During a recent visit to Dallas last week, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. used the opportunity to emphasize a key aspect of his campaign: putting an end to corporate control.
“‘Corporate capture’ is a situation where private industry uses its political power to take over the decision-making process of the state, including regulatory agencies, law enforcement bodies, and legislatures,” explained the Center for Constitutional Rights. phenomenon Kennedy spoke out about a recent Texas lawsuit involving a major health agency and the use of ivermectin, a prescription anti-parasitic medication. He criticized the nation's top federal health agencies for favoring the industries they are meant to regulate.
Kennedy stated, “All three of the principal health agencies [CDC, NIH, FDA] suffer from agency capture. I would say 50% of FDA’s budget is from pharmaceutical companies. NIH scientists are allowed to collect royalties on drugs that they regulate –– which is clearly a conflict of interest. CDC … has devolved into an agency that primarily promotes the mercantile interests of the pharmaceutical companies.”
Kennedy then explained what he would do if elected president.
Kennedy mentioned, “I have taken legal action against all of these agencies, and I know the individuals in the agencies that need to be replaced. … I understand the harmful incentives that exacerbate agency capture. I will change those incentives and dismantle the corrupt culture that has turned these agencies against public health.”
Dr. Mary Bowden from Houston filed a federal lawsuit against the FDA as an example of alleged corporate capture in action. She sued the FDA because the agency led a campaign against ivermectin, which she found useful for treating her COVID-19 patients. She claimed to have successfully treated over 5,500 COVID-19 patients without any deaths using ivermectin and other treatments.
The FDA’s campaign included social media posts that read “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it” and linked to an article titled “Why You Should Not Take Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19.” It also included efforts to prevent pharmacies from dispensing ivermectin and insurers from covering its costs, despite the fact that the FDA approved it for human use back in 1987 and doctors commonly use medications for “off-label” purposes.
The lawsuit was recently settled after two years of legal back and forth when the FDA agreed to remove the misleading social media posts that gave the impression doctors could not legally prescribe ivermectin. The federal district court dismissed the case “with prejudice” after the settlement, meaning it cannot be brought again, and the agency has 21 days to delete related posts on X, LinkedIn, and Facebook, The Texan
“As part of a coordinated effort to promote the mRNA shots, the FDA deliberately misled the public about a safe alternative to the COVID shots, portraying ivermectin as a medication only allowed for horses,” Bowden stated to reported.
Bowden informed that the lawsuit was recently settled after two years of legal back and forth. The FDA agreed to remove the misleading social media posts, and the federal district court dismissed the case “with prejudice” after the settlement, meaning it cannot be brought again. The agency has 21 days to delete related posts on X, LinkedIn, and Facebook, The Texan DX.
The message to the doctor-patient relationship was an unprecedented intrusion. The lawsuit aimed to have the misinformation removed and set a precedent to prevent this from happening again. The timing of the PR campaign aligned with the government’s effort to vaccinate people and suggests they were bowing to Big Pharma rather than just educating the public.
In a different conversation with Kennedy before his speech at EarthX, an environmental conference held in Dallas last week, DX asked the presidential hopeful about cancer-causing chemicals reportedly building up in Texas drinking water. Kennedy was questioned about glyphosate, a herbicide in RoundUp that has become the subject of multi-billion-dollar class actions against the manufacturer.
When asked what he would do as president to keep Texas waters free of cancer-causing chemicals, he pointed to major reform at health agencies, again focusing on the NIH.
“The [National Institute of Health], because it is influenced by the chemical industry, does not conduct the necessary studies to determine the safety of these products and because of that, the manufacturers can keep poisoning people and animals without consequences,” he said. said.
“I am going to shift NIH’s priorities to conduct those studies,” he added. “I cannot guarantee that we will ban every harmful chemical, but I can provide enough scientific evidence for lawyers to litigate against the chemical company and let the market shut down that chemical very quickly.”
A point about free markets foreshadowed Kennedy’s address.
“True free markets promote efficiency, eliminate waste, and pollution is waste,” he said. saidHowever, Kennedy did not base his case solely on this point.
He criticized programs that he saw as direct or indirect subsidies distorting the free market. These included manufacturers receiving permits to dump pollutants in drinking water, regulations protecting companies from liability for unsafe products, the flattening of historic American mountain ranges for coal extraction, and government agencies supposedly refusing to publish inconvenient studies for polluting industries. He concluded that without these supports, fossil fuels could not compete against renewable energy.
Both Kennedy and Bowden have been involved in several legal disputes due to challenging governmental beliefs.
Even though Kennedy has spent around 40 years as an environmental and consumer protection lawyer, he was recently part of a lawsuit before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that posed a constitutional question. Plaintiffs in Kennedy v. Biden claimed that they had been unlawfully censored when social media companies were pressured by the White House and other executive agencies to remove, delete, or de-amplify posts or accounts critical of various governmental COVID-related actions. The district court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and issued an injunction against the White House and others.
The Texas Medical Board filed charges against Bowden, alleging, among other things, that she violated standards of care by prescribing ivermectin for a patient with whom she did not have a prior physician-patient relationship and without conducting a physical examination. Similarly, Houston Harris Methodist Hospital suspended Bowden, who had been working there on a temporary basis, when it became aware she planned to treat unvaccinated patients at her private practice, The Dallas Express previously reported.
Despite the challenges they have faced, both Kennedy and Bowden have become popular figures in the post-COVID era. Bowden was recently celebrated at the Conservative Leader Awards organized by Texas Scorecard. In this ceremony, Bowden was given a saber as an award for her fight against what some believed to be government overreach during the pandemic.
Likewise, Kennedy has increased his public profile by making a run on news media platforms like the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Gallup polls have shown he has the only net positive favorability rating (52%) of any candidate in the race. The nephew of President John F. Kennedy and son of slain presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy announced at EarthX that he has more than enough signatures to face President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump on the Texas general election ballot in November.
