Health Minister Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Inform the parents of newborns to “do your own research” before vaccination of their infants during a television interview, which also suggested that the measles shot was insecure and repeatedly made false statements that dispute the benefits of the vaccine and the benefits of the vaccine.
Mr. Kennedy made the observations on the host of Talk Show Dr. Phil in an interview with Merittv on Monday to mark the 100th day of Trump’s administration. He said, as he has in the past, that “if you want to avoid spreading measles, the best thing you can do is get this vaccine.”
But Mr Kennedy has also made it clear, as he has in the past, that he believes it is up to people to decide. Suggesting vaccines are not safe, it contradicts decades of advice from public health experts, including leaders of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Centers.
“I would say that we live in a democracy and part of the responsibility of being a parent is to do your own research,” the health secretary said, answering a question from a woman to the audience who asked how to advise a new parent on vaccine safety. “You are examining the baby’s trolley. Research the foods they take and you need to research the medicines they also take.”
The phrase “I did my own research” became a cultural and political terminal during the Corona Pandemic, when vaccination supporters, especially in the political left, used it to discredit those who had chosen not to be vaccinated. It became an internet memorandum and appeared on false surfaces in Halloween cemeteries in liberal neighborhoods.
The Ministry of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to request for comments.
Mr Kennedy’s comments came amid the largest measles epidemic in about 25 years in the United States, which included the deaths of two young children and one adult.
Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician and vaccine expert at the Philadelphia Children’s Hospital, who often contradicts Mr Kennedy, said that “it was” absolutely reasonable to be a rationale for vaccines “, but that the parents who wanted to do their own research.
“What your research needs to do is that you have to talk or at least look on the internet, people who have experience in the field, which does not mean looking at chat rooms or simply on social media blog posts,” said Dr. Offit. He added that while there is good information, “there are also many real sources of information that will mislead you for your choice and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a perfect example of that.”
Another vaccine expert, Dr. Peter Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston said Mr Kennedy was a fool. “He says that – doing your own research – knowing very well that when a parent does his own research, they are now downloading mostly an attack by misinformation – many of them from health and well -being, the nutritional influence industry trying to reduce alternatives.”
Mr Kennedy also suggested, without evidence, that measles shots are causing a variety of diseases. “Is it stopping measles?” he asked. “Yes, but it does something else, it causes you seizures or causes a neurological or autoimmune disease? We don’t know, no one can answer this question.”
In fact, studies have shown that, with rare exceptions, people who are vaccinated are less likely than those who suffer from infections for the development of autoimmune diseases, which led researchers to conclude that vaccines “have not only the ability to protect the patient, but also from the patients.
Mr Kennedy’s other statements in the interview were also full of inaccuracies. “New medicines are approved by external tables, not by FDA or CDC,” he said.
This is false. External panels of experts advise the FDA on controversial or high profile drug approval decisions and some members of the Commission have ties to the industry that are publicly disclosed before the meetings begin. But only the FDA has the power to approve or reject new medicines, vaccines and other treatments. CDC has no role in drug approvals.
“Mr Kennedy needs an information on the development of drugs and FDA decisions on marketing,” said Dr. Robert Califf, the organization’s commissioner under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. “It is either ignorant of the matter or deliberately misleading the audience.
Mr Kennedy also insisted, inaccurately, that the vaccines are not evaluated for security either before or after the permission. “There are no safety studies from the beginning, there is no surveillance system after,” he said, adding: “Vaccines are the only medicine or medical product that is exempt from safety tests before licensing.”
In fact, the licenses of the Food and Drug Administration allow the vaccines after a year procedure that begins with extensive testing in the laboratory and in animals and evolves into human testing. The FDA requires careful studies on the safety and efficiency of vaccines, often with thousands of people in major tests, said Dr. Peter Marks, head of the Organization’s vaccine department, who was recently forced to resign.
“I don’t know where this misunderstanding comes from,” said Dr. Marks, who criticizes Mr Kennedy. “Vaccines should be studied extensively for security. By definition, we give these products to healthy people.
After the vaccines are licensed, they are monitored via alphabet soup of databases. The vaccine safety connection system is based on electronic health records from medical centers across the country. It is responsible for detecting unusual side effects, including rare cases of myocarditis or heart muscle inflammation, among young men receiving COVID-19 vaccines.
Another system, the reference system for vaccines, developed in 1990 as a “national early warning system”, is based on reports by patients and providers. Although many vaccine critics, including Mr Kennedy, reported Vaers data to argue that vaccines are dangerous, the system was not designed to determine whether vaccines cause health problems. Designed to get tips that can be further explored in other types of data systems.
The FDA has an additional security monitoring program called BEST or the biological efficiency and safety initiative.
Dr. Sean O’Leary, chairman of the Infectious Disease Committee for the American Academy of Pediatrics, said it was a mistake to claim that federal officials did not monitor vaccine safety. “I don’t know where this comes from,” he said, “because none of them are true.”
He added: “We know many rare side effects. If it is clear that the risks are still close to compensating the benefits, the vaccine is pulled from the market.”
