” “)

Even before Trump tapped him, Kennedy announced a radical vision to reshape some U.S. public health agencies to his liking. At an entrepreneurship conference last week, he outlined his plans to fire and replace 600 workers at the National Institutes of Health. (The NIH declined to comment on the plan, but the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees government workers, provided a statement: “OPM and the Biden-Harris Administration have a deep appreciation and respect for our country’s public servants and the importance of a non-partisan, merit-based public service. We cannot comment on the actions of future administrations.

Caulfield, the University of Alberta professor, summed up how many medical and public health professionals seem to feel when considering the prospect of Kennedy taking the job. “As someone who has worked in this field for decades,” he said, “I can honestly say it has never been this bad. It feels like we are heading into a new dark age.