A day after attending the funeral of an unvaccinated youngster who died of measles, Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will kick off a tour by way of Southwestern states on Monday, spotlighting initiatives that emphasize vitamin and life-style selections as instruments for combating illness.
The Make America Wholesome Once more tour, which is able to take Mr. Kennedy by way of components of Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, is meant to attract consideration to a number of the secretary’s common-ground pursuits, however the first day is scheduled to finish with a extremely contentious one: a information convention to focus on Utah’s new legislation that bans including fluoride to public ingesting water provides.
The tour comes as questions develop concerning the federal authorities’s response to a measles outbreak in West Texas that has unfold to different states. The demise of an unvaccinated 8-year-old woman there final week was the second confirmed fatality from measles in a decade in the USA. Mr. Kennedy attended the woman’s funeral on Sunday and met together with her household earlier than persevering with to Utah.
Mr. Kennedy’s workers stated that over the course of three days, he deliberate to go to a number of well being facilities, together with a medical college’s “educating kitchen” to coach college students on managing persistent illness utilizing dietary selections. He’s scheduled to satisfy with leaders of Navajo Nation to debate the cultural and logistical challenges of offering high-quality well being care to tribal teams and to go to a constitution college in New Mexico that “integrates wholesome consuming and bodily health into its every day scholar life.”
Throughout his first months in workplace, Mr. Kennedy’s insurance policies have been unfurled with nice brouhaha, however the secretary himself has been comparatively low profile, notably for an official along with his diploma of fame. The White Home has inspired Mr. Kennedy to take a extra public-facing method to his function, however the timing of his first main push out within the nation would require toeing a cautious line round probably the most conspicuous subject on the desk.
Public well being consultants say the measles outbreak that has now contaminated almost 500 individuals in West Texas is pushed by low vaccination charges. Mr. Kennedy, who’s famously skeptical of vaccine security, shifted his rhetoric after the little woman’s funeral, posting on X: “The best approach to forestall the unfold of measles is the MMR vaccine.”
It was probably the most definitive assertion he has made endorsing vaccines as a preventive software, however some public well being consultants had been dismayed that he didn’t explicitly suggest that oldsters vaccinate their youngsters and didn’t say the vaccines had been protected. And several other hours later he posted on X once more, praising two medical doctors who’re utilizing unproven therapies to take care of a whole bunch of kids with measles.
For months, Mr. Kennedy has emphasised that vaccination was a matter of parental selection and inspired individuals to think about unproven regimens like vitamin A, which might result in toxicity, and urged that poor life-style selections had been at play amongst victims.
Eating regimen and vitamin “don’t supply any profit to stop an infection with measles by any means,” stated Dr. Michael Mina, an epidemiologist and immunologist who has studied measles.
Wholesome meals and train can “assist restrict the results of many infections, together with measles, however won’t forestall them,” he added. “Prevention is by far the most effective drugs.”
Mr. Kennedy is more likely to face additional questions on measles throughout his information convention Monday afternoon in Salt Lake Metropolis, although the occasion is geared toward calling consideration to a completely completely different subject: fluoridation of ingesting water.
Mr. Kennedy has urged states and municipalities to take away fluoride from ingesting water since earlier than the 2024 election. The American Dental Affiliation has stated that water fluoridation reduces dental decay by no less than 25 p.c in youngsters and adults.
The fluoridation debate stretches again to the Nineteen Fifties, when conspiracy theories swirled round whether or not the apply was a Communist plot to trigger mind injury. Some research recommend that extra publicity to fluoride — at ranges twice the quantity really helpful by the Environmental Safety Company — may hurt infants. The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention has listed fluoridation as one of many 10 nice public well being achievements of the twentieth century.
