RFK jr is confirmed!
What next
Losing only the support of McConnell, RFK Jr is confirmed as HHS secretary. Mr. Kennedy has a band of devoted followers and many skeptics.
What’s next?
My suggestion is to take Mr Kennedy’s energies and channel them to systems to improve human health. A few ideas for what we should push for
A new vaccine surveillance system. The US DOES NOT DETECT all vaccine safety signals. VSD and VAERS are both very weak systems. Mr. Kennedy should build a prospective, active collection system, and this should be widely used.
If it is unsafe anywhere, it is unsafe here. The US should ban dyes and pesticides already banned in the European Union, Australia and New Zealand
Shut down conflicts of interest. If you work for FDA, you should not consult for Pharmaceutical firms for 5 years.
Enforce post market commitments at FDA. The US FDA has waived Moderna’s commitment to study subclinical myocarditis. Why did this happen? RFK Jr should investigate. Other commitments must be ironclad.
The AMA cannot determine the cpt codes used for billing. These should be removed from AMA and returned to the American people. The current system is biased against primary care and towards unproven surgery
RFK Jr should work with republican lawmakers to pass a bill that says vaccine makers can be sued for vaccine injury.
FDA should only approve novel vaccines if they improve the clinical construct (hospitalization from any LRTI) rather than the virologic construct (hospitalization from LRTI caused by RSV).
CMS should use coverage with evidence development much much more. And that evidence should be a randomized trial.
These are just a few ideas to launch his administration
One more suggestion: Release all CDC records related to vaccine studies. This would include those that were alleged by an agency whistleblower to have shown a strong connection between the MMR vaccine and autism in black boys.
Bam-great start!
And I know this isn't your area of interest or concern, BUT, I hope he puts private health insurers under a microscope. The WSJ has been doing fantastic investigative reporting on how UHC and others are fleecing the taxpayers by 'upcoding' patients via 'free home visits', which allows them to collect more $$$ per patient, regardless of whether the newly found diseases/conditions are actually treated. MedPAC (oversight committee) puts out a report each year, and the most recent says that that MA plans (run by private industry) cost taxpayers 22% more than traditional Medicare. "Payments to MA plans are an estimated 22 percent higher than FFS spending for 2024" https://www.medpac.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Mar24_MedPAC_Report_To_Congress_SEC-2.pdf
What worries me is that RFK made the statement during his hearing that 'I have Medicare Advantage and I love it, but not everyone has that, because it's more expensive'. The truth is actually the opposite...MA plans are cheaper (for the individual) versus traditional Medicare + a supplemental plan. This topic needs to be watched very closely.