The media was outraged that Trump nominated an outspoken antivaccine activist to head the nation’s most prominent healthcare agency. Nonpartisan medical experts also expressed concern about Kennedy’s views on vaccines, unpasteurized milk, the use of fluoride to prevent tooth decay, and his comments on food oils and food safety more broadly.
Certainly, many of Kennedy’s opinions run counter to accepted science on healthcare and food safety. On the other hand, his opinions regarding obesity, food additives, and foods with sugar need to be taken seriously by the public. He deserves a fair hearing before the Senators who will vote on his nomination.
At the same time, equity markets were wrong to jump to the conclusion that if Kennedy were confirmed as secretary of HHS, it would damage the healthcare industry. By himself, Kennedy would not be able to approve or disapprove new drug applications. Medical experts make those decisions. Science and not uninformed bias drive the drug and vaccine approval process. The secretary of HHS executes laws. They do not make laws regarding drug prices, drug and vaccine approvals, and healthcare more generally. Kennedy would be an administrator, not a healthcare czar.
On Kennedy’s nomination, the equities of the biotech and pharma sectors experienced selling pressure. Traders sold on the news and did not consider the real possibility that Kennedy’s nomination would not be approved by the Senate. Moreover, as noted, Kennedy would not be able to stop the development and approval of new life-saving drugs, including vaccines.
With the integration of artificial intelligence into the healthcare industry, the medical world is at the door of revolutionary healthcare treatments. More cancers will be defeated with vaccines. Bullet-like radiation and chemical treatments will also be deployed to defeat cancers. Science will also use messenger RNA technology to design healthcare treatments tailored to the individual.
Top line: The outlook for the healthcare industry is profoundly positive. That is particularly important as the United States confronts the challenges of an aging population. The sell-off in the healthcare sector presents a buying opportunity regardless of the outcome of Kennedy’s nomination.
Kennedy is wrong about vaccines. Operation Warp Speed, a crowning achievement of the first Trump administration, saved hundreds of millions of lives around the world and enabled the U.S. economy and schools to reopen. The COVID-19 vaccines were a product of groundbreaking drug development and capitalism. Vaccines save lives. They have largely defeated smallpox, polio, mumps, and measles.
However, Kennedy is right that the U.S. faces an obesity crisis that costs the nation hundreds of billions of dollars each year. The public should hear what he has to say about food additives, including food coloring. After all, many food dyes used in the U.S. are proscribed in Western Europe.
Let the democratic process work. The Senate should hear Kennedy and decide whether his positive views outweigh his unscientific, plain wrong opinions.
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James Rogan is a former U.S. foreign service officer who later worked in finance and law for 30 years. He writes a daily note on the markets, politics, and society. He can be reached at [email protected].
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
