Bobby Kennedy at HHS: a personal perspective

It is only a few weeks ago that Robert F. Kennedy was confirmed as the new secretary of the Health and Human Services Agency (HHS). But he is already characterized in corners of the media and public health institution as a threat to the health of the nation, whose first actions such as secretary ignore the region and fall outside the mainstream of the previous HHS secretaries.

It is time to take a step back and to stop the hurry in the opinion. In contrast to media headlines, Kennedy does not end any vaccines or ignores the opinion of experts, or ADHD -Medicines remove children.

The Autism community is one of the health communities that Kennedy has been active over the years. As a member of this community since 1991, when my son was diagnosed, I would like to offer a short personal perspective on the involvement of Kennedy in our community, his approach to Settle-Science and how he represents a break from his predecessors at HHS.

Kennedy and the Autism Community

During the confirmation of Kennedy, his opponents under the leadership of the Democratic Party (all 48 democratic senators voted against him) claimed that he was an “anti-vaxxer”, in contrast to vaccines, which existed unproven theories that connect vaccines with autism.

In his confirmation hearings, Kennedy clearly stated that he would not take action to stop vaccines or to discourage people to take vaccines. Various Republican senators, initially skeptical about confirmation, came away from discussions with Kennedy assured that he was not against vaccines and would not undermine vaccine protocols. Yet the anti-vaccine tick, even since these hearings, was still used by the media and political opponents and the correction should be called.

I have not been in favor of the copy of autism vaccine. However, there is a segment of our autism community that (often fervently) believes that there is evidence that such link is demonstrating. With deep efforts, they have followed a campaign to acknowledge this proof and try to improve our public health policy. From the beginning of the 2000s, she was in contact with Kennedy, because of its history of challenging the health institution on a series of environmental and health problems.

Kennedy treated their reach with respect and seriousness. He assessed what they sent and asked for the data. After a period of time, he believed that their investigation justified further investigation by public health officials and declared that publicly.

Louis Conte is an old law enforcement officer and researcher, with two sons with autism. In 2008, Conte decided with his own money (not to rely on government subsidies or subsidies) to investigate connections that he had read between autism and certain vaccines. As part of the investigation, Conte Data from the National Vaccine injury Compensation ProgramThe program founded by the congress and was launched in 1988 to compensate for persons injured by covered children’s vaccines.

Conte put his hand out to Kennedy with his first findings. Conte remembers:

“I called him and left a message on his phone, without expecting any response because he didn’t know me. Within 10 minutes he called back and said he wanted to see the data. ‘

Conte started a collaboration with Kennedy, which he has maintained so far. “I came to learn that Bobby is all about the data.”

In 2011, Conte with Mary Holland, subsequently researched at the New York University School of Law, and two other independent researchers, published an article in the PACE University Environmental Law Review, “Not -answered questions from the vaccine compensation program.” The authors assessed cases compensated by a vaccine compensation program and which, although they did not use the term autism, seemed to refer to autism-related behavior. Their conclusion: these cases did not proven causal link of vaccines and autism, but they suggested that further investigation was called.

The article attracted widespread attention. It brought countless reactions to the law and in the general press that challenge the findings. The proponents have not given up their interrogation, and the back and forth about vaccines and autism continues, accompanied by new researchers together with adults with autism and family members.

It is difficult to see how such questions, supported by Kennedy, is not a healthy element of policy -making of public health, this is especially when one considers the history of fixed science in autism in the past five decades. Ideas about causal links that were considered SETTL-Science at some point would later be recognized as false, and interventions that were greeted as breakthroughs would later be recognized as limited in impact.

The most notorious example is it “Refrigerator mother” theory of autism that was considered a form of permanent science in the 1950s and sixties. It was said that autism was caused by the behavior of the mother in the early years, and her cold towards her child. The theory would be discredited by the 1980s. But for two decades it was presented by important figures in public health and made popular by the prominent University of Chicago Professor Bruno Bettelheim, a respected figure in the Health Building, in his book from 1967 The empty fort.

