OPINION:
President Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will soon go before the Senate for confirmation. Setting aside the usual Washington intrigue, I consider that Mr. Kennedy will bring much-needed fresh air and innovative approaches to protecting America’s health. He should be confirmed.
Mr. Kennedy’s intent to reduce our dependence on Big Pharma makes economic and health sense. I’m very much in favor of pharmaceutical innovations; however, drugs are not the best tools for fighting disease.
First, Big Pharma drugs are incredibly costly. Reuters researchers found that, in 2023, the median annual price of new Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs hit $300,000, 35% higher than the previous year. Prescription drug costs account for over 22 cents of every dollar spent on health insurance premiums, more than any other cost.
Second, all this spending doesn’t buy Americans much. Innovationwise, research and development make up just 22% of Big Pharma spending. A 2022 JAMA Network study found “no relationship” between what Big Pharma charges for drugs and what these companies spend on R&D. At the same time, American innovation and drug spending, in effect, subsidizes drugs around the world. Ozempic, the weight loss drug, costs an American without insurance upward of $900 a month; In China, the same drug and dose costs roughly $139.
Third, in terms of health, nonpharmaceutical interventions are often more effective and vastly less expensive than drugs. Simply put, the best way to fight disease is to prevent it. Historically, hygiene, sanitation and public health are the best tools for prevention.
For example, a 2023 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, which looked at 97 different analyses over 1,039 trials involving 128,119 participants (a lot of data), determined that exercise may be more effective than medication in promoting mental health (e.g., reducing anxiety and depression).
Over the past 150 years, some of the biggest advances in health have come through hygiene and sanitation. However, public health leaders rarely focus on these vital tools.
For example, a 2024 clinical trial found that using easily available drug-free nasal sprays reduced the number of sick days by roughly 20% and reduced the number of severe-symptomatic days, office absences, days of normal activities lost, and the rate of antibiotic use. At this moment experts say we face a respiratory “quad-demic” (simultaneous outbreaks of COVID-19, RSV, H5N1, norovirus). Despite this threat, you don’t hear the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention telling people about the benefits of nasal hygiene.
Similarly, dental health plays a major role in longevity and quality of life. Poor dental health is closely linked to diseases ranging from COVID-19 to heart disease. The best way to improve dental health and combat these diseases is through hygiene measures: brushing your teeth, washing your mouth, flossing, and seeing your dental hygienist and dentist.
While much has been made of Mr. Kennedy’s desire to remove fluoride, the research shows he is far from crazy. Research by the National Toxicology Program determined that children’s higher fluoride intake was associated with lower IQs. Additionally, despite its ubiquity, fluoride isn’t the best tool to prevent cavities and oral disease. Cavities are caused by oral bacteria, which produce acid that eats away at our teeth. Fluoride helps strengthen the enamel. However, it does nothing about the underlying cause of the disease (bacteria). In contrast, the natural sugar xylitol — which can be used in toothpaste, gum and the like — kills the bacteria and has no offsetting risks.
Likewise, Mr. Kennedy’s focus on reducing consumption of ultra-processed foods makes good sense. For decades — much like Big Tobacco hooked Americans on cigarettes — Big Food has been poisoning Americans with ultra-processed foods. These “foods” are made by stripping away the natural components (nutrients) and then replacing them with additives that drive consumption (have addictive properties).
These foods make up roughly 72 % of the American diet. A 2023 study published in the British Medical Journal determined that ultra-processed foods can be as addictive as smoking. When you say you’re addicted to Cool Ranch chips, you aren’t lying. America’s massive intake of these ultra-processed foods drives many bad health outcomes. Getting Americans to cut back on them would make America healthier.
I also strongly support Mr. Kennedy’s focus on health transparency and freedom. Lately, American health policy has been driven by dogma, not data. Recall the 6-foot distancing mandate. Dr. Fauci recently testified that no data was behind it — “It sort of just appeared.”
Likewise, our health policy has grown too paternalistic. After the pandemic began, public health officials censored science. They censored doctors who developed alternative treatments. They censored experts who advocated different approaches to defeating the virus. They censored companies, including my own, that tried to educate Americans about other science-backed interventions. They didn’t trust Americans to make their own health decisions.
This is why Americans increasingly — and dangerously — no longer trust our public health leaders.
Mr. Kennedy has certain opinions that are controversial in some circles — especially in the politically supercharged climate in America today. However, on balance, he provides an opportunity to reconsider our health policies. The answer isn’t to throw all vaccines away or to ban all sodas. The answer is to emphasize the most health- and cost-effective approaches possible. The answer isn’t to censor science. It is to promote a robust marketplace of health options to give Americans the freedom to make sound health decisions.
• Nate Jones is CEO of Xlear Inc., an oral and nasal hygiene products company based in American Forks, Utah. The Federal Trade Commission is suing Mr. Jones and Xlear for their efforts to educate Americans about the data showing nasal hygiene is an effective countermeasure to COVID-19 and a wide variety of respiratory pathogens.
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