Hold on to the reins of your preferred political party high horse.
California Governor Gavin Newsom and Donald Trump’s Secretary of Health & Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. share common ground. It involves Froot Loops. And that’s just for starters.
Kennedy who is being raked over the proverbial coals — whoops, coal is a fossil fuel, so therefore not a politically correct idiom — by liberal political operatives for his questioning the FDA’s science over everything from vaccines to food additives, has an ally in Newsom. At least with food additives, if not more.
Kennedy has made a big ado about the potential neurological damage that children may be exposed to thorough the use of chemical dyes such as Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, and Blue 1.
Newsom in September signed into California law legislation banning artificial food dyes in school snacks and drinks. The banned dyes are Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3, Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6. Four of the six dyes are found in Kellogg’s Froot Loops cereal.
The California Legislature banned the six food dyes in food and drinks sold in schools starting in 2028 due to concerns they contribute to — or cause — behavioral and attention problems in some kids.
Now for the part that derails those who are slamming Kennedy on a wholesale basis. And it involves “following the science.” Kennedy is berated universally by the political animals on the left, but not all on the left in terms of health issues, for questioning the federal Food & Drug Administration’s edicts. The reason is simple. Federal career bureaucrats make decisions based on science. So therefore, to question them, is to engage in voodoo medicine. That would mean the State of California is a fellow traveler in what has been painted as Kennedy’s “conspiracy theories’ when it comes to health science.
In 2021, the state’s environmental hazard research agency released a 300-page report another food dyes. It examined the use synthetic food dyes in food and the risks they pose. The agency — that is part of the bureaucracy governing structure of California considered the most progress state in the union — took the FDA to task. The agency noted the 70-year-old study the FDA stands by to tell the American public artificial food dyes are perfectly fine for human consumption did not assess outcomes with the use of food coloring involving neurological outcomes.
The state cited clinical trials and other research that links artificial food coloring — in much lower doses that the limited allows to be used under FDA regulations — with hyperactivity and other behavioral problems in kids.
Asa Bradman, a UC Merced public health professor, pointed out to CalMatters the food industry has been unable to discredit the research the state cited that was the basis for the ban Newsom signed into law. Instead, Kellogg’s et al instead pointed to the study from the 1950s. Bradman notes that not only is the FDA study outdated but it is essentially incomplete given it isn’t appropriate to assess behavioral changes in kids.
Froot Loops are just the tip of what Kennedy and a lot of other people including Newsom and the Democrat-laden California Legislature considered a serious public health issue for kids.
The dyes are used in soda, cake icing, juices, ice cream cones and even medications tailored for children such as vitamins and cough syrup that kids consume.
The research and clinic trails the state of California referenced concluded the fact kids have lower body weights and brains that are still developing makes them more likely to develop neurological issues from consuming artificial food dyes.
This doesn’t mean Kennedy is right on everything. But it does mean he’s not wrong on everything.
We spend so much more time trying to determine what sets people and their views apart that we neglect to notice they often share common ground.
Kennedy is clearly wary of vaccines, but not all. There is ample evidence most are effective in the vast majority of people. Polio is probably the absolute best example. The Global Polio Eradication efforts note since 2000 there has been 10 billion doses of polio administered worldwide. Less than 800 cases of polio occurred as the result of the vaccine.
Go back to 1956. Without the vaccine 58,000 people were paralyzed by polio that year in the United States, while right around 3,000 died. Worldwide there were 469,000 cases of polio in 1980 with none in the United States. In 2022, there were only three cases of polio worldwide. No vaccine is ever 100 percent effective. All significantly reduce the odds of an individual still contracting the disease they were immunized against.
Rare are people who contract the disease after being vaccinated. It is safe to say it never hurts to periodically review where things are headed. Polio vaccines clearly would withstand scrutiny.
Given many vaccines are mandated to attend school or for certain jobs, it is wise to periodically review the science.
California essentially has gone on record as saying the FDA is failing to stay on top of health concerns when updated science is done.
Government bureaucracy sometimes can get to cozy with pharmaceutical firms.
Heaven knows bureaucracy can also become lethargic and is risk averse when it comes to scrutinizing or challenging norms the bureaucracy has created.
Another area Kennedy and a lot of California progressive Democrats agree upon is the danger soda and junk food pose to youth, State politicians have attempted to make laws to tax soda to death, but have failed to do so. Kennedy, assuming he is serious, wants the federal government to police itself, if you will. Federal studies show soda, sugary treats, and such are major contributors to obesity and diabetes in youth.
Kennedy advocates soda being banned as an item that can be purchased with SNAP cards (the modern of food stamps).
Given the government spends billions treating people for ailments related to obesity, it would seem obvious that the same government should not distribute tax dollars to purchase products that are culprits in diseases taxpayers cover the tab to treat.
This is not an issue of individual freedom. If one is accepting money from the government other than a tax refund, it is clear the government has the power to restrict how it is spent. That’s the same idea of taxing soda to death to reduce consumption.
Kennedy’s proposal basically allows the government to take action to improve public health by conditioning funds the federal government distributes.
None of this is to infer one way or about whether Kennedy is the best fit to oversee the Department of Health and Human Services. It’s simply pointing out painting someone with a broad brush of being 100 percent wacko more often than not can be a form of glaring hypocrisy.
That said, Newsom and Kennedy are both viewed by some as wackos, the former by the hard right, the latter by the hard left.
If we can get beyond reptilian style attacks from both sides of the divide, we might just find the common ground needed to make the United States better than it is today.
— This column is the opinion of Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Courier or 209 Multimedia. He may be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
