Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made clear in testimony before the Senate this week that if confirmed as Health and Human Services secretary, his focus would be on chronic diseases over infectious ones.
“We’ve devoted all of these dollars to infectious disease and to drug development and very little to chronic disease,” Kennedy said Thursday before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
Kennedy described himself as uniquely positioned to “end the chronic disease epidemic” in the United States, which he blamed for high health care costs. His opening statements mentioned rising rates of diabetes, cancer, asthma and obesity as issues that should be prioritized, along with chronic disease rates among children. (Although Kennedy stated that 66% of kids have a chronic condition, data from the National Survey of Children’s Health suggests it’s around 40%.)
In testimony before two Senate committees this week,…
