As RFK Jr. prepares for Senate confirmaiton listening to, this is the place he stands on vaccines, meals dyes

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is about to go earlier than the Senate on Wednesday in his affirmation listening to to steer the Division of Well being and Human Providers (HHS) below President Donald Trump.

Kennedy has steadily promoted views at odds with the consensus of public well being researchers and the mainstream scientific group, together with falsely claiming that sure vaccines trigger autism and calling for fluoride to be faraway from ingesting water, claiming it harms adolescent growth.

The environmental lawyer has vowed to crack down on dyes within the meals trade and has referred to as for restrictions on ultra-processed meals.

Throughout a charity dinner final yr in New York Metropolis, Trump pledged Kennedy would “go wild on well being” and that Kennedy “needs wholesome individuals, he needs wholesome meals.”

Here is a take a look at the place Kennedy stands on a number of well being points:

Questioning vaccine security

Though Kennedy has denied he’s “anti-vaccine” and has mentioned his kids have been vaccinated, he has promoted views on vaccines that consultants have refuted.

Throughout a 2023 interview on Fox Information, Kennedy mentioned he believes autism comes from vaccines, a delusion born from a now-debunked paper from the U.Ok. in 1998 that claimed the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine precipitated autism.

The paper has since been discredited by well being consultants, retracted from the journal wherein it was revealed, and its main writer, Andrew Wakefield, misplaced his medical license after the paper was discredited and an investigation discovered he had acted “dishonestly and irresponsibly” in conducting his analysis. Greater than a dozen high-quality research have since discovered no proof of a hyperlink between childhood vaccines and autism.

Kennedy has additionally unfold what the medical group has thought-about to be vaccine misinformation in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, falsely claiming the COVID-19 vaccine is harmful.

Throughout a December 2021 Louisiana Home of Representatives assembly discussing a proposal to require schoolchildren to obtain the COVID-19 vaccine, Kennedy falsely referred to as the vaccine the “deadliest vaccine ever made.”

In the identical yr, Kennedy petitioned the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration to revoke its authorization of all COVID-19 vaccines. The FDA denied the petition three months later.

Well being officers say COVID-19 vaccines are protected and efficient following medical trials that concerned tens of 1000’s of individuals, and have since helped save hundreds of thousands of lives.

Eradicating synthetic dyes from meals

Kennedy has been vocal about his opposition to synthetic dyes, calling for them to be faraway from meals and drinks.

“The very first thing I would do is not going to price you something as a result of I am simply gonna inform the cereal corporations: Take all of the dyes out of their meals,” about actions he’d take as a member of the Trump administration, in response to a social media submit from the non-profit Kids’s Well being Protection, of which Kennedy is a founder.

Kennedy has steadily cited Froot Loops for instance of a meals with doubtlessly dangerous dyes, saying the model of the Kellogg’s cereal offered overseas is more healthy and has fewer substances in comparison with the U.S. model.

Kellogg’s has insisted its merchandise are protected for consumption, saying the substances meet the federal requirements set by the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration.

Kennedy was fallacious in regards to the variety of substances — Canadian Froot Loops have 17 substances in comparison with 16 within the U.S. Nonetheless, the 2 cereals differ with regards to using dyes.

American Froot Loops include synthetic meals dyes resembling Pink 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6 and Blue 1 whereas Canadian Froot Loops are coloured with concentrated watermelon juice and blueberry juice.

A 2018 report from New York College and the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Environmental Well being and Local weather Change discovered synthetic meals colours could have an effect on kids’s conduct and exacerbate signs of attention-deficit/hyperactivity dysfunction.

Lately the FDA mentioned it was transferring to ban using Pink 3 dye in meals merchandise, drinks and ingested medicine, in response to a 2022 petition from well being teams and activists.

Processed meals and persistent illness

Kennedy has criticized the U.S. meals trade and the proliferation of ultra-processed meals, blaming them as one purpose for the rise of persistent illness within the U.S.

“Tons of of those chemical compounds are actually banned in Europe, however they’re ubiquitous in American processed meals,” he mentioned throughout a September 2024 roundtable dialogue on well being led by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc. “We are actually poisoning our kids systematically for revenue.”

A 2021 joint examine by the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention and the College of São Paolo in Brazil discovered that individuals who consumed extra energy from ultra-processed meals had decrease scores on exams measuring cardiovascular well being.

Kennedy has additionally railed in opposition to seed oils, calling them “one of many driving causes of the weight problems epidemic” and has referred to as on quick meals eating places to fry their merchandise with animal fat as an alternative.

Seed oils include sure kinds of wholesome fat which might be good for the center when utilized in moderation, many years of analysis reveals.

Claims that fluoride impacts kids’s growth

In an interview with NPR in November, Kennedy doubled down on his promise that the Trump administration will advocate that native governments take away fluoride from their water provides.

He has claimed that fluoride in ingesting water impacts kids’s neurological growth and that different nations which have eliminated fluoride from their water provides haven’t seen a rise in cavities. Some well being professionals have expressed considerations about extreme fluoride consumption and potential toxicity.

Nonetheless, high-quality research present fluoride prevents cavities and repairs harm to enamel attributable to micro organism within the mouth. Fluoride additionally replaces minerals misplaced from enamel because of acid breakdown, in response to the CDC.

ABC Information’ Youri Benadjaoud and Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.