RFK Jr. says government ignores chronic disease, but that’s misguided

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made clear the testimony before this week’s Senate that, if confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services, his approach would be in chronic diseases about infectious.

“We have dedicated all these dollars to infectious diseases and the development of medicines and very little to chronic diseases,” Kennedy said Thursday before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Work and Pensions.

Kennedy described himself as a unique position to “end the epidemic of chronic diseases” in the United States, which blamed for high costs of medical care. His initial statements mentioned increasing rates of diabetes, cancer, asthma and obesity as problems that should be prioritized, together with chronic diseases among children. (Although Kennedy declared that 66% of children have a chronic condition, the data of the children’s health survey suggest that it is around 40%).

In testimony to two Senate committees this week, Kennedy faced questions about his history of anti -cacuna rhetoric, promotion of conspiracy theories and changing opinions about abortion. He met with the fierce opposition of some Democratic senators, as well as the reserves of the President of the Health Committee, Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of La-La., Who is a doctor.

If confirmed, Kennedy would supervise an annual budget of $ 1.7 billion and 13 agencies, including national health institutes and disease control centers. Before the audience, Kennedy had suggested to take a break of eight years of investigating infectious diseases such as Covid and Basamps.

In his statements to senators, Kennedy said that infectious diseases receive significantly more federal funds than chronic diseases. But government records suggest otherwise: infectious diseases occupied the ninth place in the list of research issues financed by NIH last year, receiving $ 8.1 billion.

Compare that with a single chronic disease, cancer, which received almost the same amount of funds in 2024. Brain disorders received $ 8.9 billion.

Many of the other diseases that Kennedy also received billions in federal funds, including Alzheimer’s cardiovascular diseases ($ 3.9 billion), diabetes ($ 1.2 billion) and cardiovascular diseases ($ 2.9 billion).

When it comes to autism, a chronic disease that Kennedy has falsely linked to vaccines, a position that did not reject in audiences, federal financing has grown for more than a decade according to Statista, a data information group. NIH financing for autism investigation amounted to $ 305 million in 2024, according to the group, compared to $ 169 million in 2011.

Researchers have attributed much of the increase in autism rates to greater awareness and advances in diagnostic capabilities. Much of the risk of developing autism is genetic, although parents who have children later in life and environmental factors such as air pollution can also play a role.

Kennedy is right that other chronic diseases are also becoming more frequent. Prostate and pancreas cancer diagnoses are increasing, as well as colorectal cancer in men and women under 65. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes also increased 19% from 2012 to 2022.

Joel Kaufman, a doctor-epidemiologist at the University of Washington, said that increases in certain chronic diseases could have to do with improvements in the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, which in turn has allowed people to survive what Otherwise it could have been fatal diseases and live more.

“What causes most diseases and disability has now happened in rich economies worldwide, from infectious communicable diseases to chronic diseases,” he said. “Part of that is just the success we have had in the management of infectious diseases.”

Neither the NIH or the CDC, two main federal financiers for research of chronic and infectious diseases, provided comments in response to Kennedy’s statements. The American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association, the main research groups for two of the most common chronic diseases in the United States, also declined to comment.

In several of his responses to the senators, Kennedy said he believes that research on the etiology, or the causes and origins of chronic diseases is particularly missing. Kennedy has great interest in possible connections between environmental toxins and human health.

“There is almost nothing in NIH, very, very little, a low percentage of its budget, a budget of $ 42 billion, which is dedicated to discovering why we are having this epidemic of obesity. We know that it is an environmental toxin, “Kennedy said, adding:” Why are we not dedicating science to discover what those toxins are and then eliminate them? “

Obesity investigation received around $ 1.2 billion in NIH funds last year. The known risk factors for obesity include the lack of exercise, high diets in ultraprocessed foods and a person’s genetics, although researchers suspect more and more than exposure to certain chemicals such as BPA and PFA can perform A role.

Two epidemiologists agreed that research on the fundamental causes of chronic diseases often receives less funds than studies on possible treatments. Even within the field of prevention research, studying environmental risk factors is not as popular as study University of California, Los Angeles.

In particular, he said, the research of chronic diseases could benefit from more studies on the effects of microplastics, flame retarders, pesticides and PFA.

“The chemicals that can be found in food, air and water, really need to be studied much more, because we know very little about what are the chronic effects of low doses,” Ritz said.

However, experts also said that Kennedy’s notion that the investigation of infectious diseases is financed at the expense of chronic disease is a false dichotomy. Many chronic diseases sprout from viral or bacterial infections, so subject to the investigation of the latter could make the understanding of the first difficult.

“The evidence is increasing, for many of the chronic conditions, that there is an infectious etiology,” said Garth Ehrlich, professor of microbiology and immunology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Drexel in Philadelphia. “For me, chronic diseases and infectious diseases almost go hand in hand.”

Recent research has suggested that multiple sclerosis, a chronic neurological condition, can be caused by the Epstein-Barr virus. Parkinson’s disease, meanwhile, has been related to infection with hepatitis C and a type of bacteria called H. pylori. And up to 30% of cancers, such as cervical cancer, are driven by microbes or viruses.

“We learn more and more than these mistakes that do not kill us have chronic effects,” Ritz said.

Kennedy has frequently questioned the safety of human papilloma (HPV) vaccines, which reduce the risk of cervical cancer, despite the overwhelming evidence that they are safe. His former law firm is demanding the Merck pharmaceutical company, claiming that he could not warn consumers about the side effects of the HPV vaccine. In ethics presentations, Kennedy indicated that he planned to continue collecting rates of those demands, but on Friday, he said he would disin those profits to his son.

Kennedy also expressed his support on Thursday for research on Lyme’s disease, another potentially life disease that begins with an infection, in this case, of bacteria transported by ticks. The issue of Lyme’s disease arose several times during the audiences, given Kennedy’s previous suggestion in a podcast that it was a military connecting rod. Kennedy tried to distance himself from that statement, telling Senator Susan Collins on Thursday, R-Maine, who would support the investigation in a vaccine.

“I had Lyme’s disease,” Kennedy said, adding: “There is no one to fight harder to find a vaccine or a treatment for Lyme’s disease than me.”



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