Pharma Shares Hit, Investors Panic RFK Jr, Head of HHS Choice, Vax Critic, Health Conspiracy Theorist

[appalachiablue]

'Pharma shares hit as Trump picks RFK Jr to lead health department,' The Guardian, Nov. 15, 2024. - Choice of vaccine critic knocks some of world’s biggest drugmakers including Moderna, AstraZeneca and GSK.
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Investors in pharmaceutical companies are selling off stock after Donald Trump nominated the anti-vaccine activist Robert F Kennedy Jr to lead the US Department of Health and Human Services.

RFK Jr has embraced numerous health-related conspiracy theories, and is one of the most persistent and influential vaccine deniers in the US. Trump’s announcement sent shares in some of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies – including Moderna, AstraZeneca and GSK – falling on Friday morning.

RFK Jr has said vaccines are linked to autism in children, that HIV is not the cause of Aids and that some antidepressants are linked to a rise in school shootings. RFK Jr – and Trump – are mulling banning fluoride in drinking water, while he has also called for bans on hundreds of food additives and chemicals and wants to cut ultra-processed foods from school lunches as part of a plan to reduce diet-related chronic diseases.

Announcing his choice, Trump said the health department would play a “big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming health crisis in this country”. The potential ramifications of RFK Jr running the department prompted panic among investors with shares in Moderna, which produces mRNA vaccines, falling 5% last night and almost 2% so far on Friday.

BioNTech, the German drugmaker that helped develop a Covid vaccine with Pfizer, fell 7%. In London, AstraZeneca and GSK shares were down about 3%, placing them among the biggest fallers on the FTSE 100. Shares in the chemicals firm Croda, which makes ingredients for food products and vaccines, shed 4% on Friday morning. Germany’s Roche has fallen by 2%, while Denmark’s Novo Nordisk – the firm behind Wegovy and Ozempic, which also makes vaccines – has fallen 2.5%.RFK Jr’s nomination has drawn widespread criticism, with Robert Garcia, California’s Democratic representative, calling it “fucking insane”.

“He’s a vaccine denier and a tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist,” said Garcia in a post on X. “He will destroy our public health infrastructure and our vaccine distribution systems. This is going to cost lives.”...
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/nov/15/pharma-shares-trump-rfk-jr-health-vaccine-drugmakers-moderna-astrazeneca-gsk
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- Also: Trump Picks RFK Jr & His Brain Worm to be in Charge of Your Health, Daily Kos, Nov. 14,
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/14/2286284/-Trump-picks-RFK-Jr-and-his-brain-worm-to-be-in-charge-of-your-health

[bucolic_frolic]

1. LOL Oh yes, American food suppliers will jump on pure food laws right away

They so want to increase their costs, eliminate fillers and additives, replace preservatives with warnings and antioxidants.
Ice cream will be $22 a half gallon!

I am no fan of impurities in food, but they are to some considerable extent a compromise with cost, shelf life, flavor. They've been eliminated based on adverse consequences - red dye, trans fats. Not that there's not a lot more to go. But to think Worm Man will eliminate problems and get the US government out of the inspection business and that everything is going to be OK is DELUSIONAL. Paging Upton Sinclair! We fought this war 100 years ago.

[appalachiablue]

2. Good points, extra for Worm Man lol and Upton Sinclair!

He is all over the map, and highly unreliable. No way or hell to pay!

[Walleye]

3. Media is calling him a "vaccine skeptic" it's a very lame description of a man who wants to do so much damage to us

RFK and the rest of that bunch know damn well what would happen if we stopped doing vaccines. It’s not a “personal choice“ it’s a public health measure public health. They don’t understand contagion and infectiousness doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.