Dr. Sanjay Gupta tries to stay above the political fray, said CNN anchor Jake Tapper, but he couldn't remain silent on his opposition to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
"You know, it's not often that the entire medical and public health community will be in lock-step on something, but they're pretty close on this in terms of their significant concerns, horror even," about RFK Jr., said Gupta.
President-elect Donald Trump announced the nomination Thursday afternoon on his personal social media site, TruthSocial.
He relayed someone telling him, "I can't think of any single individual who would be more damaging to public health than RFK Jr." He agreed, saying, "If the reporting is correct, and the job is the secretary of Health and Human Services, that comprises the [Center for Disease Control] CDC. We just got through this pandemic!"
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Another agency that Kennedy wanted to "compress," he noted, was the Food and Drug Administration, which investigates the safety of food and drugs, both over-the-counter and prescriptions, medical devices, and procedures. Another is the National Institutes of Health, a world leader in medical research, including President Joe Biden's goal to stop cancer.
"He's talked about wanting to basically strip funding for infectious diseases overall," pointed out Gupta.
"At the same time, there is this whole idea that we're not a very healthy country. We spent $4.5 trillion on health care and we have some of the worst outcomes in the developed world. And our food supply and other things are partly to blame," he continued.
There are opinions about public health that can be debated, but there are other things he said that don't have an alternative view by legitimate experts.
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