1 week Ago By Editorial
Observers have noted that U.S. President Donald Trump’s interminable tariff scheme is part of an attempt to return the U.
S. to its late 19th-century Gilded Age. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * To continue reading, please subscribe: *$1 will be added to your next bill.
After your 4 weeks access is complete your rate will increase by $0.00 a X percent off the regular rate. Observers have noted that U.
S. President Donald Trump’s interminable tariff scheme is part of an attempt to return the U.S.
to its late 19th-century Gilded Age. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? Opinion Observers have noted that U.S.
President Donald Trump’s interminable tariff scheme is part of an attempt to return the U.S. to its late 19th-century Gilded Age.
But we may have overlooked how comprehensive this plan to turn back time is; his health secretary is busy making sure the state of American health care takes a similar leap backward. On April 7, a second child in Texas died of measles, an incredibly contagious disease for which there has been an effective vaccine since the early 1960s. For most people, the resurgence of a deadly illness which is claiming young lives would be a miserable tragedy.
But U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. is unshaken in his approach. Morry Gash / The Associated Press files U.
S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
He has offered qualified support for vaccination against measles. This is, to be generous, a sop to critics who are well aware of Kennedy’s anti-vaccine past and who have been worried this past will impact his approach to health care in the U.S.
What he has hedged about less is vitamins. Like many in the anti-vaccine cohort, Kennedy has repeatedly expressed the opinion that diseases such as measles can be effectively combated through proper nutrition and exercise. He has, according to CNN, repeatedly pushed vitamin A to treat measles, prompting health experts to respond that a dose of vitamins can in no way substitute vaccination (and can be toxic in high enough doses).
Canada is not immune to the anti-vax fallout; Ontario has 155 new measles cases this week, bringing the total for a current outbreak to 816, with 82 per cent of those cases in people who aren’t vaccinated. As the people of west Texas struggle amid an outbreak of a highly contagious and potentially deadly illness, one of their highest-ranking health officials is out telling them cod liver oil is the answer. All of this is of a piece with a fringe health movement with which Kennedy has long been associated.
There is overlap between anti-vaccine beliefs and the belief that one’s own body is a kind of perfect machine, able to fend off any threat with the right fuel and sufficient exercise. Or, alternatively, the belief that Big Pharma’s medicines can be replaced with cheaper remedies. During Elections Get campaign news, insight, analysis and commentary delivered to your inbox during Canada's 2025 election.
Kennedy was associated with this movement before it seemed remotely probable he could nab a prominent federal position, which suggests his statements as HHS secretary are not merely cynical. In addition to his anti-vaccine views, he has claimed to only drink raw milk, which puts one at risk of food-borne illness; and he wants to remove fluoride from drinking water, having claimed it causes IQ loss and thyroid disease, among other ailments. One might look at many of the people orbiting Trump, or even Trump himself, and see people who are playing a game, knowing that what they say is not true but saying it in the name of some personal gain.
But Kennedy is not a snake-oil salesman, hawking a product he knows doesn’t work. He’s one of the people in line to it. Is Kennedy right that an active lifestyle and clean, nutritious food leads to better health? Sure.
But you can’t cure everything with farm-fresh eggs (if you can even afford them) and supplements. Our immune systems simply aren’t that good. Fortunately, our species has evolved to have the intelligence to develop and mass-produce medicines for everything from headaches to infectious diseases, which can help our bodies fight the battles which we might not win solo.
That Kennedy refuses to believe that is something the American people should not have to suffer for. Unfortunately, it looks like they’re going to keep doing just that. Advertisement Advertisement.
