Incoming trump admin with RFK signals new start for FDA Healthcare system 

D

DungEater

New member
Joined
Aug 4, 2023
Messages
11
Hi all, thought this recent development might be of interest to the FMT community, as it is in the unfortunate position of having no proper FDA designation.

As I'm sure everyone is aware, Trump is the incoming President of the United States and he is bringing with him Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a controversial figure in the health world, primarially for his stances on vaccines. More importantly, though, Bobby appears to be amenable to 'alternative' health interventions in a broad sense. In this tweet he mentions "psychadelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermetcin, hydroxychlorquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals... and any thing else that advances human health and can't be patented by pharma".

FMT clearly falls under this category and I imagine RFK would be sympathetic to the concept and the plight we have in a no-mans-land of legality.

He also mentions in an interview that he "plans to clear out ENTIRE departments at the Food & Drug Administration (FDA)". link here

Regardless of your opinions on the adminstration, there may never be a better time to try to get visibility on FMTs at the federal/FDA level.
1730949278601.png
 

Attachments

  • 1730949218899.png
    1730949218899.png
    357.1 KB · Views: 1
In this video on RFK's YT channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg2PpeO-clk, Nicole Shanahan, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s running mate, says he's the only candidate that is serious about chronic disease, and she is too and that's why she supports him.

I was very heartened to hear this, and then disappointed when she lists the main culprits and only 1/3 is correct (environmental pollutants, electromagnetic pollution, vaccines).

Her kid has autism. In 2019, she established a private foundation, Bia-Echo, that promotes research to lengthen the human reproductive lifespan. https://biaecho.org/project/nicole-shanahan/ - 1-page site with no contact.

I tried to contact her on Linkedin unsuccessfully.

In my opinion, the anti-vax stuff is a red herring that distracts from the real causes. It's extremely frustrating to see notable people like RFK focus so much on vaccines and virtually never mention the gut microbiome or FMT.

I don't know how to contact RFK (I've tried tweeting to him in the past), but I'm planning on driving to DC to protest at the capitol. If anyone knows of a way to petition RFK about this issue, please let me know.

EDIT: I just saw a clip where RFK says his main goal, which is supported by Trump, is to end the chronic disease crisis, and that Trump wants to see major progress within 2 years. We really need a way to contact him. FMT is absolutely the most promising intervention to achieve that goal.
 
Last edited:
I agree with your point that alternative medicines should be looked at more but eliminating vaccines is NOT the right direction.

Do you know why there is a mention of HCQ? Also, the side effects of HCQ though rare are bad (i.e. blindness) when on it you have to get regular eye exams and it is known to cause pigmentation in the skin. I thought metformin was the new trendy drug for longevity.
 
Michael Harrop said:
In my opinion, the anti-vax stuff is a red herring that distracts from the real causes. It's extremely frustrating to see notable people like RFK focus so much on vaccines and virtually never mention the gut microbiome or FMT.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I agree -- I think he has the right attitude but vaccine stuff is not the correct path.
Michael Harrop said:
I don't know how to contact RFK (I've tried tweeting to him in the past), but I'm planning on driving to DC to protest at the capitol. If anyone knows of a way to petition RFK about this issue, please let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That's definitely the question - I imagine reaching him directly will be extremely hard, and trying to pitch him on something like FMT would be harder. Might be more effective to contact someone in his circle with a smaller following, though it's hard to say who those people might be.

Until things shake out and we know what his exact position will be in the Trump admin, it might be hard to know the correct course.

The main thing I am thinking about is the way of framing this for people in the way that is most convicining. I think a high level approach might be best, eg: "The FDA currently does not have a legal framework for holistic treatments that can improve general health, and kills the sale of such treatments by treating them as regular pharmaseuticals that must be approved condition by condition. For example....(then describing FMT/FMT sales)". He mentions therapeutic peptides, which are kinda in a similar purgatory.

Anyway, I will try try to keep up with any developments re: RFK and hopefully there will be people we can try to contact.
 
