In the confirmation hearing of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., from the center, the senators are expected to ask him carefully about his controversial views on vaccines.
For years, Mr. Kennedy has questioned the safety of vaccines, including those for polio and measles, two diseases that continue to harm children. He has recently said that he does not plan vaccines from Americans, but wants to publish public security data – although almost all data is already publicly available.
Mr. Kennedy’s counter -views go beyond the vaccines. And as the Minister of Health and Human Services, he would have a huge impact on health policy, even on state control, by reducing financing for certain programs or promoting others.
Here is a fact of checking some of its claims.
That’s false. Mr. Kennedy’s number is off orders.
National Diabetes Statistics Report estimated that in 2021 it had about 35 per 10,000 children and adolescents of younger 20 – ie 0.35 percent – diagnosis of diabetes. Other studies They found that 0.1 percent of young people 10 to 19 had diabetes in 2017.
It seems that Mr. Kennedy also connects youth or type 1 diabetes, autoimmune disease, with type 2 diabetes, which may result from an unhealthy lifestyle. Is right that new cases of diabetes – both types – are on the rise. However, the prevalence in teenagers is still much lower than in adults and increases with age; The highest prevalence, 29.2 percent, is 65 and older among adults.
In a later comment, which included Prediabetes, Mr. Kennedy said: “These children are now dependent, you know, insulin and treatment of diabetes, in the treatment of chronic diseases for the rest of their lives, and this bankrupt our health care system.”
While pre -abes is a warning signal for diabetes, most cases do not require insulin treatment and may be turned by lifestyle changes, including humble weight loss. Prediabetes also grows; O 28 percent Teenagers are prediabetic.
That’s false. Every year, scientists monitor the effectiveness of an annual influenza vaccine. And every year, dozens of studies dozens of vaccine effective against hospitalization and deaths. The exact numbers differ, but the results always show that vaccination is beneficial.
Injicked Vaccine Against the flu do not contain Live virus and nasal spray vaccines contain a weakened virus; No type can transmit the flu.
The composition of the influenza vaccine is usually determined in the spring based on the dominant variants in the southern hemisphere at that time. In some years, the vaccine is an excellent virus match that appears in the fall, and in other years the best estimate of scientists is a little gone.
As a result, efficiency can range from 30 to 90 percent, depending on the age group and the subtype of the influenza. But even if the efficiency is low, the vaccine can shorten the time and severity of the disease.
Because the flu tends to be the most serious in children under 5 years of age of older adults, the vaccine is particularly recommended – not ordered – for these age groups. And because the flu vaccine was introduced in 1945, life expectancy, including older adults, was constantly increasing.
It needs a context. Mr. Kennedy is partly right. One of the 36 American children are diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, according to the Center for Control and Prevention of Diseases (One-In-34 is specific to boys). AND in CaliforniaOne in 22 children has autism.
However, autism is a spectrum and most diagnosed can participate in sport, write poetry (if so in favor), pay taxes, date and marriage; Many of them are parents. List of people with autism includes a successful athletes, writers, actors, activists, artist, politicians – and even Elon Musk, Richest man In the world and the leadership of the government of Trump’s administration.
Studies suggest that most of the diagnoses of autism is at a milder end of the spectrum, partly because the diagnostic criteria have spread.
What Mr. Kennedy describes is a subset of autistic people, about one of four with a diagnosis who are deeply affected. But they, too, are more likely to hurt themselves than others. (The prevalence of deep autism grows but slowly.)
Mr. Kennedy may not have seen such people when the child was, because most of them were isolated at home or institutionalized, poorly diagnosed with mental illnesses and strongly medicated.
It needs a context. First, most countries order children to get about 20 shots to school, but these shots include doses of about eight vaccines (depending on which combined vaccines are used), which are protected from a dozen illness.
Even the inclusion of vaccines that are recommended and not required, such as an annual influenza shot, children can receive 35 shots aged 5 years. The combined product was considered a separate vaccine.
All the vaccines must meet Strict safety requirements before approval. Even after their approval, federal officials monitor reports on side effects In multiple systems that analyze medical records and reports from patients and doctors.
Mr. Kennedy’s claim that none of the shots was tested in placebo -controlled attempts also needs a context. Some of the currently used vaccines were actually tested against placebo; Others are newer alternatives to vaccines that have undergone placebo -controlled experiments before approval.
Newer vaccine is often tested against approved – rather than against placebo – to show that it is equally good in preventing the disease. Newer treatment of certain diseases such as cancer are similarly tested in such studies, called studies without inferiority.
This is because it would be unethically denying some children in the protection of an experiment against dangerous pathogen, because it would be to deny treatment with patients with illness by giving them placebo.
That’s false. Numerous studies have examined this claim and found It will be unfounded. On the contrary, pertussis itself rather than a vaccine hazardous or even fatal for young children.
In both statements, Mr. Kennedy refers to a vaccine for Pertussis or whooping Cough, which was terminated at the age of 90. The vaccine was made of inactivated bacteria and was associated with more side effects, including fever, drowsiness and irritability compared to newer vaccines.
However, research did not find serious short or long -term consequences. According to one large study, every 100,000 doses of vaccine, less than nine He created a febrile seizure on the day of vaccination.
Febrile seizures are seizures caused by high fever and may occur during any childhood disease, including ear infection; Will not cause permanent harm. Longer -term monitoring of several teams showed no evidence of brain damage in children who received a vaccine.
Mr. Kennedy is right that one team reported increased mortality after vaccination against pertussis in West Africa. However, a series of independent panels that were convened to explore studies did not unanimously conclude that the team’s data did not support this conclusion.
“Documents actually provide considerable evidence against such a conclusion,” Experts wrote.
