RFK Jr. says there may be 'more cavities' under fluoride bans: 'It's a balance'
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Thursday that nixing fluoride from public drinking water may result in more cavities.
"It's a balance," Kennedy said during interview on Fox News' "The Faulkner Focus" on Thursday, June 26. "You're going to see probably slightly more cavities. Although in Europe, where they ban fluoride, they did not see an uptick in cavities. The issue is parents need to decide because the science is very clear on fluoride."
Fluoridation is not banned in Europe, according to the American Dental Association (ADA). However, adding fluoride to drinking water is not as widespread in European countries as in the U.S. Some European countries fluoridate their water, while others do not and the reasoning and result of those actions varies, according to BBC reporting. USA TODAY has reached out to ADA for more information.
Kennedy's response came after anchor Harris Faulkner asked him how removing fluoride from public drinking water would affect children who don't have access to dentists or proper oral healthcare.
Kennedy has been pushing to ban fluoride in public drinking water. In April, during a meeting with President Donald Trump, he said that kids get "stupider" the more fluoride they take in. Kennedy's remarks were met with backlash, as the study he pulled from was criticized for inadequate statistical rigor and other methodological flaws.
A Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson told USA TODAY on June 27 that Kennedy's comments reflect an effort to balance reducing exposure to unnecessary chemicals while maintaining protections, like preventing cavities in children.
The Department of Health and Human Services has advised the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to meet with the Community Preventative Services Task Force to study and make a new recommendation on fluoride, the spokesperson added.
Fluoride bans: Two states have now passed fluoride bans. These other ones introduced bills.
Fluoride is a naturally-occurring mineral found in many foods and water and has been long thought to help prevent tooth decay, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Throughout the day, the protective outer layer of our teeth, called enamel, breaks down. Natural minerals within the enamel are broken down by bacteria, plaque and sugar. This is called demineralization. To gain these minerals back, people must consume food and water that contains chemicals like fluoride, calcium and phosphate, the Cleveland Clinic states. This is known as remineralization.
The Cleveland Clinic says with too much demineralization and not enough remineralization, tooth decay may begin.
Exclusive: As RFK Jr. targets fluoride, Texas is coming for kids toothpaste
In 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the first city to fluoridate its community water, adjusting existing levels in the supply to the therapeutic 1.0 parts-per-million (ppm).
Since then, the levels have been adjusted to a maximum of 0.7 ppm or 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water, which is considered optimal for preventing tooth decay.
Health risks from exposure to fluoride require a much higher concentration, according to the American Dental Association. To get fluoride toxicity from drinking treated water, a person would have to consume 5 liters of water per kilogram of body weight, meaning the average person would die from drinking too much water before fluoridation of that water could hurt them, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Utah and Florida have banned fluoride from public drinking water – Utah in March and Florida in May. Kennedy has championed these states, and others looking to pass bans, including Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, South Carolina, North Dakota, Arkansas, Tennessee, Montana and New Hampshire.
After Utah passed its fluoride ban in March, the ADA released a statement saying dentists "see the direct consequences fluoride removal has on our patients."
"It's a real tragedy when policymakers' decisions hurt vulnerable kids and adults in the long term. Blindly calling for a ban on fluoridated water hurts people, costs money and will ultimately harm our economy," ADA President Dr. Brett Kessler said in a news release.
The ADA has also pointed to studies, like one 2024 study conducted by the University of Queensland, which found that children exposed and not exposed to fluoride showed no difference in IQ testing.
This story was updated to add more information.
