RFK Jr. has embraced fringe well being care concepts for many years. If Trump wins, he’ll doubtless have the ability to affect promotion and funding for these items.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Former President Trump advised NBC yesterday that eradicating fluoride from the water provide, quote, “sounds OK” to him. He was responding to a declaration from his ally Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He is lined as much as advise Trump on federal well being coverage, and Kennedy has unfold misinformation about vaccines. As NPR’s Selena Simmons-Duffin stories, public well being consultants are alarmed.
SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN, BYLINE: Including fluoride to water programs began in 1945 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It has been used extensively since then to forestall tooth decay in youngsters. In truth, the CDC has known as it one of many 10 nice public well being achievements of the twentieth century. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defined his place on fluoride at an occasion with The New York Solar in September.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ROBERT F KENNEDY JR: I feel fluoride is a poison.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Over the weekend, he posted on X that on Inauguration Day, former President Donald Trump would advise all U.S. water programs to take away fluoride. He wrote, quote, “fluoride is an industrial waste,” finish quote, and mentioned it was related to arthritis, IQ loss, thyroid illness, amongst different circumstances. Not true, says Dr. Paul Offit of the Youngsters’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
PAUL OFFIT: Fluoride’s been nicely examined. It clearly and positively decreases cavities and isn’t related to any clear proof of the persistent illnesses talked about in that tweet.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Offit has written many books, together with one about celebrities and politicians spreading debunked well being data.
OFFIT: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a science denialist. He makes up his personal scientific truths and ignores the precise truths.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Kennedy is very fervent in his advocacy towards the usage of vaccines, explains Offit.
OFFIT: Which illnesses would he prefer to see come again? – polio, which, you understand, prompted as much as 35,000 circumstances of paralysis a yr and 1,500 deaths? – or whooping cough, which might trigger 8,000 youngsters to die yearly?
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Kennedy, on Monday, posted a video urging his supporters to vote for Trump so he is elected with a powerful mandate.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
KENNEDY: And nobody will have the ability to cease us when he empowers me to wash up corruption within the federal companies, and particularly our well being companies.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: These well being companies embrace the Meals and Drug Administration, the Nationwide Institutes of Well being and the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, amongst others.
Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR Information, Washington.
Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional data.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content will not be in its last type and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability could range. The authoritative report of NPR’s programming is the audio report.
