Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sounded the alarm over anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect’s Trump’s choose to guide the Division of Well being and Human Companies (HHS).
“Say goodbye to your smile and say hello to polio — that’s what’s on the horizon if Robert F. Kennedy Jr. becomes the Secretary of Health and Human Services,” Warren wrote in a publish on social platform X Friday, together with a video message.
“You know, I would laugh if it weren’t so scary,” the Massachusetts Democrat mentioned within the video.
The publish comes as Trump’s option to elevate Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, has sparked concern amongst Democrats and public well being specialists that he may meddle with key authorities businesses, amplify vaccine hesitancy and direct company funding to favor his most well-liked views.
Kennedy, who suspended his personal impartial run for the White Home and endorsed Trump, has been within the headlines recently after the president-elect signaled in a current interview that the potential HHS chief would examine a debunked hyperlink between vaccines and autism.
One in every of Kennedy’s extra controversial concepts is eliminating the usage of fluoride, a naturally occurring substance that has been utilized in consuming water since 1945, from “all” U.S. water techniques.
He additionally claimed the mineral was “associated” with quite a few medical points, although the problems are linked to the next publicity to fluoride than most expertise whereas consuming water or brushing their enamel.
Fluoride is essentially thought of probably the most vital public well being measures of the twentieth century.
Kennedy, who grew to become a key surrogate for Trump’s marketing campaign, has mentioned federal well being regulators are “sock puppets” held captive by trade particular pursuits. He has promised to purge total departments on the Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) to get rid of corruption.
Warren, in her publish, additionally took goal at Kennedy’s opposition to vaccinations, claiming that he desires to “stop kids from getting their polio and measles shots.”
Kennedy based and led the anti-vaccine group Youngsters’s Well being Protection (CHD) earlier than stepping right down to launch his presidential marketing campaign in 2023. He has beforehand acknowledged he believes the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal in vaccines causes childhood neurological problems, autism specifically.
Although, in October, Kennedy wrote in a publish on X that he gained’t “take anybody’s vaccines away from them.”
“I just want to be sure every American knows the safety profile, the risk profile, and the efficacy of each vaccine,” he said. “That’s it.”
