In the course of the listening to to contemplate his nomination to guide the Division of Well being and Human Providers, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke at size about points in well being and medication, together with the reason for persistent sicknesses, Covid-19 and ultraprocessed meals.
Here’s a operating record of key well being claims, fact-checked by our reporters.
Continual Illness
Mr. Kennedy’s opening assertion targeted on rising persistent well being situations, saying there was a disaster in kids’s well being in america. Many specialists agree — although they disagree concerning the causes.
Forty p.c of youngsters have a persistent well being situation, and the determine is increased for adolescents when weight problems is included.
Roughly one in 36 kids is identified with an autism spectrum dysfunction, in response to knowledge from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. One in 4 has an allergy or eczema, and charges of Sort 2 diabetes have been rising in these 19 and underneath yearly.
And whereas Sort 2 diabetes charges are rising, they’re nonetheless low: Based on the American Diabetes Affiliation, it happens in 0.35 p.c of Individuals underneath the age of 20.
Who Covid-19 Impacts
Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado pressed Mr. Kennedy on a press release Mr. Kennedy made in 2023 by which he steered that the coronavirus focused and spared sure ethnic teams.
“Covid-19 is focused to assault Caucasians and Black folks,” he mentioned in a video from The New York Publish. “The people who find themselves most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese language.”
In response to Mr. Bennet, Mr. Kennedy referred to a federally funded research from the Cleveland Clinic revealed early within the pandemic that attempted to decipher who was most vulnerable to the virus.
Scientists have mentioned that Mr. Kennedy’s interpretation of the research broadly distorted the findings within the paper. Whereas it discovered genetic variations which may make one particular person extra vulnerable to Covid than one other, the variations had been too uncommon to make any generalizations about giant teams of individuals.
Kids’s Threat From Covid
In the course of the listening to, Mr. Kennedy additionally asserted that 6-year-old kids “mainly” have “zero” threat from Covid.
The C.D.C. has famous that kids with underlying medical situations are at increased threat from extreme outcomes from Covid, in addition to infants youthful than six months of age.
Ultraprocessed Meals and Weight problems
Early within the listening to, Mr. Kennedy singled out processed meals as a driver of the weight problems epidemic.
“We shouldn’t be giving 60 p.c of the children in class processed meals that’s making them sick,” he mentioned.
Many public well being and vitamin specialists say that ultraprocessed meals — which make up an estimated 73 p.c of the U.S. meals provide — are in all probability an element within the weight problems disaster in america, and it might be useful to chop again on them.
However different researchers say that the weight problems epidemic is probably going a results of many entangled components, each environmental and genetic, and that the phenomenon could have began lengthy earlier than there have been ultraprocessed meals.
The class can also be wide-ranging, and it’s not clear if all ultraprocessed meals are dangerous, specialists say. There could also be downsides to avoiding some ultraprocessed meals, like flavored yogurts and entire wheat breads and cereals, they add, as a result of they will present beneficial vitamins.
Lindsey Smith Taillie, an affiliate professor of vitamin on the U.N.C. Gillings College of World Public Well being, mentioned that it might be “transformative” to take away ultraprocessed meals from faculty lunches. However, she added, faculties would want extra assets to organize meals from scratch.
Medicare and Medicaid
All through the listening to, Mr. Kennedy struggled with the nuances of Medicaid and Medicare.
He steered “extra folks would reasonably be on Medicare Benefit” however can’t afford it as a result of it’s dearer. In truth, Medicare Benefit is typically inexpensive on a month-to-month foundation for beneficiaries.
He additionally described Medicaid as being absolutely federally funded. Spending is definitely break up between the states and the federal authorities. He went on to explain the premiums and deductibles as being too excessive when, besides in very uncommon circumstances, Medicaid enrollees don’t pay both of these sorts of charges.
Fluoride in Water
Mr. Kennedy referenced a current research that discovered an affiliation between fluoride and I.Q. — analysis that he felt vindicated his earlier considerations concerning the risks of fluoridated ingesting water.
Whereas the outline of the research’s findings was correct, there are notable caveats.
The research, by scientists from the federally funded Nationwide Institute of Environmental Well being Sciences, was an evaluation of dozens of fluoride research, which discovered increased fluoride exposures had been linked to decrease I.Q. scores.
Nonetheless, researchers cautioned that not one of the research included within the evaluation had been performed in america, the place advisable fluoridation ranges in ingesting water are very low. At these quantities of fluoride, proof was too restricted to attract definitive conclusions.
The C.D.C. has famous that its specialists “haven’t discovered convincing scientific proof” linking group water fluoridation with adversarial well being results.
