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RFK Jr. has embraced fringe well being care concepts for many years. If Trump wins, he’ll doubtless be capable to affect promotion and funding for this stuff.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Former President Trump advised NBC yesterday that eradicating fluoride from the water provide, quote, “sounds OK” to him. He was responding to a declaration from his ally Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He is lined as much as advise Trump on federal well being coverage, and Kennedy has unfold misinformation about vaccines. As NPR’s Selena Simmons-Duffin experiences, public well being specialists are alarmed.
SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN, BYLINE: Including fluoride to water methods began in 1945 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It has been used extensively since then to forestall tooth decay in kids. In reality, the CDC has referred to as it one of many 10 nice public well being achievements of the twentieth century. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defined his place on fluoride at an occasion with The New York Solar in September.
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ROBERT F KENNEDY JR: I believe fluoride is a poison.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Over the weekend, he posted on X that on Inauguration Day, former President Donald Trump would advise all U.S. water methods to take away fluoride. He wrote, quote, “fluoride is an industrial waste,” finish quote, and mentioned it was related to arthritis, IQ loss, thyroid illness, amongst different circumstances. Not true, says Dr. Paul Offit of the Youngsters’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
PAUL OFFIT: Fluoride’s been effectively examined. It clearly and positively decreases cavities and isn’t related to any clear proof of the continual illnesses talked about in that tweet.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Offit has written many books, together with one about celebrities and politicians spreading debunked well being info.
OFFIT: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a science denialist. He makes up his personal scientific truths and ignores the precise truths.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Kennedy is particularly fervent in his advocacy in opposition to the usage of vaccines, explains Offit.
OFFIT: Which illnesses would he wish to see come again? – polio, which, you realize, brought about as much as 35,000 instances of paralysis a yr and 1,500 deaths? – or whooping cough, which might trigger 8,000 kids to die yearly?
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Kennedy, on Monday, posted a video urging his supporters to vote for Trump so he is elected with a robust mandate.
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KENNEDY: And nobody will be capable to cease us when he empowers me to scrub up corruption within the federal businesses, and particularly our well being businesses.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: These well being businesses embody the Meals and Drug Administration, the Nationwide Institutes of Well being and the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, amongst others.
Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR Information, Washington.
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