Someone sent me this:

You could consider making a post there about FMT, or holistic treatments and give FMT as an example. You could use or reference this summary: https://forum.humanmicrobiome.info/threads/the-fda-and-fmt-regulation-part-2-jul-2024-humanmicrobes-org-i-met-wit.520/#post-1370

I'll likely be away for a few months in DC.
 
Fmt2024 said:
I just made a post there too: https://forum.policiesforpeople.com/t/fecal-microbiota-transplant-fmt-saved-my-health-let-s-make-it-widely-available/20967
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I don't think it's the best idea to make what is essentially a duplicate, and looks similar to spam. I think commenting in the first thread and sharing it on social media encouraging other people to vote, is the better tactic.

AU's regulations are not good at all BTW. The TGA went against much of the feedback they received.
 
Michael Harrop at Senator Bill Cassidy's office I'm still in DC and have been visiting Senator Bill Cassidy's (GI doctor, head of Health Committee) office most days.

RFK has two hearings coming up at 10 am Eastern on Wednesday and Thursday. https://www.senate.gov/committees/hearings_meetings.htm

Michael Harrop said:

Senate hearings:​

I was watching Democracy Now and saw people protesting at the Senate hearings and getting dragged out by the police. I asked the police what they do to those people and they said they basically just fine them $50 and kick them out of the building for the day.

Anyone can attend the public hearings if you get a ticket from your Congressman's office. I think I will definitely try to attend RFK's hearing. I really don't like making a ruckus, but I dislike being disabled more. So if shouting something and getting fined has a chance to help I'll do it.

Let me know if you guys have suggestions of what to say. At the moment all I can think of is "Ask him about antibiotics. Ask him about the microbiome. Ask him about fecal microbiota transplants -- an existing treatment for chronic disease".
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I usually wake up after 10 am, and my already low brain function gets even worse if I don't get enough sleep. So I don't think it will be possible for me to make it before 10 am. I'm not sure if they'll let me in when it's already started, but I'll try. I checked prior hearings and they last anywhere from 2-5 hours. It's possible it could be over by the time I get there.

It would be great if other people were willing to attend and protest.

I'm considering yelling out something along the lines of "Bernie Sanders is a fraud! He focuses on drug prices while ignoring a treatment that would let people not need the drugs at all!".


5 key health topics to watch at RFK Jr.'s Senate confirmation hearings https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/5-key-health-topics-to-watch-at-rfk-jr-s-senate-confirmation-hearings/ar-AA1xT38n

RFK Jr. Wants to 'Make America Healthy Again' — Here's What That Means for You https://www.foodandwine.com/robert-kennedy-make-america-healthy-again-plan-explained-8746531

RFK Jr.'s plan for changing the U.S. food and drug system https://www.reuters.com/world/us/rfk-jrs-plan-changing-us-food-drug-system-2024-11-15/


EDIT:
I woke up early and rushed here by 10 am but there's a huge line and it was full. A ton of RFK supporters with MAHA shirts showed up.

I talked to some of them and explained I was trying to get access to an existing treatment and they didn't care. They said they were not part of any online group but rather a continuation of the RFK election campaign. Some of them had "AV 24", which is an RFK superpac.

Fox News was there and wanted to interview them but didn't care about what I was doing, despite me mentioning that Bernie snubbed me.

An interesting article indicating Senator Cassidy might be opposed to RFK. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/01/29/nation/this-senate-republican-won-praise-his-questioning-rfk-jr-first-hearing-hell-be-key-second-one/
 
Last edited:
Michael Harrop said:
EDIT:
I woke up early and rushed here by 10 am but there's a huge line and it was full. A ton of RFK supporters with MAHA shirts showed up.

I talked to some of them and explained I was trying to get access to an existing treatment and they didn't care. They said they were not part of any online group but rather a continuation of the RFK election campaign. Some of them had "AV 24", which is an RFK superpac.

Fox News was there and wanted to interview them but didn't care about what I was doing, despite me mentioning that Bernie snubbed me.

