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AUGUST 2025 TABLEHOPPING

Many people have asked my opinion on the work of Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. What prompted me to write this article was when a patient expressed concern that he would not be able to get a flu shot in the future. That one stopped me in my tracks as I wasn’t certain whether I should talk about the flu shot itself or whether the flu shot will be available. To begin with, the percentage of the population that’s gotten the flu shot has gone up from 15% to somewhere between 60 and 80%. and yet despite this massive adoption of the flu vaccine, hospitalizations and deaths have not gone down at all. If the shot is effective, why has it not affected the number of people dying or going to the hospital? Isn’t that really what we want the vaccine to do? Next is the study that shows if you get the flu shot and then get the flu, which is not uncommon as you well know, you are more likely to transmit the flu then a person who did not get the flu shot and then gets the flu. This is not really great from a public health standpoint. Thirdly, the military has done a study that showed that getting the flu shot increases your risk of getting Coronavirus that’s the covid. So, that’s three reasons why the flu shot isn’t the great panacea that’s advertised. I have shared the references in prior articles but by all means call my office and I can provide you with copies.

Now let’s turn to the question of what’s happening in Washington. RFK Jr is the United States Secretary for Health and Human Services. Let’s just say he’s created quite a stir in his first hundred days. Let’s look at some of the areas he is tackling and see where he stands.

Number one is the vaccines. He is not going to ban all vaccines. He is going to subject vaccines to scientific scrutiny, something which they have not been subjected to in quite some time. If you have faith in the CDC and the FDA it means that you haven’t read Dissolving Illusions, Turtles All the Way Down, the Virus and the Vaccine etc . Independent testing of vaccine safety and efficacy is a thing to be highly desired not mocked as anti-science.

Next, the secretary intends to look at the food stamp program now known as SNAP. I am completely sympathetic to the idea that there are those among us that are less fortunate and need assistance at every level including housing and nutrition. The poor will always be with us. However, giving them free access via food stamps to horrible junk like Doritos and Pepsi is in no way helping them. With modern technology it should be quite simple to use the current codes on every item of food in the shelves to see whether it qualifies for assistance or not. If it’s real vegetables, if it’s real protein, if it’s real food, then it should be covered. Cereals snacks ,soda and other processed foods should not be covered because they are unhealthy and are affecting the most vulnerable population. I have yet to come across a person that has a problem with this approach.

The Secretary is, as you well know, looking into food additives. Europeans on the whole are much healthier than Americans despite spending far less of their gross national product on healthcare. The same items on our shelves that now contain 12 or 15 synthetic ingredients; stabilizers, colorizers, “natural flavors” etc, years ago had fewer ingredients. The products in Europe also have fewer ingredients. Do you think the manufacturers of these products are adding these chemicals to our food supply because they’re good for you or because it’s good for their bottom line? Minimizing additives in our foods and subjecting them to the same rigors as they do in Europe seems again like a very straightforward improvement in our health.

The school lunch program needs reform. Don’t give kids what they want to eat because that’s sugar sugar sugar. Give kids what’s good for them. Let them see what real food looks and tastes like. I must be simple-minded but if the kids won’t eat real food they must not be real hungry. The food in school should be a role model for the food they should be eating at home. Protein and two sides. Again, how is this a bad thing? We’re already paying a tremendous amount for the school lunch program and what we’re getting is a generation of obese inactive kids.

Finally the secretary wants to restore faith and confidence to the agency. The only way to do that is to attract new people. RFK Jr recently discharged all the members of the Vaccine Advisory Council and that drew great ire from many people but if you have any insight or understanding into how incestuous the relationship is between these big pharmaceutical companies and the people on these panels you would understand completely why they all had to go. There is absolutely too much conflict of interest. No one is going to vote against their financial interests. Never ever happens. If ,as a member of this panel , you vote no to a new vaccine how likely is the company to hire you in the future. This isn’t a subtle thing. It’s egregious.

So, restoring confidence in an agency by insisting on independence and credible research sounds like a good goal. Improving children’s nutrition sounds like a good goal. Trying to minimize food additives seems a healthy goal. Independently investigating autism seems long overdue. People like my school administrator sister haughtily say that vaccines causing autism have been “thoroughly debunked” and of course my rejoinder is “debunked by the people that made the vaccine so how reliable is that?” Autism could have multiple causes obviously but the public health crisis of autism demands much more thorough investigation than we’re doing now. I think that’s what we’re going to get.

If we judge people by what they do, not what they say, I think Secretary Kennedy could be the most impactful Secretary of Health and Human Services in my lifetime. And yes, you will be able to get a flu vaccine this fall.

Until next month….Get well and stay well

JT BARRY MD