READ MORE:Donald Trump's nomination of Robert F Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services sent shares of major drug companies crashing today.
Kennedy's ‘Make America Healthy Again’ tapped into the frustration at the fact that the US spends more on healthcare than any other country yet is among the sickest, with a lower life expectancy than peer nations like the UK, Canada and Australia. President-elect Donald Trump is pictured above with Robert F Kennedy Jr at a rally in Arizona in August. The President elect has promised to give him a 'big role' in the new administrationFocus on prevention and non-pharma interventionsKennedy wants to move the US from a reactive healthcare system that treats people once they're sick, to a preventive healthcare system that tries to stop diseases emerging in the first place.
Robert F. Kennedy is pictured above. He says he plans to overhaul US food policy to combat obesity and additives in food He also supports nutraceuticals, which are products derived from food sources that claim to provide benefits beyond basic nutrition. In 2019, Kennedy flew to Samoa during the nation's measles outbreak to campaign for people not to get the vaccine — saying it would cause autism, a theory widely debunked.
This is similar to European nations like Germany and France, which also mandate vaccinations for attending school, but differs from the UK — where all childhood vaccines are voluntary but widely recommended.Vaccination uptake in the US is now falling to dangerously low levels, with experts blaming the explosion in conspiracy theories.
He has promised to ban ultraprocessed food from schools and provide families 'with safe food and end the chronic disease epidemic plaguing our children.'He has only explicitly mentioned Yellow 5, but similar ingredients that could be under the microscope are Red 40, Blue 1, titanium dioxide, propylparaben and potassium bromate, which are often added to sweets and baked goods.
Added to the water supply for three-quarters of Americans, it has been heralded as the greatest public health achievement of the 20th century for its ability to prevent cavities and tooth decay and save families thousands in dental bills. Writing on X, Kennedy said: 'On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all US water systems to remove fluoride from public water.
Some studies have suggested exposure to high levels of fluoride can affect the thyroid, a gland in the front of the neck that manufactures hormones. The American Dental Association is a strong advocate of adding fluoride to water, with the CDC estimating it has saved more than $6.5billion in dental bills.
But Kennedy wants to make them more accessible for Americans and provide greater flexibility for how the money is used — which may include also using it to access functional medicine doctors.