An interesting article indicating Senator Cassidy might be opposed to RFK.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That sucks you weren't able to get in. Sorry you woke up early and everything. Same with Fox News but I'm not surprised. Almost no one seems interested in this issue which is so bizarre. I don't fully understand it myself. I tried opening the article but it cost $. I did read that Bill Cassidy accepted campaign donations from several big pharma CEOs in 2023 though, so it makes sense he'd be opposed to RFK Jr if he is being influenced by them.
 

RFK Senate hearings:​

Day 1: https://www.congress.gov/event/119th-congress/senate-event/336563?s=1&r=6 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JzVh83xVrk

Day 2: https://www.congress.gov/event/119th-congress/senate-event/336566?s=1&r=12 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOe4ie1XaA4

Day 2 was held in a much smaller room, so there was no way was I going to be able to get in.

Senator Ron Johnson seemed to be the most supportive of RFK and the focus on chronic disease. He's a member of the MAHA caucus.

Senator Bill Cassidy (GI doctor) clashed with RFK on vaccines.

Those were the two most notable things to me, but I'd encourage everyone else to watch the hearings to get a feel for the Senators and see if you can spot anything that might help us.

Unfortunately, still no mention of antibiotics, the gut microbiome, or FMT, despite my contacting each of the Senator's offices about it beforehand.
 

RFK is confirmed​

Under very unique circumstances. Senator Bill Cassidy has a lot of power to decide what happens.

Feb 4 PBS https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/february-4-2025-pbs-news-hour-full-episode

Clip and transcript:
Senate committees clear path for confirmations of Gabbard and RFK Jr. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/senate-committees-clear-path-for-confirmations-of-gabbard-and-rfk-jr

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) mentions that they have oversight over RFK.

Senator Bill Cassidy said he'd vote yes because Kennedy agreed to certain things. This is highly unusual. Cassidy said on the Senate floor that Kennedy agreed that he will make no changes to the vaccine recommendations from HHS and that he would seek congressional approval for any major policy changes by HHS, and, get this, that Kennedy and Cassidy would meet regularly, multiple times a month.

Now, the thing here is, whatever agreement Kennedy has made, everyone knows, and Kennedy himself has said, President Trump calls the shots here.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
Kennedy and Cassidy would meet regularly, multiple times a month.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This seems like the best we could have hoped for since Cassidy seems a lot more accessible than Kennedy. You literally talked to him and he took some time to listen. I don't know if Senator Cassidy knows that there is a microbiome connection to autism, possibly even in a majority of cases, but if he could convince RFK Jr. of that it would be a massive leap in the right direction. For the health of the country and for our situation.

That also would hopefully take some of Kennedy's focus off of vaccines although I personally think the number of vaccines and doses on the schedule is excessive especially considering we don't understand very well how this might be affecting the developing microbiome. So I hope that gets studied too.
 
indigo34 said:
I don't know if Senator Cassidy knows that there is a microbiome connection to autism, possibly even in a majority of cases, but if he could convince RFK Jr. of that it would be a massive leap in the right direction. For the health of the country and for our situation.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
He said he would look into it, but I'm unsure about the status of that. You raise a really good point though. I think it would be worth the effort to say that directly to Senator Cassidy. If you can take another day off to visit his office, or even write a letter that I can hand deliver to him. I think it would be more effective if you waited outside his office with me though.
EDIT: I'll just write it on one of the flyers and hand it to him unless you want to.

I completely agree, and it's been extremely frustrating for me to see all the focus on vaccines and nothing about antibiotics or the gut microbiome. The vaccine thing seems like a red herring that's stealing the attention from the real issues. I have tried in the past to reach out to anti-vaxxers about antibiotics and the gut microbiome. And I sent this to all the HELP Committee members before the hearing:

I saw the RFK hearings are scheduled for this week. Do you think Senator XXX would be willing to ask RFK about antibiotics, the gut microbiome, and FMT? I have contacted RFK's team about this via multiple methods so he should be familar with it by now, but they could talk about it beforehand too.

