The MeidasTouch Podcast - Meidas Health, Episode 3: Fluoride Fearmongering and Measles Lies
Episode Date: April 10, 2025In this rapid response episode of Meidas Health, Dr. Vin Gupta slams the dangerous misinformation coming from RFK Jr., who’s pushing to ban fluoride despite decades of science proving its safety. Pl...us, Dr. Gupta warns of a worsening measles outbreak fueled by anti-vaccine rhetoric and false “treatments” being peddled by our very own health secretary. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Mighty Smiley, great to see you again. I want to do a rapid response just given the news cycle
and all the issues on health that continue to pop. I don't want to wait too long,
and I'm going to keep this brief. Number one, fluoride. You've heard probably in the news that
RFK is saying that we're going to ban fluoride in water sources across the country. Turns out that doesn't make any sense. This is a solution that he's offering in search of a problem,
which, by the way, doesn't exist in the United States. This is what he does. He draws fringe
science and he draws sort of half-truths from science that has not been proven to actually be
what he thinks it to be, and then starts to
generalize and make these grandiose statements. And that's exactly what he's doing here with
fluoride. Turns out in the United States, we put fluoride into the water supply for a reason. It
prevents dental cavities and tooth decay. And when monitored and within a certain level,
it's very safe. It doesn't cause any issues with accelerating any problems in the
body, harm to the bones, really no issues whatsoever. And that's been proven time and time
again. There's the other piece. We monitor our water supply for its fluoride levels very, very
closely. 99.9% of tests for fluoride in the water supply across the United States, greater than 99.9%
of tests across the country, frankly, have shown that fluoride levels are at the target goal,
0.7 milligrams per liter. That's where we want it to be. Those numbers may not mean a lot to you,
but it's to say that we're monitoring the situation extremely closely. The EPA,
the U.S. Public Health Service
is doing that. It's been doing that for decades. That's why these issues or these suggestions that
there's some harm coming from fluoride in the drinking water supply across the United States
have no merit to it. This is, again, a solution he's offering in search of a problem that does
not exist in the United States. Fluoride has benefits when within safe levels. Again, it prevents tooth decay, cavities, and frankly, it keeps kids in school.
It promotes, if kids have cavities, they're likely to be absent from school for a day or two as they
deal with it. So fluoride supplementation has been shown to actually keep kids in school,
learning, and doing the things that they should be doing. So that's number one.
Number two, Utah's movement towards banning fluoride is completely just genuflecting to
no signs of evidence, no evidence-based science, nothing really legitimate coming from the
HHS agency right now under Kennedy.
There's no evidence, again, that what Utah has done at the
state level to ban fluoride now that's shrinking water supply is based on any new evidence or new
insights. They're simply genuflecting and trying to curry favor, it seems. So important to keep
that in mind. We monitor the water supply extremely closely for fluoride. There's never been any issues in the United States.
And when fluoride, for example, is outside what we recommend it to be at very high levels,
can it cause problems?
Sure, of course.
And that's what RFK is pointing to.
Some studies suggesting that when fluoride is at excessive levels, potentially it can
cause issues with bone development, potentially it can cause issues with
bone development, potentially even brain development. And so yes, if there was a concern
about excessive fluoride in the drinking water supply, which again does not exist,
this is something we would be needing to look into. We monitor the water supply very closely.
It's not an issue. Number two, real quickly, an update on measles.
Measles and the outbreak in Texas, primarily in Texas, continues to worsen. We have a former top vaccine regulator at the FDA just yesterday said that he believes that this is going to be
one of the worst measles outbreaks on record and that our accomplishment over the last 20 years of
actually having removed and eradicated measles from the United States,
that we're at risk of losing that status, which would be an enormous, enormous stain on Kennedy's HHS
and really reflective of the damage he's done, not just over the last few months
and his tepid endorsement of the vaccine, of the measles vaccine, for example, which by the way, is the best way to protect yourself from measles.
We've said this time and again on this podcast and other venues.
One dose of the vaccine starts promoting antibodies against measles in just a few days.
It's 93% effective.
Two doses, 97% effective.
They are very safe.
And unfortunately, he's been very tepid in his
messaging on the measles vaccine. And he's been undermining its safety and its efficacy profile
and promoting mistruths about this very vaccine for the last 20 years. So it's no wonder that we
are where we are directly because of him. Real quick, also to fact check some of the nonsense he's been putting out
there, inhaled budesonide, he keeps talking about inhaled budesonide and antibiotics like
clarithromycin as somehow cure-alls for measles. I'm a pulmonologist. I use inhaled budesonide for
certain conditions. I use clarithromycin for certain conditions. We do not use them
as treatments for measles. There's a very clear use case for things like inhaled steroids,
antibiotics like chlorothromycin. Measles is not one of them. It's complete nonsense
to suggest that these are things that have been proven to be treatments. Can they be helpful if somebody has a pneumonia?
Potentially pneumonia-like complications in the setting of measles.
Maybe an inhaled steroid could potentially be useful.
Is it a treatment?
No, it could help reduce symptoms potentially.
And again, we use it.
We use it all the time in American medicine.
We do not use it in any way, shape, or form as a treatment for measles.
So again, real truth, both on fluoride, there's a lot of nonsense out there.
It's important to understand that this is something that we take seriously,
fluoride in the drinking water supply.
We monitor it closely.
There are no issues with fluoride in the drinking water supply in the United States.
And I'd be delighted to look at data from anybody that believes that there is data suggesting that the fluoride levels in our water supply in some way proven to be harmful.
It hasn't been.
And number two, clear-eyed on what is happening with measles and also recognizing, please pass this message on.
There are no treatments for measles.
Steroids, antibiotics do not treat measles. And this is a big, big
thing to emphasize because people are under the wrong impression and they're taking, for example,
too much vitamin A. There are cases of overdose to vitamin A causing things like liver toxicity.
We're seeing these cases pop up in Texas. Again, it's no surprise. Sadly, this is the result and the handiwork of our incumbent health secretary.
He's responsible for that because that's what he's been saying and putting out there,
not just again for the last few months, but for decades.
Real truth.
We'll talk to you soon.
Thank you.
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