Kennedy believes that regulatory agencies like the FDA, CDC, and NIH have been “captured” by the pharmaceutical industry, becoming almost like trade associations due to issues like the “revolving door” where agency officials move directly to work for drug companies. He states his intention to end this practice.
He also criticizes direct-to-consumer advertising by pharmaceutical companies and is exploring ways to end it.
A significant point is his assertion that pharmaceutical companies control the expert panels that approve new drugs and vaccines. He claims these “experts” often have conflicts of interest, leading to drugs and vaccines being “rubber-stamped” without adequate safety studies.
Specifically regarding vaccines, Kennedy states that there have been no pre-licensing safety studies using double-blind placebo controls. He highlights the lack of post-market surveillance and the mandatory nature of vaccines for children without sufficient safety data beyond efficacy. He proposes changing the composition of these panels to include independent scientists and ensuring thorough safety testing for all new products.
Conversation:
00:52:22 “How do you propose to reign in big pharma and the influence they exert over the health and well-being of Americans?”
Kennedy
00:52:35 Um, that’s a good question and we are, I would say, to use your words, laser focused on that. And probably the biggest, there are a number of um of dynamics that account for the capture of agencies by the industries they’re supposed to regulate. this process by which the agency becomes almost like a trade association for the industry it reg a a sock puppet I would call it the industry it’s supposed to be regulating and that’s how CDC and NIH and FDA have functioned in the past. One of the ways that that happens one of the really potent u uh contributors to that is the revolving door.
I think seven out of the last eight FDA commissioners have gone immediately to work for pharmaceutical companies. That longest reigning CDC director, Julie Gerbering, who did several billion dollars worth of favors for MERCK went became the vice president of Merc’s vaccine division.
And this is true throughout not just the top level of the agency, but every level of the agency.
We’re going to end that so that people cannot go to work for the industry that they’re been regulated.
Dr Phil:
00:53:53 Are you against direct-to-consumer advertising of farmers to consumer?
Kennedy:
00:54:02 I think that’s a huge mistake and we’re looking at ways to now to end that. I’ll say very briefly, one of the probably the most potent mechanism that Pharma has is that Pharma controls the panels. New drugs are approved by outside panels, not by FDA or CDC. They’re panels within them that are made up of experts. Well, those experts are supposed to be independent experts, but they’re not. They work for the drug companies, almost all of them. And so, they have a vested interest. They have real conflict of interest in rubber stamping new drugs, new vaccines. Because they know that they have a vaccine in the pipeline that they’re going to expect their cronies to rubber stamp. And so there, you know, the these things are just greenlighted, flagged through the process with no demand for safety studies. There’s never been a pre-licicensing safety study for any vaccine that is a double blind placebo against a placebo. That’s insane. You’re mandating this product. It’s a liability free product. You can’t sue them if they kill you or they injure you, no matter how reckless or negligent they are.
There’s no safety studies at the outset. There’s no surveillance system afterward. and you’re mandating that product for 76 million American children and we don’t know anything about it. So, uh, the only thing they test for is efficacy. Does it stop measles? Yeah. But does it also do something else? Cause you seizures or cause neurological or autoimmune disease? We don’t know. Nobody can answer that question. So, we’re changing those panels so that they’re going to be independent scientists. And we’re going to make sure that every new product is adequately tested both for efficacy and for safety.