In the eighties and nineties, the applied behavioral analysis would be praised by public health officials as a breakthrough in “treatment” of autism. In the course of time, however, the mixed results would be revealed and asked ethical questions. In recent decades, the health institutions of the national government have promised the threatening breakthroughs in the diagnosis techniques of autism, biomarkers and imaging of the brain. But these breakthroughs have been limited so far and autism is still mainly diagnosed by observed behavior.

Our autism community has benefited from the continuous interrogation of fixed views on a series of health matters.

Furthermore, Kennedy’s involvement in the Autism community has expanded far beyond vaccines. For years, Kennedy and a colleague, publisher Tony Lyons, have supported writing and efforts for the complete integration of adults with autism in the social and economic mainstream: for a complete work, independent life and housing opportunities.

These issues remain priorities for Kennedy at HHS, because they have to get the huge portfolio of the Human Services desk. This portfolio contains, for example, the Building proof of employment strategies for families with a low income (bees) Program, a series of advanced demonstration projects, aimed at increasing employment among people who have difficulty finding jobs and retaining. Through bees and other agencies, the agency has the infrastructure and talent to tackle much more complete at the low working level for adults with autism. Under the broad administration of the Office for Children and Families, it has the infrastructure and talent to do much more to tackle comorbidities and challenges in the field of mental health that occur in the autism community.

Kennedy on HHS

Kennedy’s critics are correct in one respect: Kennedy brings a sensitivity and background other than previous HHS -Secretaresses. Since the early 1950s, HHS has been led by Men and women who came to HHS after rising in meritocracy and covering positions established at large level. In the sixties and early 1970s, the secretaries John W. Gardner (previous president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching), Elliot Richardson (Procurer General of Massachusetts) and Casper Weinberger (California State Finance Director) were. More recent HHS -Secretaresses have been earlier chosen officials: Kathleen Sibelius, Mike Leavitt, Xavier Becerra.

Although their politics is different, almost all these HHS directors have operated surgery in a limited policy spectrum. Policy had to be implemented by experts who have brought certain education backgrounds and references. Advisory groups and stakeholder groups were established. But the role of ordinary citizens was trivialized, like no serious science.

Kennedy, on the other hand, has been outside the government for decades, often based in volunteer and community efforts. His presidential campaign was able to attract an army of parents and relatives who recognized someone in Kennedy who respected their lived experiences with health problems and used them from their insights.

With regard to health policy issues, Kennedy has turned to experts, but has also turned to the experiences of people who have been directly affected by policy. After the first COVID period, Kennedy challenged the current school closures and economic closures, based on the reports of parents, owners of small companies and employees. Their ‘non-expert’ reports were largely rejected at the time by public health officials, although these reports would subsequently be recognized as considerable accuracy.

In his first HHS press conference, Kennedy described his rejection of the idea of ​​certainty in policy -making: “I keep asking questions, but hold my forefront answers lightly. I am willing to be wrong. “

He also emphasized that “nothing is forbidden”, and that he would pursue “radical transparency” in sharing HHS data and decision-making processes with the public.

“We are going to listen to the experts and to the dissidents. We are going to listen to the insiders and to the whistleblowers, we are going to listen to the doctors and we are going to listen to the mothers. “

Policy formation at HHS under Kennedy will be different than in earlier administrations. The more open processes must be welcomed by the Autism community. These processes must also be welcomed by Americans who are alert to the health problems that Kennedy has explained as its start priorities: rising percentages of chronic illness, obesity in children and medication of children.

Update about Kennedy and measles vaccine

Last Sunday, Kennedy described the outbreak in the outbreak of the reported measles in Texas as a ‘call for action’. He insisted on parents to consult their care providers and called measles (MMR) vaccine as “Crucial for avoiding potentially deadly disease. “