“Recall that Kennedy infamously asserted back in December 2021 that the COVID-19 vaccine “is the deadliest vaccine ever made.” Reams of subsequent research have found that COVID-19 vaccines are in fact generally safe and effective.
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In June, Kennedy falsely stated that the Centers for Disease Control had suppressed a hepatitis B vaccine study in newborns in 1999 that found “an 1,135 percent elevated risk of autism among the vaccinated children.” In fact, the researchers cited by Kennedy reported in 2003 that they found “no consistent significant associations” between the vaccine and autism. Infants infected with hepatitis B via mother-to-child at birth or during their first year of life have a 90 percent chance of developing a chronic infection—of which 15 to 25 percent will eventually die of cirrhosis or liver cancer. Since vaccination for all newborns was approved in 1991, infections with the hepatitis B virus in children and teens have decreased by 99 percent.
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Kennedy has commended Coca-Cola and Tyson Foods for replacing high fructose corn syrup with cane sugar. One problem: There is essentially no nutritional difference between them. That said, health-conscious Americans would do well to heed Kennedy’s call to consume less sugar.
As for food dyes, as recently as 2023 the FDA concluded that the totality of the evidence showed no adverse effects when children consume foods containing color additives. That was then, but this is now. In April, Kennedy denounced synthetic food dyes as “poisonous compounds.” At the time, he laid out a timeline for the food industry to transition to natural alternatives by 2027.
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a recent meta-analysis found that drinking water containing more than 1.5 milligrams per liter of fluoride slightly lowers children’s I.Q. scores. Keep in mind, though, that the recommended level of fluoridation in the U.S. is 0.7 milligrams per liter. A 2023 meta-analysis found that the level of fluoride in community water systems “is not associated with lower IQ scores.
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As the scope of Kennedy’s initiatives show, his agency’s vast powers allow him to inflict his peculiar obsessions on the health and lives of Americans—for good and for ill.”