Pediatricians renew call to ban raw milk as anti-science rhetoric reigns

As many doctors are moving ahead with the latest advances of modern medicine—from powerful obesity drugs to breakthrough cancer treatments—pediatricians are being forced to turn back, fighting to maintain advances in children’s health that were hard-won decades ago.

With anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has spent a considerable amount of time and resources in the past year fiercely defending lifesaving vaccinations—safe, routine shots that have saved the lives of millions of children over decades and thwarted untold suffering and disability.

But just this week, The New York Times reported that Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas, has opened aggressive investigations against pediatricians simply because they vaccinated their patients. Paxton falsely claims vaccines are part of a “multi-level, multi-industry scheme.” But critics say his anti-vaccine campaign appears more aimed at currying favor with Kennedy, President Trump, and their supporters as Paxton runs for the US Senate.

Meanwhile, the AAP this week had to renew another decades-old stance for children’s health—one against unpasteurized dairy, aka raw milk. Since the early 20th century, dairy producers in the US have briefly heated milk to kill the array of dangerous pathogens that naturally dwell in and around cattle and can easily migrate into milk. The simple intervention of pasteurization contributed to a sharp, “remarkable” drop in infant deaths and illnesses.

But, much like vaccines, a flood of misinformation has eroded trust and understanding of this public health triumph. And again, Kennedy has been among the advocates working to reverse this health victory.

Regressive health

In recent years, state laws have been loosening on raw milk, despite a federal ban on interstate commerce. At least 27 states now allow raw milk sales. In turn, outbreaks from raw milk have increased over the past two decades, the AAP highlights. Nearly half the illnesses in these outbreaks are in children—who are particularly vulnerable to foodborne pathogens.