On the eve of the US presidential election in November, Kennedy issued an infamous tweet in which he accused the US Food and Drug Administration of an undeclared war “on public health” where the agency had aggressively suppressed “psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything else that advances human health and can’t be patented by Pharma”.
“If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.” The suppression of sunshine is a stretch. One can only presume Kennedy has embraced the quasi-hippy nonsense that applying a layer of sun block is more dangerous than a melanoma diagnosis.
Kennedy’s list includes mention of hyperbaric chambers. The FDA has not aggressively suppressed the clinical use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy, as Kennedy says. The agency recommends HBOT for a range of conditions including decompression sickness, anaemia and wound management. But the FDA specifically warns health consumers that some HBOT therapists may make wild claims. It specifically warns against practitioners offering “cures” for cancer and autism.
In January, a five-year-old boy was incinerated in a hyperbaric chamber in Troy, Michigan. He died within seconds and was pronounced dead at the scene. The infant was being treated for sleep apnoea and attention deficit/hyperactive disorder. The cause of the fire is not yet confirmed but it would appear to be a spark caused by static electricity. Wearing a wristband to offset static electricity in a chamber flooded with oxygen is the best form of fire prevention but reports indicate the clinic did not fit one to the boy’s wrist.
The founder and chief executive of the clinic has now been charged with second-degree murder. The clinic’s manager and safety manager have been charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. The operator of the chamber when it exploded is charged with involuntary manslaughter and intentionally placing false medical information on a medical records chart. None of the individuals charged have any professional medical credentials to their names.
The parents, understandably, are stricken with grief but one wonders what on Earth they were thinking. Such is the reach of woo science that two seemingly intelligent people would subject their own flesh and blood to considerable risk absent any clinical evidence of the efficacy of the treatment.
There has been a measles outbreak in West Texas that has now spread into New Mexico and Oklahoma. At last look there were more than 200 reported cases, with unvaccinated children accounting for the overwhelming number of hospitalisations. Children and teenagers between five and 17 make up the majority of the patients with those aged 0-4 following closely behind.
Two likely measles deaths have been reported so far in the US. One is a confirmed death associated with measles, while the other has been definitively linked to the measles virus but the cause of death officially remains under investigation.
Kennedy limply endorsed the MMR vaccine as the outbreak grew but offered the caveat that taking a vaccine was “a matter of personal choice”. Instead he claimed those children hospitalised with measles were in quarantine, a claim quickly stomped on by doctors attending to the children.
More recently, Kennedy hailed the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s intervention, providing vitamin A, buckets of cod liver oil and steroid treatments to those infected.
Kennedy is not a doctor of course but Dr Adam Ratner is. He is also a member of the infectious disease committee of the American Academy of Pediatricians. Ratner responded to Kennedy’s preferred treatment for measles: “While vitamin A can play a role in preventing severe disease, discussion of vitamins does not replace the fact that measles is a preventable disease. And really, the way to deal with a measles outbreak is to vaccinate people against measles.”
Moving on, there has been a sharp increase in influenza infections in the United States, just coming out of its winter. The CDC estimates there have been 24 million Americans infected, 310,000 hospitalisations and 13,000 deaths, including 57 pediatric deaths. The CDC recommends that everyone aged six months or older receive an annual influenza vaccine.
In February, Kennedy ordered the CDC to halt its publicity campaign that sought to encourage uptake of the seasonal flu vaccine. He also indefinitely postponed a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices.
Federal funds for cancer research have been put on hold. Meanwhile, Kennedy fluffs around, spending vital research money searching for the anti-vaxxers’ Holy Grail, the long ago debunked link between childhood vaccinations, including MMR, and autism. To the real health threats Americans face, Kennedy’s answer seems to be, drink a gallon of raw milk and call me in the morning.
How many people have to die before the penny drops and this ambulance-chasing charlatan is exposed as a hawker of pseudo science? The truth is, we may not know the exact body count for a century or more.
More Coverage
Just imagine this: Faruqi and her academic guest praise Australia
‘Thanks to the generosity and sacrifices of Australians before us, I have realised ambitions and a lifestyle that my native Pakistan would not have afforded me. Thank goodness I live in a Westminster democracy.’
Court vindicates Indigenous faith in native title fight
The High Court’s decision in Commonwealth v Yunupingu affirms a simple truth about our history.
The problem with advocates of pseudo science is that real science will catch up with their lies and distortions sooner or later. In the case of US Health Secretary, Robert Kennedy Jr, it appears to be sooner.