100 Day Review: HHS Secretary RFK Jr.

For RFK Jr. the cons vastly outweigh the pros.

Pros: HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. is cutting out unhealthy food dyes from U.S. food products 👍

Cons: He also continues to misrepresent basic health facts and fire essential health workers.

– He has trivialized infectious diseases (e.g. measles) by falsely reporting secondary infections as primary causes of death.

– He has paused or eliminated grant, research, and surveillance programs that are essential for the health and wellbeing of U.S. workers, residents, and citizens.

– He is damaging public health programs like meals on wheels, smoking cessation programs, and programs that track, report, and prevent infectious diseases.

From Forbes:

Cuts at CDC

– Viral hepatitis lab
– TB Communication, Education, and Behavioral Studies Branch
– STD Prevention Lab and Disease Intervention branches
– HIV prevention
– National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
– Development and Disability, Disability and Health Promotion Branch
– Division of Blood Disorders and Public Health Genomics
– Office of Health Equity (All: OD, Office of Women’s Health, Office of Minority Health)
– Office of Equal Employment Opportunity
– Traumatic Brain Injury team
– National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
– Smoking reduction
– National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Disease, discontinuing funding for Lyme Disease, Prion Disease, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Cuts at FDA

– Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee
– Center for Drug Evaluation and Research
Call center phones are off
– Media affairs is gone (there is no one for journalists to call for interviews or to verify information. Staff are not supposed to have any communication with outsiders)
– The Freedom of Information Act office is gone

Cuts at NIH

– National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
– Office of the Director
– Much of the Office of Communications and Government Relations
– Office of Minority Health (entire office is gone)

Sources:

https://lnkd.in/gZ3GsREe

https://lnkd.in/gfmbCiWc

https://lnkd.in/gKFMZGnq

https://lnkd.in/gmcsvC7Y

https://lnkd.in/g9gA9-dw

https://lnkd.in/gTaAiQsk