egg prices, HHS, and science

where are we headed?

Most of you probably saw that Robert Kennedy, Jr., won Senate confirmation as Secretary of Health & Human Services this morning. He, like many of President Trump’s nominees, is a maverick choice which will satisfy many people rejecting conformity within federal leadership. Kennedy has only activist, rather than practitioner, experience in the health community and is not a scientist of any sort, trained instead as an environmental lawyer. Kennedy’s history, along with his several strongly-held and aggressively-articulated convictions on a number of topics under his purview, will make for a fascinating case study in an unorthodox era of Washington. It’s not often one hears the outgoing Senate Majority Leader describe a nominee as a “wildly unqualified conspiracy theorist” but the Senate deferred to the president in his choice.

Kennedy does not believe in vaccinations for common diseases, though I don’t believe he actually seeks to withhold them from those seeking a particular inoculation. The son of a Democratic torchbearer became a prominent “anti-vaxxer” aligned with those accepting a long-debunked study linking childhood inoculations with autism, ever more common a diagnosed among children. Kennedy has vowed to take on ultra-processes food and obesity, two topics of prominence for Americans in 2025, though his department has a far wider writ than merely health issues.

At odds with the Republican hardliners, Kennedy advocates a woman’s right to an abortion. It’s surprising for that reason alone he won unanimous confirmation among the Republican majority, except for Senator McConnell, whose opposition stemmed from the vaccine issue. As a polio survivor, the Kentuckian aggressively supports vaccines he wished he could have taken.

Kennedy, according today’s The Guardian, frequently consumes raw milk, long a discouraged practice in the era of Pasteurization, because he does not fear bacteria it often harbors. Convinced of its health benefits, the new secretary is one of thousands of Americans who began purchasing unpasteurized cheese and milk over the past thirty years as one of the earlier indicators of distrust in health advise. Raw milk advoates partially distrusted anything big business advocated while assuming anything in its natural state has to be healthier than “processed” products.

Yet the Wall Street Journal offered a column replete with public health advice on avian influenza this morning that contradicts the Secretary’s assumption. The scientific community, according to the Journal, is eying the flu strains are moving across the globe. Both cattle and millions of chickens are evidence of the initial H5N1 strain primarily responsible for the increased egg prices we see at the market. Cattlemen and farmers hate culling afflicted creatures, even though the dangers are “still low” for the general public since the transmission does not appear person-to-person at this stage, rather person previously around infected animal. But the risk of transmission still occurring is not worth ignoring the problem once an infection appears.

Taking common precautions such as cooking poultry and eggs thoroughly ought to keep avian infuenza at bay because the process of heating the food should prevent any move to someone consuming the product.

But, further in the same paragraph is an admonition much more relevant today than over the past century. “…health officials and researchers do advise people to be cautious: Avoid interacting with wild birds or sick animals, don’t consume raw milk or cheese [emphasis added-cw], and properly cook and handle poultry”. Further, the article notes that delays in communication caused by new D.C. policies will slow any medical response to the spread as well as release of any updates on new outbreaks, strains, and associated news.

While there is no guarantee further global health emergencies, whether in fentanyl-spiked heroin circulating, or dangerous vaccination substitutes against disease or obesity prevention or anything else—will occur, the evidence is overwhelming we should anticipate them. As we discussed a couple of weeks back, tuberculosis has made a mark recently on Kansas as the state pulled back from some of its health protocols in recent years. Measles, an illness almost relegated to the past by the miracle of vaccinations in the 1960s, is again live and well in Texas while socking Samoa in the southwest Pacific over several recent years.

Earlier this week, the instances of “traditional” (the annual bug that circulates in one strain or another primarily during winter seasons) flu are so pervasive that 13,000 people have already died in the United States. Despite repeated warnings from physicians and state public health personnel about the particularly high number cases this year, the general public’s willingness to take the annual flu preventative shot is falling as true of other vaccines. We are thus seeing the reality of annual illness is a reminder of how the “known” can be as dangerous as the exotic.

