00:00RFK Jr. has made a lot of promises.
00:02One year into his job as health secretary,
00:05he's broken most of them.
00:06First and foremost, he said this.
00:08I'm not going to take away anybody's vaccines.
00:10But he's made the approval process for vaccines
00:13so riddled with skepticism and red tape.
00:16That's exactly what's happening.
00:17The FDA has already limited how to get COVID vaccines
00:21and is threatening to meddle with access to flu shots as well.
00:24By making sweeping changes to childhood vaccine recommendations,
00:27changes which aren't based on evidence,
00:30RFK is also confusing parents.
00:32That could lead even more people to skip life-saving shots.
00:36But that's only the start of the damage.
00:38RFK also said he was, quote,
00:40restoring trust in embattled health agencies.
00:42Instead, nearly 2,400 PhDs have left the agencies under his purview,
00:48either through layoffs or mass exodus.
00:50The FDA has especially suffered.
00:52Last year, five different people acted as director
00:55of the Center for Drug Evaluation Research,
00:58the arm of the agency that oversees new drugs.
01:01And the CDC has released much of the data it usually publishes,
01:04either late or not at all.
01:07RFK also said, during his confirmation hearing, no less,
01:10that he would not cut vaccine funding.
01:13But researchers, including those who work on vaccines,
01:16have lost some $1.4 billion in funding.
01:20Some of these changes are starting to feel irreversible.
01:23Because RFK and health officials have spent the last year chipping away
01:27at the very concept of scientific expertise,
01:30what else could he mean when he encourages people to, quote,
01:33do your own research?
01:35The question is what comes next from Kennedy?
01:37He surely isn't done with vaccines.
01:39Some people might be encouraged by reports that Kennedy plans to
01:43shift his focus to healthy food.
01:45Yet his actions so far leave little faith that he'll make evidence-based changes.
01:49And even if he does, and I sincerely hope so,
01:53it can't outweigh the damage he's done in a single year.
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