Contributing: Natalie Neysa Alund, Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy and Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
RFK Jr will be ‘personally responsible' for children's deaths by halting vaccine alliance funding, experts say
Robert F Kennedy Jr will be 'personally responsible' for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children after he refused to renew US funding for a global vaccines body, public health experts said. The US health secretary said Wednesday that the United States would halt funding for Gavi, the vaccine alliance that has immunised more than one billion children since 2000, in a statement that has also been criticised for spreading disinformation on vaccine safety. Gavi is a partnership between public bodies and the private sector that works to provide vaccines in many of the world's poorest countries. It has prevented an estimated 18.8 million deaths, and hosts global emergency stockpiles against Ebola, yellow fever, meningitis and cholera. The US has long been one of its major funders, and provided around 13% of its budget. Related: First meeting of new CDC vaccine panel reveals policy chaos sown by RFK Jr Gavi announced after a pledging event on Wednesday that it had secured more than $9bn in donations for the next five years, and would continue to chase the $11.9bn total it required. But in a video played at the event, Kennedy said the US would no longer contribute to the organisation until it had worked to 're-earn the public trust'. He criticised Gavi's actions during the Covid-19 pandemic, suggested it should not recommend Covid-19 vaccines for pregnant women, and said it had 'neglected the key issue of vaccine safety'. Gavi set out a detailed rebuttal to Kennedy's claims, stressing that its 'utmost concern is the health and safety of children'. Atul Gawande, a former senior official at USAID, wrote online: 'This pull out will cost 100s of thousands of children's lives a year – and RFK Jr will be personally responsible.' Gavi's own estimates, reported by the New York Times, suggest the loss of US support may mean 75 million children miss out on routine vaccinations over the next five years and 1.2 million die as a result. The UK government has also been criticised for lowering its funding for Gavi, although its £1.25bn ($1.7bn) pledge still made it Gavi's top donor country. Other major donors include the Gates Foundation, which committed $1.6bn, and the European Union a combined €2 billion ($2.3bn). In his video, Kennedy particularly criticised 'whole cell' DTP vaccines provided by Gavi, which protect against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough). The US and many richer countries, including the UK, have switched to a newer version that causes fewer short-term reactions but does not remain effective for as long, requiring more boosters. The World Health Organization says both types have 'excellent safety records'. Dr Tom Frieden, president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives and a former CDC director, said: 'Many countries choose to continue the whole cell vaccine. They may have decided this because their populations have a greater risk of serious illness, they have healthcare systems less able to deal with serious pertussis infections, or may simply have made the opposite decision – more short-term adverse reactions, better protection against pertussis. 'Calling this choice not 'taking vaccine safety seriously' is misinformation, plain and simple.' Seth Berkley, former chief executive of Gavi, said in a post on LinkedIn that Kennedy's claims were 'a mix of misinformation and some disinformation' and 'disingenuous', adding: 'It is irresponsible to provide disinformation from a position of political power.' A major study partly funded by Gavi and published in the Lancet this week found vaccine coverage had stalled or reversed globally, driven by persistent health inequalities and rising levels of misinformation and hesitancy.
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
US pediatricians criticize RFK Jr's new vaccine panel: ‘Truly an embarrassment'
Robert F Kennedy Jr's newly appointed vaccine advisory panel is facing criticism from pediatricians after its announcement of plans to reassess the current vaccination schedules for children and adolescents. Experts warn that the move appears designed to undermine public trust in immunization. The chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Committee on Infectious Diseases, Dr Sean O'Leary, said during a Wednesday press briefing that the rest of the world is looking at the US and its new Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) 'in horror'. 'It is truly an embarrassment at this point, what's happening with ACIP,' said O'Leary. Related: RFK Jr's vaccine panel recommends new RSV treatment for infants While the new ACIP has instigated chaos among vaccine policy infrastructure during their Wednesday meeting, the AAP emphasized a need to continue a commitment to publishing independent, science-based vaccine guidelines. Wednesday marked the first ACIP meeting since health secretary Kennedy dismissed all 17 existing voting members and installed eight new ones, a group that reportedly lost one member before the meeting convened. Some of these new appointees have been associated with the spread of vaccine misinformation. The AAP representatives abstained from participating because they view the new ACIP as 'illegitimate'. The AAP's own meeting was scheduled to immediately follow the ACIP session, giving pediatric experts an opportunity to respond to the new committee's statements and direction. 'What we heard in this meeting was really a false narrative that the current vaccine policies are flawed and that they need fixing. That's completely false,' said O'Leary. 'Vaccine policies have saved millions of lives, trillions of dollars, and our immunization system is a model for the rest of the world.' Among the ACIP's early initiatives is a separate working group that plans to examine vaccines that have not undergone a recent review, specifically those not studied in over seven years. One vaccine that drew immediate attention is the hepatitis B birth dose. O'Leary criticized the focus on reviewing vaccine schedules, which he says 'has been an anti-vaccine trope for many, many years'. A schedule review 'sounds good at first glance, but the fact is, these vaccines are essentially always being reviewed in real time through a number of different mechanisms, safety surveillance mechanisms, as well as disease surveillance mechanisms', O'Leary said. 'The hepatitis B birth dose is one of the cornerstones of our hepatitis B prevention policy here in the US, and it has been highly successful in reducing the rate of perinatally acquired hepatitis B,' he added. An AAP article says that infants infected with hepatitis B at birth face a 90% likelihood of developing chronic infection. Without medical intervention, roughly 25% of those children will die from the disease. Kennedy's decision to overhaul the ACIP has sparked concern among medical professionals. The new panel's review includes vaccines like the MMR shot, which protects against measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (chickenpox), as well as the hepatitis B vaccine given at birth. 'We do still need to maintain higher coverage in the US of MMR, you're seeing the measles outbreaks in real time,' O'Leary said. 'We need to maintain very high measles vaccination coverage. And this ACIP discussion, to me, is designed to sow distrust in measles vaccination.' The US is now enduring the largest measles outbreak in decades. Centered in west Texas, the measles outbreak has killed two unvaccinated children and one adult and spread to neighboring states. Measles had been declared eliminated from the US in 2000, but it has been spreading in undervaccinated communities.
