Anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will probably turn out to be a well being czar in Donald Trump’s incoming administration—a minimum of till he’s inevitably fired. However, Kennedy has promised to not solely examine vaccines but additionally do away with fluoride in our consuming water.
“We don’t want fluoride in our water,” he instructed NPR on Wednesday.
Kennedy unveiled this plan in a Nov. 2 submit on X, writing, “On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water.”
However this isn’t simply the assertion from one in all Trump’s allied conspiracy cranks. Trump himself is on board with the thought.
“Well, I haven’t talked to [Kennedy] about it yet, but it sounds okay to me. You know, it’s possible,” Trump instructed NBC Information’ Dasha Burns.
Including fluoride to water has helped scale back cavities and tooth decay in kids and adults, in keeping with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. That saves households cash on dental care. And the overwhelming majority of analysis reveals little or no proof of something in addition to advantages for youngsters, although there could also be some dangers for pregnant girls of ingesting an excessive amount of fluoride.
The World Well being Group, American Dental Affiliation, the American Medical Affiliation, and others have lengthy supported the follow.
Eradicating fluoride from public water carries actual dangers.
Calgary, Canada, has an extended historical past of fights round fluoridation. Town stopped including fluoride to water in 2011, and in 2019, pediatric specialist Dr. Cora Constantinescu instructed town council that, since 2011, “dental infections that need to be treated by IV antibiotics have increased by 700 per cent at the Alberta Children’s Hospital. Half of those infections are in children under five,” in keeping with CBC. Constantinescu’s findings have since been backed up with new analysis.
Kennedy’s designs to make the nation wholesome by attacking vaccines and children’ tooth has an excellent likelihood of gaining traction with the Republican Celebration. In spite of everything, Republicans lack a well being care plan. And Vice President-elect JD Vance provided up repealing the Reasonably priced Care Act in the course of the marketing campaign—with nothing to switch it. After all, most People have a good view of the ACA, in keeping with polling from KFF, which covers well being information.
All of this calls again to a brief clip of Brig. Gen. Jack Ripper from “Dr. Strangelove,” who referred to as “fluoridation” a “dangerous community plot.”
Welcome to Trump 2.0.
