Throughout the listening to to contemplate his nomination to steer the Division of Well being and Human Companies, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke at size about points in well being and drugs, 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.
Persistent Illness
Mr. Kennedy’s opening assertion targeted on rising persistent well being circumstances, saying there was a disaster in youngsters’s well being in america. Many consultants agree — although they disagree in regards to 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 youngsters is identified with an autism spectrum dysfunction, in keeping with information from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. One in 4 has an allergy or eczema, and charges of Kind 2 diabetes have been rising in these 19 and below yearly.
And whereas Kind 2 diabetes charges are rising, they’re nonetheless low: In keeping with the American Diabetes Affiliation, it happens in 0.35 p.c of Individuals below 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 recommended that the coronavirus focused and spared sure ethnic teams.
“Covid-19 is focused to assault Caucasians and Black individuals,” he stated in a video from The New York Submit. “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 examine from the Cleveland Clinic printed early within the pandemic that attempted to decipher who was most vulnerable to the virus.
Scientists have stated that Mr. Kennedy’s interpretation of the examine extensively distorted the findings within the paper. Whereas it discovered genetic variations that 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
Throughout the listening to, Mr. Kennedy additionally asserted that 6-year-old youngsters “principally” have “zero” threat from Covid.
The C.D.C. has famous that youngsters with underlying medical circumstances 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 youngsters at school processed meals that’s making them sick,” he stated.
Many public well being and diet consultants say that ultraprocessed meals — which make up an estimated 73 p.c of the U.S. meals provide — are most likely an element within the weight problems disaster in america, and it will be useful to chop again on them.
However different researchers say that the weight problems epidemic is probably going a results of many entangled elements, each environmental and genetic, and that the phenomenon might have began lengthy earlier than there have been ultraprocessed meals.
The class can be wide-ranging, and it’s not clear if all ultraprocessed meals are dangerous, consultants 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’ll present precious vitamins.
Lindsey Smith Taillie, an affiliate professor of diet on the U.N.C. Gillings College of World Public Well being, stated that it will be “transformative” to take away ultraprocessed meals from college lunches. However, she added, faculties would wish extra assets to arrange meals from scratch.
Medicare and Medicaid
All through the listening to, Mr. Kennedy struggled with the nuances of Medicaid and Medicare.
He recommended “extra individuals would reasonably be on Medicare Benefit” however can’t afford it as a result of it’s dearer. In reality, Medicare Benefit is usually inexpensive on a month-to-month foundation for beneficiaries.
He additionally described Medicaid as being totally federally funded. Spending is definitely cut 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 instances, Medicaid enrollees don’t pay both of these varieties of charges.
Fluoride in Water
Mr. Kennedy referenced a latest examine that discovered an affiliation between fluoride and I.Q. — analysis that he felt vindicated his earlier considerations in regards to the risks of fluoridated consuming water.
Whereas the outline of the examine’s findings was correct, there are notable caveats.
The examine, 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 really useful fluoridation ranges in consuming 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 consultants “haven’t discovered convincing scientific proof” linking group water fluoridation with opposed well being results.