Former White Home COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha, who served below former President Biden, criticized Well being and Human Providers (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday for suggesting he might determine kids affected by mitochondrial challenges simply by encountering them in public settings.
“I’m sorry but what?” Jha wrote in a submit on the social platform X, responding to a clip from an occasion in Texas.
“Our Health Secretary says that he sees kids at airports and can tell by their faces that they have mitochondrial challenges,” Jha continued.
“This is wacky, flat-earth, voodoo stuff people,” he added. “This is not normal.”
Kennedy made the controversial remarks in Texas, the place Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) laws alongside the HHS secretary.
The well being secretary mirrored on the youngsters he’s encountered since arriving in Texas, saying on the occasion, “I know what a healthy child is supposed to look like.”
“I’m looking at kids as I walk through the airports today, as I walk down the street, and I see these kids that are just overburdened with mitochondrial challenges, with inflammation,” Kennedy mentioned.
“You can tell from their faces, from their body movements, and from their lack of social connection,” he continued. “And I know that that’s not how our children are supposed to look.”
The feedback had been met with some resistance, particularly by those that questioned how Kennedy arrived at his prognosis of the youngsters he encountered on the airport.
The Hill has reached out to HHS for a response.
Kennedy has spearheaded the so-called MAHA motion, which goals to refocus the nation’s efforts on preventative well being and total wellness within the hopes of spending much less time treating those that are already sick.
Kennedy has talked about placing life-style and food regimen on the fore of U.S. well being coverage by banning synthetic meals dyes, eliminating soda from the Supplemental Vitamin Help Program, and addressing rising charges of continual sickness corresponding to diabetes and bronchial asthma in children.
However some fear Kennedy’s concentrate on America’s total well being has come at the price of different priorities, like vaccine improvement and different biomedical analysis, each of which have seen vital cuts since Kennedy has taken over the company.
Kennedy is embroiled in a separate controversy over resignations on the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC), the place the director was pushed out on Wednesday. Kennedy has defended the shake-up on the CDC.
