Measles could become more prevalent in the US following the decision by president-elect Donald Trump to appoint vaccine sceptic Robert F Kennedy Jr as secretary of health, according to Professor Luke O’Neill.
Prof O’Neill has recently returned to Ireland after attending conferences in the US. The Irish biochemist and immunologist said there is “consternation” in certain circles in the US over the appointment of Mr Kennedy, who is yet to be confirmed by the Senate.
In a recent interview with National Public Radio in the US, Mr Kennedy said Mr Trump had given him three instructions: to remove “corruption” from health agencies, to return these bodies to “evidence-based science and medicine,” and “to end the chronic disease epidemic.”
The 70-year-old has been a prominent vaccine sceptic, although he has stressed that he has “never been anti-vaccine.”
Prof O’Neill expressed concern about the appointment of Mr Kennedy. He told the Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk radio that the evidence in favour of vaccines is “so compelling”.
“Now the problem is, if a figure like [Robert F Kennedy Jr] begins to doubt vaccines, that will stop a certain per cent of people. Maybe 10 per cent less people will then allow their kids to be vaccinated, and that will give rise to these diseases.
“Measles will be a huge worry, it’s going up, and that's a very damaging disease – it kills children.
“Many survive and end up deaf – a big cause of deafness, back in the 40s and 50s, was measles.”
Mr O’Neill added that claims by Mr Kennedy of a direct correlation between vaccines and autism were “massively damaging”.
“He's on record as a massive anti-vaxxer [and] he was the one who pushed vaccines causing autism, which was a massively damaging thing, because the uptake of measles vaccine went down, and kids died,” he said.
“When I was over there I heard that any companie now working on vaccines, their share prices have fallen because the worry would be reduced uptake of vaccines in America.”
Meanwhile, Prof O’Neill also expressed anxiety about plans by Mr Kennedy to reduce fluoride in drinking water in the US.
“[Mr Kennedy]'s not using science in his prognostications, and he's against fluoride, and he's completely wrong with that.
“He's right in that high-dose fluoride can have certain nasty effects, but it's only tiny amounts [in drinking water].
“There's about 100 times the amount of fluoride in your toothpaste than there will be in water, for instance.
“But he's made these claims that fluoride is very damaging, and it's not, scientifically, not true, at least at the levels that it's in water.”
