Vaccines, fluoride, raw milk: How RFK Jr.’s views may shape public health

The announcement that President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the new leader of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has brought renewed attention to many comments the nominee has made about public health. 

Kennedy was announced as Trump’s pick on November 14. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he will lead a department that oversees myriad agencies that regulate important public health programs and conduct scientific research. The list includes the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That means that Kennedy could have a hand in drug and vaccine approvals, food safety and more, issues that touch virtually everyone.

Many of Kennedy’s views on health issues run counter to decades of research and broad scientific and medical consensus, yet he has gained a public following. Here’s a look at the established science behind some of the key issues Kennedy has raised in the past and that may be impacted under the new administration. 

Fact: Vaccines save lives

Kennedy is a dominant force in the anti-vaccine movement (SN: 5/11/21). He told podcaster Lex Fridman in a July 2023 interview, “There’s no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective.” 

Not true. In terms of effectiveness, the World Health Organization says, “vaccines have saved more human lives than any other medical invention in history” — praise that is backed by ample evidence. 

In the United States, a slew of infectious diseases, including polio, diphtheria, measles and smallpox, caused hundreds of thousands of cases of illness in the 20th century. By the end of that century, cases had dropped by 95 to 100 percent, primarily due to the widespread introduction of vaccines.

During the coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19 vaccination prevented 14.4 million deaths globally in the first year it was available, from December 2020 to December 2021, researchers reported in the Lancet Infectious Diseases in 2022.

And research on the beneficial impact of vaccines keeps coming. Since 1974, vaccination against 14 pathogens has prevented 154 million deaths worldwide, most of them among children: Immunization averted 146 million deaths among kids younger than 5, researchers reported in the Lancet in May. 

In the United States, routine childhood immunizations for kids born from 1994 to 2023 will have staved off an estimated 508 million cases of illness, stopped 32 million hospitalizations and prevented 1.1 million children from dying, researchers reported in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report in August.

The spread of misinformation and disinformation on vaccine safety has a long history but now reaches many more people via social media (SN: 11/11/21). Kennedy’s own Instagram account was taken down from 2021 to 2023 for posting debunked claims about the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines. Common misinformation about the safety of vaccines has been refuted by a large body of evidence. For example, vaccines do not diminish the body’s ability to mount an immune response. 

Vaccines are tested in people for safety and effectiveness before being licensed by the FDA. After approval, multiple national surveillance systems continue to monitor vaccine safety. 

“Vaccines are the safest and most cost-effective way to protect children, families and communities from disease, disability and death,” Benjamin Hoffman, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement on November 15.

Fact: The measles vaccine doesn’t cause autism

Anti-vaccine advocates including Kennedy continue to push the debunked notion that vaccines cause autism. A paper published in 1998 in the Lancet purported to find a link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and autism. The paper, based on falsified data, was later retracted, but the damage was done, and the idea that vaccines in general could cause autism took off (SN: 5/11/21). 

The science is settled: There is no evidence that suggests vaccines — or any of the ingredients in them – cause autism spectrum disorders. 

The causes of autism aren’t known, but they are likely complex (SN: 10/16/18; SN: 7/29/11). Current thinking is focused on differences in brain development early in life, probably even in the womb. Scientists are exploring genetic differences and differences in how neurons grow as possible links, and are investigating ways to look for the disorder early in life (SN: 2/27/14; SN: 1/11/19; SN: 4/10/17). 

Fact: Fluoride in water strengthens teeth

Earlier this month, Kennedy announced his goal of removing fluoride from drinking water. 

A naturally occuring mineral, fluoride has a special superpower: It can rebuild teeth. When acid from bacteria eats away at tooth enamel, fluoride can breach the gap and entice other sturdy minerals such as calcium and phosphate to latch on. This process, called remineralization, keeps cavities at bay. 

That’s why fluoride has been added to water supplies in the United States since the 1940s – a move described in 1999 by the CDC as one of the 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century. 

Kennedy and other fluoride skeptics argue that the mineral damages the growing brains of children. And in high doses, it can. There have been reports of fluoride toxicity from around the world. But as the saying goes, the dose makes the poison. In the United States, the optimal dose of fluoride is set at 0.7 milligrams per liter of water, well below levels that have been linked to harm. 

Some communities that have removed fluoride from municipal water supplies have noted a rise in tooth decay. In Canada, children in Calgary, where fluoridation was stopped in 2011, had more decay than neighboring kids in Edmonton, where fluoride stayed in water. Similar trends of more dental decay have turned up in Israel, which stopped fluoridating water in 2014, and in Juneau, Alaska, where fluoridation was stopped in 2007. 

Cavities can lead to pain, trouble talking and eating, social and psychological harm. Untreated tooth decay, in kids and adults, can cause death. Fluoridated water is backed by medical organizations including the World Health Organization, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Dental Association. 

Fact: Microbes in raw milk can make people sick

In an Oct. 25 post on X, Kennedy accused the FDA of “aggressive suppression” of a laundry list of substances, one of which was raw milk. 

Raw milk hasn’t been pasteurized, a process that heat-treats food products to kill harmful microbes (SN: 11/18/22). Proponents list a variety of reasons to drink raw milk, including the claim that some bacteria in raw milk could be beneficial for gut health. But those bacteria come from cows or the farm environment, and only microbes that come from people can be an asset to our health. 

Pasteurization to kill the bad stuff is key for food safety, according to both the FDA and CDC. People who drink raw milk could be exposed to foodborne bacteria such as E. coli, Salmonella and Listeria, all of which can cause severe illness. 

What’s more, genetic traces of bird flu have shown up in milk amid an outbreak in U.S. dairy cows (SN: 4/25/24). While pasteurization kills the virus, it could stick around in raw milk and pose an infection risk. Mice that consume virus-spiked milk can get infected with bird flu, for example, suggesting humans might be at risk, too.

Fact: Hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin don’t treat COVID-19

Hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, two drugs that gained notoriety during the COVID-19 pandemic, were also listed in Kennedy’s Oct. 25 X post. While early studies done on cells in dishes raised hopes that the treatments might help COVID patients, myriad studies have since shown that hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug, and ivermectin, an antiparasitic, are ineffective against the coronavirus (SN: 8/2/20). 

Despite the immense evidence against the drugs’ use for COVID, some people, including Kennedy, continue to falsely claim that they could have saved lives during the pandemic. In a July 2023 interview with Fox News, Kennedy said that fewer people would have died if hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin had been available to treat COVID. The FDA had authorized hydroxychloroquine for emergency use in the pandemic’s early days. But the agency pulled that authorization because studies showed it was no better than a placebo at preventing or dampening the disease (SN: 6/15/20).