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
RFK Jr's vaccine panel recommends new RSV treatment for infants
Robert F Kennedy Jr's reconstituted vaccine advisory panel recommended a new treatment to prevent respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in infants. The treatment, a new monoclonal antibody called clesrovimab, which will be sold under the brand name Enflonsia by Merck, was recommended by the powerful committee after being approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) roughly two weeks ago. The tortured vote took place a day late and after rounds of questions from the panel's seven new members – all ideological allies of Trump health secretary, who views 'overmedicalization' as one of the greatest threats to American children. Related: US pediatricians criticize RFK Jr's new vaccine panel: 'Truly an embarrassment' 'I think we need to ask ourselves what the parent would say given this data,' said Dr Retsef Levi, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor of operations management, who over hours of hearings has proven to be an outspoken skeptic of the medications under review. He said he would be 'concerned' and ultimately voted against recommending the monoclonal antibody. The panel, formally called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's advisory committee on immunization practices (ACIP), is a critical federal advisory board that recommends how the agency should distribute vaccines and other interventions, such as monoclonal antibodies, to the American public. Kennedy's decision to remove its 17 serving members and replace them with hand-picked appointments has been roundly condemned by the medical establishment. The meetings are must-watch in scientific and medical circles. The vote is just one order of business for the panel, which is set to consider a much more controversial issue this afternoon – thimerosal in influenza vaccines. The ethylmercury-based preservative was removed from routine childhood vaccines in the early 2000s, but its use is considered an issue of settled science. Thimerosal use has remained a talking point for anti-vaccine advocates for decades. The preservative is contained in multi-dose vials of influenza vaccines. Experts have argued that removing the ingredient would force manufacturers to ship only single-use vials, which would be more expensive. Curtailing vaccine access has been a goal of anti-vaccine advocates. Kennedy unilaterally fired all 17 members of the ACIP in June citing conflicts of interest, and replaced the group with eight ideological allies. One of those appointees, Dr Michael Ross, dropped out of the panel on Tuesday after a government financial review, and after it was publicly reported that he was not employed by two universities where Kennedy said he held appointments. That has left seven members – far less than the panel's typical 19 voting members. The vote for members was whether to recommend clesrovimab, a monoclonal antibody, for all infants younger than eight months old born during or entering RSV season. They also voted on whether to include that drug in an important program called Vaccines for Children, through which about half of all American children access vaccines. Although five members ultimately voted yes, it was only after lengthy discussion, a no vote from Levi, and a second no from nurse Vicky Pebsworth, who served as the volunteer research director for one of the nation's oldest prominent anti-vaccine groups. RSV is the leading cause of hospitalization among US infants, and most infants are infected in the first year of life. Between 2% and 3% are hospitalized, a majority of whom have no underlying health conditions. Before 2023, there was no long-acting prevention for RSV. The efficacy of monoclonal antibodies wanes over time. Although some ACIP members asked whether it was problematic to push the likely transmission of the disease to toddlerhood, CDC career scientists said that was the point – the most dangerous time for a child to contract RSV is in the first months of life. 'Part of what we want to do is protect them when they're most vulnerable,' said Adam McNeil, CDC deputy branch chief for epidemiology in respiratory viruses. 'The biggest impact among those newborns is getting those [ages] zero to two months [old] – and getting them through that vulnerable period.' In the 2024-2025 respiratory disease season, 57% of infants were either born to a vaccinated mother or received monoclonal antibodies at birth. As a result, hospitalizations from RSV were reduced by 30%-40%, according to CDC data.
