Kennedy falls on a bumpy start as a US health secretary

The vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy took over a major health crisis in mid -February with a breakout of the disease that had previously been explained in the United States.

More than 300 people, mainly children, have now been infected with measles in Texas and New Mexico, and two non -vaccinated people have died – the first US deaths from the illness for a decade.

“In a few years we have hundreds of measles outbursts every year, measles breaks,” said the man, known as RFK Jr. in an interview with Fox News in a Fast -Food restaurant.

In the past few weeks, he has alerted and annoyed medical specialists with comments in which the gravity of the crisis was played down, and ambiguous comments on vaccination and others who promote alternative remedies.

“He couldn't do a worse job than him,” said Paul Offit, a renowned pediatrician who specializes in infectious diseases, vaccines, immunology and virology.

“People assumed that when he became a secretary for health and human services, he became a little more responsible towards public health and that they were wrong,” Offit told AFP.

– Crisis management –

In a opinion subject published by Fox News at the beginning of this month, Kennedy said: “Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to the immunity of the community, which protects those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons.”

Nevertheless, he raised doubts and caused anger by further questioning the security of vaccines.

In mid -March he claimed in Fox News that the measles vaccine itself caused deaths “every year”.

“It causes all diseases that cause themselves, encephalitis and blindness, etc., and so people should be able to make this choice for themselves.”

Offit disagreed. “He says that the measles vaccine blind and deaf

Kennedy's crisis management skills were reportedly criticized in his own employees, with the US media reporting one of his spokesmen, and even some Republicans.

Last week, the White House withdrew at the last minute in the candidacy of David Weldon, a close employee of Kennedy, to lead the centers for the control and prevention of diseases (CDC) – the main authority of the public health system in America – after he had come to the conclusion that he would lose a confirmation of the Senate.

– Transparency and beef fat –

Measles celebrates a comeback when the vaccination rates have decreased because more and more Americans who are careful of the security of vaccines ignore warnings from health authorities to get shots.

Kennedy is accused of having contributed to this problem by arguing that there is a connection between the measles, mumps and Rötella (MMR) vaccinations and autism – an exposed theory that comes from a study based on manipulated data and contradicts later research.

Nevertheless, Kennedy's health department recently ordered a new study on this alleged link. A spokesman told AFP: “The autism rate among American children has shot up. In his mission, CDC will not leave anything to find out exactly what happens.”

This promise of transparency is a kind of mantra for Kennedy, a nephew by the deceased President John F. Kennedy, when he promises to make the Americans healthy again, partly by fighting the consumption of heavily processed food.

Kennedy has decided to sharpen rules for food additives, but also approved a fast food chain that his French fries cooked or made fat in beef alg that had been placed as unhealthy in America ago.

In terms of transparency, Kennedy critics say that he had achieved the opposite by eliminating a guideline that comments on the public voice of health policy.

Expert level was canceled under Kennedy and new guidelines were announced without internal discussion in the department.

Nate brought Kennedy's management style criticized for a US health authority but had resigned last month.

“The way things are treated is very not transparent,” he told AFP. “Everyone is deliberately kept in the dark.”

Cha/dw/des