Feb. 18 (UPI) — U.S. Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. said he will make the potential effects of childhood vaccine schedules and anti-depression drugs among his first items to investigate.
Kennedy announced his intentions on Tuesday to a group of Department of Health and Human Services employees and said “nothing will be off limits,” ABC News reported.
Kennedy addressed HHS workers after being confirmed as health secretary last week and amid widespread firings of federal government staffers in multiple agencies, including the HHS.
The new health secretary told staff to maintain an “open mind” while revisiting what many have considered to be “settled science.”
Kennedy said he wants those with diverse views to “study the causes for the drastic rise in chronic disease” in the United States.
“Some of the possible factors we will investigate were formally taboo or insufficiently scrutinized,” Kennedy told HHS staffers. “I’m willing to subject them all to the scrutiny of unbiased science.”
He cited childhood vaccine schedules, ultra-processed foods, glyphosates, electromagnetic radiation and drugs used to treat anxiety and depression among possible factors in rising rates of chronic disease.
“Those who are unwilling to embrace these kinds of ideas can retire,” Kennedy said, adding that he trusts HHS staff to support improving the general health of U.S. citizens.
Kennedy previously said he intends to “Make America Healthy Again” by targeting food additives and environmental pollution that he says is killing U.S. citizens through chronic disease.
Kennedy’s intent isn’t universally embraced, though.
Pediatrician and infectious disease expert Dr. Adam Ratner is among those who say Kennedy’s efforts might prove to be more dangerous than helpful.
“It’s very disturbing that someone who has spent so much of his career trying to undermine confidence in vaccines, trying to tear down the infrastructure that approves and recommends vaccines, has the potential to be in a position of power over the infrastructure that has those goals,” Ratner told NPR.
Ratner suggested Kennedy is undermining public confidence in vaccines that have been beneficial in halting the spread of measles, COVID-19 and other diseases.
“Mentors of mine have said many times of the years, ‘it is much easier to scare people than un-scare them,'” Ratner said.
“Just by elevating anti-vaccine views in the guise of RFK [Jr.], I think that we risk a crisis in vaccine confidence in the U.S.,” he added.
