Is RFK Jr. just what the doctor ordered? 5 First Critical Signs

There can be no mistake: Donald Trump has just been elected with a mandate for change. Announcing that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can be wild on health, has targeted health care in America as a prime candidate for major change. That mandate could be a force that revitalizes and restructures the US health care system, or it could be Camelot on a curve. Here are five areas that can show how RFK Jr. decide between the two:

The vaccine question

First, Kennedy, a known vaccine skeptic, would do a much-needed service by defining and clarifying the risks and efficacy of all vaccines, especially those for Covid-19 and influenza. In a recent post, he declared: “Bottom line: I’m not going to vaccinate any of them. I just want to make sure that every American knows the safety profile, the risk profile, and the efficacy of each vaccine. That’s it.”

There is no doubt that vaccines have saved more lives than all other medical treatments combined. However, we are now in a new era of mRNA vaccines, yet most Americans, including many health care practitioners, are not fully aware of their risks and efficacy. It is well known that these vaccines do not prevent Covid-19 infection, but they can reduce the severity of the disease in people with healthy immune systems. However, for people without a functioning immune system, their benefits are minimal at best. A government blue-ribbon investigation would be a powerful start to answering this question.

Bringing drug manufacturing to the US

Second, the US needs to start building its own health care infrastructure. A prime example is the US’s need to produce more of its active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), the essential ingredients of drugs. Currently, the US produces only 10% of these vital chemicals and relies on imports for the rest. The main suppliers are India (48%) and China (13%), with Italy, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Germany making up the rest. Any geopolitical or environmental disruption in supply chains would wreak havoc on the entire US healthcare system. Encouraging and facilitating domestic production of APIs would increase public health security, create jobs and reduce dependence on foreign manufacturers.

The breaks are not theoretical. The recent devastating floods in North Carolina highlight another weakness in the US health care infrastructure that Kennedy must address: overreliance on one or too few providers of essential health care supplies. Flooding from Hurricane Helene shut down the Baxter International plant, which produces 60% of the nation’s IV solutions. This shutdown crippled health care delivery for much of the country. Fortunately, Canada, China, the United Kingdom and Ireland provided emergency supplies, but hospitals were first forced to ration supplies.

Reforming HHS

Third, the federal health care bureaucracy is a web of powerless, inefficient, wasteful, and often redundant agencies. Within these agencies, there is already a Game of Thrones atmosphere in which everyone is trying to protect their independence and funding, but to what end? Even before the election, the urgent need for a sensible restructuring of the bureaucratic behemoth was recognized, and an initiative to restructure the National Institutes of Health (NIH) deserves consideration. Restructuring, to eliminate duplication of effort, continuation of failed or failed projects, and cost-inefficient projects, while strengthening areas with the most important potential, makes sense. This is the time for increased investment in the often neglected areas of diagnostics and therapy. There’s one caveat, though: the slash-and-burn approach, as illustrated by the CDC’s recent cuts and budget cuts, doesn’t make sense.

Patient information

Fourth, patient participation in their health care remains of paramount importance. The single most important cause of poor health in America is obesity, and it leads to more than just diabetes. GLP-1 drugs have been touted as effective in reducing obesity, but at a cost that has yet to be determined. The only action of the GLP-1 drug is to slow digestion. All other benefits come from weight loss. However, it is not widely known that in some people, GLP-1 use has led to serious adverse events, and the cost in real dollars is staggering.

With near-daily advances in self-monitoring, individuals can track their sleep patterns, exercise activities, and vital signs. This lends itself to behavior modification. In line with this benefit, what if every person in the US had access, in addition to the benefits just listed, to an inexpensive continuous blood glucose monitoring system that would provide a real-time reading of consumption of calories and the benefits of exercise? Of course, maximizing the benefits of deploying and using monitoring devices will require education of providers and consumers. However, such monitoring leads to measurable healthy lifestyle changes. 74% of US adults are overweight, which is one of the most important factors affecting health. Self-monitoring is a way to increase patient awareness and is a stimulus for behavior modification. Proactive involvement of patients in their health is far more effective than the more costly reactive need to treat disease.

Healthcare is a business

Fifth, Kennedy would have his most significant effect on health care if he could refocus the money-making business of medicine on its original goal of preserving and improving health. Profitable acquisitions of health care facilities can yield impressive returns for investors, but, in some cases, returns increase significantly only at the cost of poorer patient care and outcomes. The latter is due to cutbacks made at some facilities in the name of efficiency and cost control. Primary care physicians and other specialists must see up to 40 patients a day to meet their performance metrics. The most important cost for any health institution is the personnel. While cutting staff reduces costs, it also leads to overtaxing of remaining staff, burnout and poorer patient care. A 10% increase in nurses’ intention to quit smoking was associated with a 14% increase in patient mortality. Doctors register similar complaints, and dissatisfaction is one reason for the shortage of primary care physicians. The fact that health is a business does not and should never put profit over health.

On November 5, American voters gave a mandate for change. The new administration, so far, is long on promises and short on details. In the health care prescription, RFK Jr. it may be just what the doctor ordered to change it.