Articles
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr (RFKJr.): The Destruction of Our Public Health System
The United States has spent centuries developing an outstanding evidence-based public health system. During his first couple of months at the helm of the US Department of Health and Human Services, RFKJr. is threatening the health and safety that we have come to take for granted.
For one glaring example, he has demonstrated a total misunderstanding of vaccine issues. He wants to allow people to choose whether they want to receive recommended vaccines or not. Sounds reasonable? Not when we look at our experience with measles. If we do not require people to have measles vaccine, we will not achieve 90+% rates of measles immunity, and we will have epidemics of measles, like the one we have today!
If you are in a room with someone who has measles, you are 90% likely to contract the virus; measles is our most contagious disease to date. 3 out of 1000 people who contract measles will die. Before widespread use of the measles vaccine, 400-500 people a year in the US died of measles and 48,000 were hospitalized, 1000 them with life-altering brain inflammation. The only ways the US can assure our country is safe from measles is to require school-aged children to receive two doses of measles vaccine, and to recommend that adults do the same. Before the two-dose measles vaccine recommendation, our vaccination rates hovered in the 58% range; with the implementation of the two-dose recommendation and the public-school requirement, our rates moved above 90%. Today, the rate is at 92%, a little lower than during the last few years. We cannot “have it both ways” with life-threatening vaccine-preventable diseases!
He has also promoted the administration of Vitamin A, the antibacterial medicine, clarithromycin, and the inhalable steroid, budesonide as treatments for measles. Vitamin A may help malnourished individuals become more resistant to measles infection. We have no antibiotics for measles. Our only hope is to prevent the disease with universal immunization of all eligible people.
It is extremely rare for a person to suffer disability or death from a nationally-recommended vaccine in our country. During my career in pediatrics (1974-present), I have not encountered one patient who suffered permanent disability or death because of a vaccine.
RFKJr. is not a scientist, dentist, or doctor. Yet, he has decreed that we need to remove fluoride from our drinking water. He based this decision on data that came mainly from foreign countries where they put several times as much fluoride in drinking water as does the US. Our dentists are dismayed by his edict on fluoride. Children are 25% less likely to develop early dental cavities, requiring procedures under general anesthesia, if they drink fluoridated water according to the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. Secretary Kennedy should follow the advice of the real experts on water fluoridation before he enhances the pain and suffering of our children and increases our system-wide health care costs.
If people have questions about health issues such as vaccine safety/policy, or water fluoridation, they should talk with their personal health care professionals or dentists. Scanning the internet for health information can be harmful to our health!
Sources:
David T. Tayloe, Jr., MD, FAAP, Founder, Goldsboro Pediatrics, PA
Back to Archive