The RFK JR skeptical vaccine is now a powerful force in American science: what will it do?

Scientists are preparing for major changes in the direction of American biomedical research Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who promoted disinformation of vaccines and public health plotstakes control of a large label of scientific policy.

The Senate voted today to confirm Kennedy as secretary of the Ministry of Health and Social Services of President Donald Trump, who has an annual budget of around 1.7 Billion of dollars and includes the Centers for Disease Control and PreventionFood and Drug Administration (FDA) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) – The largest funder for the world of biomedical research. Kennedy has adopted certain areas of biomedical research. But he has shown hostility to others and rejected science established on the Effectiveness of COVVI-19 vaccinesvaccine safety in general and other subjects. (Kennedy told the Senate that he supported vaccines and believes that they had saved lives.)

“The future of America as a superpower of research seems dark,” explains Theodora Hatziioannou, virologist at Rockefeller University in New York, which creates new models to study HIV – that Kennedy has falsely suggested n ‘ is not the cause of AIDS. “Even on the questions he claims to support, he does not follow scientific evidence. Choosing a person like this to direct is like having the wolf goalkeeper the sheep. »»

False dichotomy

During his own presidential campaign, Kennedy said he would favor research on chronic diseases and would give Infectious disease search at the NIH “a break” for eight years. Speaking before a senatorial committee in January, Kennedy said that chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, asthma and certain cancers have historically received less attention than infectious diseases, but are mainly responsible for ‘increase in health care costs. (NIH data Show that cancer alone receives more federal funding than that allocated to all combined infectious diseases.)

Uneven attention obstructs the reader to control infectious diseases

Even some researchers who could benefit from the emphasis on chronic diseases are wary. Eric Lau, Researcher in cancer at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, says that although it would certainly be pleasant to see more money paid in the study of cancer, the federal government should focus on increasing the increase in financing of biomedical research in general.

He and Larry Schlesinger, doctor-scientist and director general of Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio, say that the idea of ​​cutting an area for the benefit of another creates a false dichotomy between chronic and infectious diseases that is not rooted in the scientific scientist reality.

As an example of how the two are linked, the researchers cite increasing evidence that Certain chronic conditions arise from infectious diseases: infection with Human papillomavirus (HPV), for example, can cause cervical cancer and other fabrics. “The prioritization of chronic conditions is increasingly to prioritize infectious diseases,” explains Schlesinger, who was himself diagnosed with mouth cancer After an infection with decades of HPV before. “We appreciate more and more that the infections and inflammation they cause play an important role under these chronic conditions.”

Scientists also say that the trigger in progress of bird fluWho made at least 68 people in the United States in the event of early 2024, making it a particularly bad moment to reduce research on infectious diseases.

Focus on food

As part of his commitment “Make America Healthy Again”, Kennedy has repeatedly called for other studies in Diet and nutritionas well as research on the links between environmental pollution and human health. During his January hearing, Kennedy said scientists “know” that obesity is caused by “an environmental toxin” and asked why researchers did not devote themselves to finding and eliminating it.

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