* Antibiotics, because much of what anti-vax people accuse vaccinations for is actually attributable to antibiotics. If anti-vax people were anti-antibiotics instead, they'd have the scientific consensus on their side, and a major, legitimate avenue to reduce the chronic disease crisis. https://humanmicrobiome.info/antibiotics/#harms-of-antibiotics

* The gut microbiome, because it's one of the most important components of health & development, and thus a central part of the chronic disease crisis. https://humanmicrobiome.info/intro/#general-articles

* FMT, because it's the most studied and promising method to address gut dysbiosis, and is heavily related to all the criticisms RFK has made of the FDA. https://forum.humanmicrobiome.info/threads/continued-letters-and-complaints-to-the-fda-nih-and-hhs-jan-2025.842/

That last link catalogs this decade-long struggle.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
Last edited:
Michael Harrop said:
If you can take another day off to visit his office, or even write a letter that I can hand deliver to him. I think it would be more effective if you waited outside his office with me though.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I can take another day this month to go there. Do you know when he is most likely to be there so I can increase the chances of seeing him?

I'll draft up a letter too based on your other post on it. I think I'll emphasize the microbiome-autism connection though and possibly use the Alzheimer's research scandal that's getting so much attention in the media lately, from that book being released, as emblematic of the issues you bring up with the research system. I'll email you the letter for review and feedback.

I just learned about someone influential who I think we should try to contact. His name is Calley Means. He co-wrote a book called Good Energy with his sister Casey Means, a doctor. I found his website which has links to his Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
https://calleymeans.com/

According to the interview I listened to, Calley Means is one of the people who brought Trump and RFK Jr. together. So he must have some influence on both of them and has been in meetings between the two of them. He seems passionate about finding the root cause of chronic illness, including metabolic disease and cancer, due to his mother passing away from cancer which he believes was preventable. He mentioned the microbiome at the end of the interview but did not go into much detail on it. He went to Stanford and Harvard.
 
indigo34 said:
Do you know when he is most likely to be there so I can increase the chances of seeing him?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I check senate.gov, which shows the current and next day schedule. Plus this calendar: https://rollcall.com/app/uploads/2024/12/2025CQRCCongressionalCalendar120624.pdf

I'm going there tomorrow and plan to give him your note. You can come or not, or another day, up to you.

indigo34 said:
Calley Means
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Awesome! I just sent him a Linkedin invite.

I see he links to this as an intro to his goals & ideology: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUH4Co2wE-I&t=7155s
 
Michael Harrop said:
I see he links to this as an intro to his goals & ideology: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUH4Co2wE-I&t=7155s
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Just watched the clip, wow that's great they understand about antibiotic overuse and the microbiome, even better than I thought from the interview I heard. He said the risk of suicide is 3x greater in the year after taking antibiotics. I don't know if that's true but the fact of him saying that means he at least has an idea of how bad they are. Most people don't seem to realize this, even doctors who should know better give them out like candy.
 
AmberAustin said:
Should we share on Reddit?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yes! And other websites too!

I just saw an article noting that "Hours after being confirmed as Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. issued a statement that laid out sweeping plans for his first 100 days in office."

ESTABLISHING THE PRESIDENT’S MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN COMMISSION EXECUTIVE ORDER
February 13, 2025
the health of Americans is on an alarming trajectory that requires immediate action

Seventy-seven percent of young adults do not qualify for the military based in large part on their health scores

Ninety percent of the Nation’s $4.5 trillion in annual healthcare expenditures is for people with chronic and mental health conditions

We must ensure our healthcare system promotes health rather than just managing disease

Sec. 3. Establishment and Composition of the President’s Make America Healthy Again Commission.

Sec. 5. Initial Assessment and Strategy from the Make America Healthy Again Commission. (a) Make our Children Healthy Again Assessment. Within 100 days...

Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Commission shall submit to the President, through the Chair and the Executive Director, a Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy (Strategy)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top