Public health experts are worried that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., also known as RFK Jr., Donald Trump’s health secretary candidate, may limit access to prescribed medications and open the door for more “experimental treatments” like psychedelics and marijuana, or cannabis.
According to information obtained by Knewz.com, the vocal vaccination critic has frequently voiced his mistrust of the pharmaceutical industry, accusing it of attempting to promote prescription drugs instead of “actually getting people healthy, building their immune systems.”
Trump’s nominee to run the US healthcare system, RFK Jr., has also been rather outspoken about his conspiracy theories about vaccines and drugs. He has made the firmly held claim that “vaccines cause autism,” a notion that has long been disproven.
During his presidential campaign, RFK Jr. reportedly stated that he would legalize cannabis and utilize the tax money to establish “‘wellness farms’ where ‘we’re going to repair people’ with addiction, including to ‘psychiatric drugs’ like ‘Adderall.'”
He would have the authority to fulfill his commitments as the nation’s health secretary.
Given his hostility for Adderall and SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) prescriptions, the former independent presidential candidate has expressed concerns that he may criminalize them and make them more difficult to obtain for people who genuinely depend on them for their health.
Experts claim that RFK Jr. has long maintained his “controversial” opinions and has frequently appeared to ignore the scientific data that would contradict them.
“Having a healthy skeptic [as HHS secretary] is totally fine,” said Reshma Ramachandran, a doctor and director of the Yale Collaboration for Regulatory Rigor, Integrity, and Transparency, in a recent statement. However, that skepticism must be accompanied by at least some humility.
Ramachandran also thinks that RFK Jr. would have significant authority to completely transform the healthcare system in his capacity as the nation’s health secretary.
Theoretically, he might also contest and reverse Food and Drug Administration rulings that he disagreed with.
According to sources, the FDA rejected Lykos Therapeutics’ MDMA-assisted PTSD treatment in 2024 because the firm concealed the drug’s negative side effects, such as “suicidal thoughts and attempts,” in the findings of its clinical trials.
Lykos’s MDMA-assisted treatment was opposed by Ne e Devenot, a bioethics scholar connected to Johns Hopkins University and the non-profit organization Psymposia, which promotes psychedelic harm reduction.
According to sources, Devenot’s “opposition stemmed from hatred toward veterans, and blasted the FDA’s decision, suggesting it illustrated collusion with the pharmaceutical industry,” according to RFK Jr., who chastised him for his views.
Notably, at a July 2023 press conference, the Health Secretary nominee asserted that COVID was “ethnically targeted” in order to protect the Chinese and Ashkenazi Jews.
Reports at the time characterized the press dinner at Tony’s Di Napoli, an Italian restaurant on New York’s Upper East Side, as “a foul bout of screaming and polemic farting.”
In the press conference’s Q&A, RFK Jr. was cited as stating, “COVID-19. Some claim that it targets specific ethnic groups. Some races are disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
COVID-19 is designed to target Black and Caucasian individuals. The then-independent presidential candidate went on to say, “Chinese and Ashkenazi Jews are the most immune.”
“We don t know whether it was deliberately targeted or not but there are papers out there that show the racial or ethnic differential and impact,” he added.
Notably, the Health Secretary nominee who questioned vaccines had previously claimed in 2020 that the COVID vaccine was genetically altered to target Latino and Black males.
The nomination of RFK Jr. has caused a great deal of concern because of his beliefs. In a recent statement, Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association (APHA), stated that his organization will “absolutely oppose” the nomination and add that he is “absolutely the wrong guy for it.”
“He lacks the temperament, management abilities, training, and trust necessary for this position. Following the announcement, Benjamin released a statement saying, “He’s just the wrong guy for it.”
“He is really just a person without a health background who’s already caused great damage in health in the country,” he stated.
“We’re going advocate as loudly and as often as we can to make sure that people know what a risk he is to the public and to the public’s health.”
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