As I noted earlier this month, Mr. Kennedy got into heated discussion during his confirmation hearings with Louisiana physician-turned-Senator Bill Cassidy over the question of cherry-picking data on public health. It bears remembering that Cassidy voted for the nominee but not before raising questions about the sources of information the New Yorker uses to buttress his public condemnation of vaccinations for children. It is, therefore, not a stretch to ask where else Kennedy is citing anecdotal stories from social media influencers en lieu of peer reviewed scientific studies?

We have led the world in scientific research for a hundred years, with the efforts at medical schools and various scientific laboratories, cited most frequently as the gold standard for impartial, gold standard research where the science did indeed lead. It has never been nor will it ever be perfect but it has traditionally been rigorous and impartial because it was blind, peer reviewed work. The science hinged on the rigors of the repeatable scientific method, not a couple of reports advocated by the consuming public.

We all need root for success in DHS as none—NONE—of us can avoid health issues for our entire life. Various challenges arise so public trust in institutions matters a great deal. It’s also one of the ways we have become a respected nation over the decades with our proven outcomes rather than conspiracy theories or preferred answers instead of accuracy.

What can we expect as agency personnel as they navigate this expanding influenza challenge in an era of diminishing government role? Even more crucial, will the incoming Secretary adhere long term to his vows to “follow the science” as it is overwhelmingly viewed through the peer review process? And how will that manifest itself to us?

Fewer sources of federal data on any and all issues as federal websites and centralized data publication go dark leaves us in a circumstance none of us has experienced. How will this dramatic shift in public health affect the nation, if not the world? As we learned five years ago, as the globe had a century earlier, health knows no boundaries as it moves all too rapidly from person to person with little heed to our personal preferences. China chose to try hiding coronavirus five and a half years ago—how did that go?

Information can so often be such power, especially in sickness.

I vote for trusting the quality data above fairy dust or nice-so-far answers.

Actions create consequences, pure and simple.

I welcome your thoughts on this or any other topic Actions covers. I genuinely hope to hear from you as your thoughts matter to create a dialogue. Please feel free to circulate this column if you find it valuable. I appreciate your time. I especially am thankful for those of you who contribute as subscribers to this daily writing.

The clouds were low but the lights across town lit the sky this morning for an interesting effect.

Be well, be healthy, and be safe. FIN

Madeleine Halpert, “Can RFK Make America’s Diet Healthy Again?”, BBCnews.com, 13 February 2025, retrieved at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cze391y17z7o

Jonathan Limehouse, “Have the flu or know someone with it? Flu cases surge to highest levels in 15 years, CDC says”, USAToday.com, 11 February 2025, retrieved at https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2025/tuberculosis-in-kansas-the-larger-picture

Ellen O’Dwyer, “RFK Jr;s comments on a deadly measles outbreak ‘a complete lie’—Samoan irector-general of health”, RNZ.com, 31 January 2025, retrieved at https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/540478/rfk-jr-s-comments-on-deadly-measles-outbreak-a-complete-lie-samoa-s-director-general-of-health

Aliza Rosen, “What the Tuberculosis Outbreak Means for Public Health”, PublicHealth.jhu.edu, 6 February 2025, retrieved at https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2025/tuberculosis-in-kansas-the-larger-picture

Lisa Schnirring, “Measles outbreak in Texas rises to 24 cases as New Mexico reports illness”, Cidrap.umn.edu, 12 February 2025, retrieved at https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/measles/measles-outbreak-texas-rises-24-cases-new-mexico-reports-illness

“Watch: Sen. Bill Cassidy Questions RFK Jr. in Confirmation Hearing”, Youtube.com, 30 January 2025, retrieved

Liz Essley White, Kristina Peterson, and Lindsay Wise, “Kennedy Confirmed as DHS Secretary”, WSJ.com, 13 February 2025, retrieved at https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/rfk-jr-senate-confirmation-vote-trump-hhs-secretary-d4ad51df?mod=latest_headlines