The nomination of Robert Kennedy as Secretary of Health in the United States is causing discussion. The extreme positions on some issues, vaccines first and foremost, create alarm in the scientific community. However, other positions of the new minister chosen by Donald Trump should not be overlooked.
“The problem is that, sometimes, information moves in an extreme way, it takes a single word to greatly simplify positions. I don’t know if Kennedy really wants to abolish vaccines, and it is logical that if he wants to abolish them it is a terrible thing. However, the thing that he has been repeating most of all for some time is that he wants to improve the quality of nutrition and here we don’t eat well”, an Italian scientist in the USA, Antonio Iavarone, professor of neurological surgery, Deputy, tells Adnkronos Health. Director of Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami – Miller School of Medicine.
“In America it has always been a fairly bipartisan position to say that we need to do more for research. However, also due to the problems that have arisen with Covid, in recent years biomedical research has suffered greatly and continues to suffer. I do not I have an idea of what will happen now. The role of a president is to give a strategic imprint towards this sector too. It’s not that I’ve heard Donald Trump talk about it as a priority Biden for research, I honestly can’t find any good things to say So far he didn’t have adequate support. Of course, then everything could get worse, but we’ll see”, he adds.
“The problem of American nutrition – he continues – is an important problem, true, never faced before. It causes an enormous amount of health problems: obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases. These things are very serious. And if the problem is addressed seriously now – because then there is obviously always the issue of economic interests – then so be it. If we then start talking about nonsense the conversation changes, but I hope not. Addressing the issue of American food, both from one point of view qualitative and quantitative, it is a good one idea, is not wrong at all. It is clear that the anti-Covid has caused some problems, we need to see what happens in the long term these cannot be ideological positions, i.e. they are against or for”, but must be based on data.
Iavarone tries to explain what has changed compared to the past: “Biomedical research in the States is mainly financed by the NIH (National Institutes of Health), but in recent years the funding has been greatly reduced, the grants have dropped both in number and value and have become increasingly hyper-competitive, and being able to have this federal funding is really difficult. This situation has also caused the fact that in American universities many young people, instead of remaining in the academic world as they would if there were important opportunities, decide to. go into industry, into the world of Biotech, from Big Pharma. The picture is also worsened by the fact that in recent years there has been a notable increase in inflation in America, which is also one of the main reasons why Trump won.”
Inflation, continues the scientist, “naturally has had and continues to have an important effect on research too. If prices increase, people have to be paid more and with grants under current conditions you can’t do much. The costs of research, too, are increasing more and more”, also driven “by new technologies, by AI”. The fact that the sector is now suffering “has an enormous implication, because it becomes more difficult to attract good people even from abroad. They now find financial and organizational support in other countries”.
“I arrived in America 30 years ago – recalls Iavarone – today I chose Miami for many reasons, one of which is that there is a great opportunity for fund raising. If I think about the beginning, I remember that all those who wanted to do research had to to come to the United States even just for a while, because there was no other place where you could really have important experiences. The attraction was the real strength.” Now, he concludes, “that desire to have an experience in the USA, which before was almost an obligation, is no longer so strong. People want to go to London, Japan, Germany, Spain and we are having more and more difficulties. It’s a discussion we often have with colleagues. The reason is that the environmental and economic conditions have changed enormously here.”
